AlUla has three distinct choices. The Old Town puts you among mudbrick lanes and artisan workshops in a settlement inhabited for centuries. Ashar Valley is the main resort corridor, set among sandstone cliffs, where most of the pools, spas and fine dining are. And Hegra — Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site — has accommodation on the site itself.
What each area actually means for your stay.
Heritage travellers and anyone who wants to walk out into history
A continuously inhabited settlement of mudbrick lanes and artisan workshops. Staying inside it is a fundamentally different experience from the desert resorts — you are in a living place rather than looking at one.
Resort stays, couples, and anyone who wants the landscape as the view
The main resort corridor, set among soaring sandstone formations, and where AlUla's best pools, spas and fine dining are concentrated. The valley itself is the attraction as much as any individual property.
Travellers whose main reason for coming is the Nabataean tombs
Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. Staying on the site means seeing the tombs at golden hour, before and after the tour groups arrive — which is when they look like the photographs.
Travellers who want genuine isolation
Further out, for people whose priority is the emptiness itself rather than proximity to the sites. Plan transport carefully: these are not places you casually drive back from after dark.
AlUla is a driving destination — the sites are spread across a wide landscape and there is little in the way of public transport between them. Whether you fly into AlUla itself or arrive from Madinah, arrange a vehicle for your stay rather than assuming you will find one, particularly if you are staying outside the main valley.
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