Tour Incense Route | Visit Saudi Arabia, Israel

Guide

English speaking tour in: JERUSALEM Please note also that your tour guide might be changed once or several times during the tour. On some tours, according to the number of passengers, the service may be provided in bilingual (usually in English and Spanish), either accompanied by two tour leaders, one for each language, or a single tour leader for smaller groups explaining in both languages.

Meals

breakfast buffet.

Transport

Includes arrival transfer Includes departure transfer Evening transfer: Elephant Rock in Al Ula

Others

City tour in: JERUSALEM Excursion: 4x4 vehicles, camel rides Ticket admission: Tabeyat International City in Jeddah, Hegra, Heritage Village and the Elephant Rock in Al Ula , Castle and old train station in Tabuk , Moses Springs and Petra Museum , Arqueological Site , Visitor Centre, 4x4 vehicles and camel rides

Insurance

basic travel insurance

Accommodation

Yeda : WARWICK or CENTRO SHAHEEN ROTANA JEDDAH Medina : LE MERIDIEN MEDINA Al ula : SAHARY AL ULA RESORT Tabuk : SKYLINE HOTEL PETRA : PETRA MOON LUXURY or PETRA ELITE or MOVENPICK RESORT PETRA PETRA : MOVENPICK NABATEAN CASTLE or P QUATTRO HOTEL or HAYAT ZAMAN PETRA : PETRA MOON WADI RUM : PRIVATE MAGIC CAMP or YASMINA LUXURY CAMP or LUXURY MAGIC CAMP WADI RUM : ARENA DESERT CAMP ADVENTURERS or ALADDIN CAMP or OASIS LUXURY CAMP WADI RUM : CAMPAMENTO STAR WARS or SUN CITY CAMP or CAMPAMENTO MAZAYEN Jerusalen : HOTEL GRAND COURT or GRAND COURT HOTEL We know how important hotels are on your trip. The hotels have been selected taking into consideration quality, price and location. They are located in the cities we visit, most of them not in the city center but all of them with easy access to public transportation nearby. Our accommodation is not based on luxury hotels. Please keep in mind that standards, bed sizes and room dimensions can vary between hotels of the same class in different locations. All rooms are equipped with private bathroom and TV. Some of them also offer a mini-bar, safe box, and hair dryer. Many hotels, mainly in North Europe, do not have air conditioning or local legislation establishes limited dates of use.

Not included:

Others

Other activities and services are not included

Optional

Other activities and services are not included

Flights

Flights are not included

Start planning your experience

Day 1 Day 1: Jeddah
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 1: Jeddah

Welcome to SAUDI ARABIA! ....a country of contrasts that will leave you with surprising memories! Transfer to your hotel. Arrival at JEDDAH, the second city in the country, with four million inhabitants, on the shore of the Red Sea. Transfer to your hotel and free time.
Day 2 Day 2: Jeddah
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 2: Jeddah

Full day in Jeddah, with our local guide we will visit the city. We will be surprised by its contrasts, currently a large part of the city is being rebuilt to make it a great world megalopolis, highlights the construction of the Jeddah Tower that will be the tallest building in the world with over a thousand meters high. We will follow the Corniche, with its beautiful views, its mosques by the sea and its recreational areas; we will contemplate the Fountain of King Fahd, the highest of its kind in the world, its jets reach more than 300 meters high. We will stop at the active and picturesque fish market. We will include the entrance to "Tabeyat International city" very interesting museum of history and ethnography in an architectural ensemble of great beauty. Free time for lunch in a shopping center- Mall- where you can choose from the various restaurants and types of food offered there.In the afternoon, we will take a walk through its historic center, better known as Al-Balad, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, with its impressive set of medieval alleys and its houses made with coral and wooden balconies. We will visit inside the elegant house of Beit Sallum, today converted into a museum.
Day 3 Day 3: Jeddah, Medina
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 3: Jeddah, Medina

Early transfer to the high-speed train station. Saudi Arabia has an excellent train that crosses the desert. In less than two hours we travel the 400 kilometers that separate us from MEDINA, the holy city, "the luminous city". We are in an imposing historical destination, one of the two most sacred cities of Islam, a destination to which millions of pilgrims arrive every year and a city forbidden for non-Muslims until very recently. Respect for its inhabitants and beliefs and proper dress code is required. Arrival and lunch included. In the afternoon we will visit the Al Madinah Museum that allows us to understand a little the history of the city. At the end of the afternoon, we will go to see -from outside- the Al Masjid mosque, built by the prophet himself and place where he is buried, we will not be able to avoid feeling a surge of emotions when we observe the thousands of people who enter at the time of prayer. Dinner included.
Day 4 Day 4: Medina, Al Ula
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 4: Medina, Al Ula

Note: The Al-’Ula region is one of the most beautiful areas in the world, however its hotel infrastructure is extremely limited. On some occasions we will spend two nights in Medina (visiting in this case in the afternoon the Al Madinah Museum) leaving very early for Al-’Ula on Tuesday.We will explore Medina. We will walk around the immense Prophet´s Mosque (Al Masjid an Nabawi), an amazing and luminous mosque of ten minarets with a capacity for one million visitors.. On the hill of UHUD, an important pilgrimage site, where the prophet´s forces clashed with Meccan troops. You can walk through its vast esplanade and climb the hill but remember to do so in silence and respecting the hundreds of pilgrims surrounding us at any given time. At the Mosque of Quba, in the year 622, the prophet and his followers laid the first stone of what was to be the first mosque in history, although the present building is more recent. From here, we will walk to the nearby garden and well of Ethiq where the different tribes of the place went out to drink water and greet the Prophet and his companions recently arrived in Medina after their persecution in Mecca. Afterwards we will have some free time in the city center to stroll around the shopping areas or -if you wish- visit the Hejaz Railway Museum (in the former Ottoman railway station).In the afternoon we travel to one of the most spectacular places in the world: The region and oasis of AL-’ULA: an authentic open-air museum surrounded by nature, where you will find rock formations, canyons and ravines that compete with the majestic treasures carved by its ancient inhabitants. After arrival we will go to The Elephant Rock, "Jabal Al Fil" an impressive geomorphological phenomenon, a 52 meters high rock in the shape of an Elephant. Dinner included.
Day 5 Day 5: Al Ula, Tabuk
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 5: Al Ula, Tabuk

In the region of Al-’Ula we will visit the enclosure of HEGRA (Madain Saleh), declared World Heritage by UNESCO, of Nabataean culture "the Other Petra" amazes us with its tombs excavated in the rock in a desert environment full of mystery. Lunch included. We will have free time to stroll and enjoy its comercial streets, and its magnificent Oasis. In the middle of the afternoon, we will leave for TABUK. Dinner included.
Day 6 Day 6: Tabuk, Petra
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 6: Tabuk, Petra

We visit Tabuk, a city over half a million inhabitants, active provincial capital and one of the oldest cities in the country. We will visit the castle whose origin is 3500 years before Christ, and inside it, a museum tells the history of the castle and the city, from the great explorers who visited it, such as Ibn Battuta, to the pilgrims who stopped to drink from the fountains on their way to Mecca or Medina. After the visit, we will enter the Mud House Museum, a recreation of the interior of an adobe house where we will learn what traditional life was like in the past in this type of housing. Subsequently we walk through the active commercial area of the city center and we reach the old train station, today a museum that preserves the steam machines that connected Damascus with Medina. Only 100 km separate us from JORDAN. Border procedures and continuation to WADI MUSA (town created around Petra), we will visit the Spring of Moses, where allegedly Moses hit the rock with his rod and the water gushed out, and the Petra Museum, an excellent sample that allows us to understand the history of the Nabataeans and get to know magnificent pieces found in the area. Dinner included. Travelers who wish to do so can go in their free time to an old Turkish bath or get to see the lights and sounds show in Petra.
Day 7 Day 7: Petra, Wadi Rum
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 7: Petra, Wadi Rum

Today we have the most exciting day of the trip: First, we visit the impressive archaeological site of PETRA, which is accessed through a narrow canyon, and discover the temples and tombs excavated on the cliffs in this city that was founded 300 years before Christ. After lunch (included) we leave for the impressive desert of WADI RUM. At the Visitor Centre we board 4x4 vehicles to visit some of the most impressive landscapes. We stop in the town of RUM to visit the ruins of the Nabatean temple. We include a 45-minute camel ride through the desert. We will also visit the Khazali Canyon. In this spectacular place, we will see the engravings that reveal the origins of the Arabic language. Dinner and accommodation included in a desert camp.
Day 8 Day 8: Wadi Rum, Aqaba, Eilat, Jerusalem
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 8: Wadi Rum, Aqaba, Eilat, Jerusalem

After breakfast we leave for AQABA, the second Jordanian city on the shores of the Red Sea. A walk through the centre before continuing towards the Israel border. EILAT, arrival in this modern and tourist city with excellent beaches. A relaxing time to have lunch and walk. Do you dare to bathe? After lunch departure to Jerusalem. We will cross the beautiful landscapes of the Negev Desert and border the Dead Sea. Arrival in JERUSALEM and accommodation.NOTE: When passing from Jordan to Israel, the traveller must pay the Jordan exit tax, which is approximately $15.
Day 9 Day 9: Jerusalem
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 9: Jerusalem

Breakfast. Full day visit. We will start by going up to the Mount of Olives, where we will appreciate a magnificent view over the city. Then, we will make our way to visit the Garden of Gethsemane. We will enter the Ancient City, where we will walk the Via Dolorosa to reach Golgotha, place of the crucifixion of Jesus and the Holy Sepulchre. Already in the Armenian quarter, we will discover the legends that hide in the tower and citadel of David, where we will explore some of the most exciting archaeological treasures of this ancient settlement, the first foundations of present-day Jerusalem. After those visits, we will use free time for lunch. In the afternoon we enter Palestine to visit the city of BETHLEHEM. We will visit the Mosque of Omar (exterior) and the Church of the Nativity with the Grotto of the Manger, the Basilica of Santa Catarina, and the Grotto of San Jeronimo. Brief walk through the ancient city before heading back to Jerusalem. On the outskirts of Bethlehem stands the Salesian monastery of Cremisán, within whose walls the only Palestinian wine is made. Return to the hotel Accommodation.Note: Don´t forget to bring your passport to cross into Palestine.
Day 10 Day 10: Jerusalem
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 10: Jerusalem

At first, we will have breakfast and then departure to the Shrine of the Book in the Israel Museum, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are displayed, and where the Model of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus is located. Visit of the Ain Karen neighbourhood where the Church of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist is located, and visit of Yad Vashem, Museum and Holocaust Memorial. Then there will be the Visit of the lively Mahaney Yehuda Market where Orthodox Jews, Palestinians, Armenians, Arabs mix with tourists creating a multicultural environment. Free time for lunch. Next, visit the complex of the four Sephardic synagogues. We will visit the upper part of the Hurva synagogue (allowed for non-Jewish tourists), where we will have the opportunity to gain experience about their customs and traditions. From its terrace we will have an incomparable view of the Jewish quarter of the city. We will admire the exterior architecture of this group of temples, which also treasure a very particular history, to finish the route we will go to the Wailing Wall, where we will also see the Tunnels of Said Wall with its enormous quarry stones that today are part of the foundations of ancient Jerusalem from two thousand years ago. We can even see some caves that function as improvised churches or sacred rooms that are used for the prayers of the most religious. Back to the hotel. Accommodation
Day 11 Day 11: Jerusalem
12:00 am - 11:59 pm

Day 11: Jerusalem

After breakfast, transfer to the airport and end of our services.

11 days tour

Incense Route

This tour includes:

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Itinerary of your trip Incense Route

Day 1: Jeddah

Day 2: Jeddah

Day 3: Jeddah, Medina

Day 4: Medina, Al Ula

Day 5: Al Ula, Tabuk

Day 6: Tabuk, Petra

Day 7: Petra, Wadi Rum

Day 8: Wadi Rum, Aqaba, Eilat, Jerusalem

Day 9: Jerusalem

Day 10: Jerusalem

Day 11: Jerusalem

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