Saudi Arabian Tourist Zone?
- Thread starter arew+4
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Don’t try to be smart with the Saudi visa application. Stick to the major religions, and choose one. If you are not a Muslim, don’t say you are (Religious obligations are taken seriously in Saudi, 5 daily prayers are enforced, for example, so don’t make your life any harder than it needs to be). From a Saudi perspective, one must have a religion, so agnostic/atheist can’t exist - which is why I say don’t try to be smart. If you are from the US or Europe and white, you will probably be presumed to be Christian anyway. Just like anywhere else in the wold, the Saudi carry certain assumptions and prejudices......
I beleive the issue is with Israel, not Judaism (Jews are People of the Book and so have some status in Islam). That’s the official line anyway. I wouldn’t want to be the one test how official the office line is though
I beleive the issue is with Israel, not Judaism (Jews are People of the Book and so have some status in Islam). That’s the official line anyway. I wouldn’t want to be the one test how official the office line is though
Above all, relax. There’s a lot of rubbish written about Saudi. For the most part the people are gentle and kind. The Saudis love a good joke. I lived there for 10 years (2000-2010), Searcaig a similar amount of time, and others on this forum also spent time there, all without incident. Just avoid politics and religion and you will minimise the chances of inadvertently upsetting someone for what could be a completely innocent thing back home. The biggest problem you will find is boredom. Other than shopping and eating, there’s really not a lot to do.
I would like to bump the thread because I am interested in diving in Dhuba area
It seems soon a big part of the coast around Dhuba will be buried thousands of tons of concrete...
An Accelerator of human progress
Before that happens, it would be nice to take a look
Where exactly are the diving hotspots north of Dhuba? Is there a specific diving center you would suggest? Thanks
Dhuba would be a somewhat "expeditionary" trip.
Since you're looking for shore dives, there are a few dive shops in Yanbu (five to six hours south of Dhuba) to source tanks but I think dive shops will totally thin out north of there until you get back into striking distance of Aqaba. I've never used the Yanbu businesses or their tanks but local expat friends have without incident. That's the limit of my insight there.
Prior to COVID-19, key staff from the US Consulate and I (with all the resources of a large Western Consulate) intended to do some "expeditionary" diving out of the northern coastal towns but gave up because it was just too hard to pull things together and was going to require more time than we could afford.
The construction of NEOM hasn't yet created a bow wave of business opportunists to take advantage of interest in northern diving. And COVID-19 has really put a damper on Vision 2030 initiatives as Crown Prince MBS has had to pull back resourcing to some of Vision 2030's more aspirational initiatives like the tourism industry.
Nothing above says you couldn't rent a vehicle in Yanbu, load it up with a pile of tanks and just go poking around the northern coast. Totally doable but it will be austere, you'll need to be self-reliant and it will require some time. A rudimentary command of Arabic would make life a lot easier.
An approach from the Aqaba might be a lot easier and much more fruitful.
For vessel-supported diving, the closest reliable charter familiar with diving would be in Yanbu, approximately five to six hours drive to the south of Dhuba. Yanbu has reliable commercial air service from Jeddah, Riyadh and probably a small handful of local foreign airports (EGY, JOR, etc).
I'd probably start with Dream Divers for your research (Dream Diver). I don't know if they have a small vessel up in Yanbu. When they run their 26 berth LOBs out of Yanbu, they steam up from Jeddah. I've dived with Dream Divers quite a bit and Will (the DM/guide) is a good guy. Although Dream Divers has done some scouting dives north of Yanbu, I don't know how much he knows of the Dhuba area.
To charter a smaller boat operator local to Dhuba would require you to be fluent in Arabic with time on the ground or to have a trusted agent fluent in Arabic who can dedicate time to secure the support you desire. Business in KSA is much different. Business owners and customer service employees don't seek out opportunities to do business with you even when you make it clear you are ready to pay for a service. What is promised over e-mail or the phone and even face-to-face will not necessarily be what you get. For many businesses, just the notion of an idea is regarded as sufficient rather than providing a service that meets reasonable expectations or, most familiar to Westerners, is beyond reproach. You may be able to secure a vessel to take you out but if anything were to go even slightly awry, expect it to quickly turn into a worst case scenario.
Good luck.
Since you're looking for shore dives, there are a few dive shops in Yanbu (five to six hours south of Dhuba) to source tanks but I think dive shops will totally thin out north of there until you get back into striking distance of Aqaba. I've never used the Yanbu businesses or their tanks but local expat friends have without incident. That's the limit of my insight there.
Prior to COVID-19, key staff from the US Consulate and I (with all the resources of a large Western Consulate) intended to do some "expeditionary" diving out of the northern coastal towns but gave up because it was just too hard to pull things together and was going to require more time than we could afford.
The construction of NEOM hasn't yet created a bow wave of business opportunists to take advantage of interest in northern diving. And COVID-19 has really put a damper on Vision 2030 initiatives as Crown Prince MBS has had to pull back resourcing to some of Vision 2030's more aspirational initiatives like the tourism industry.
Nothing above says you couldn't rent a vehicle in Yanbu, load it up with a pile of tanks and just go poking around the northern coast. Totally doable but it will be austere, you'll need to be self-reliant and it will require some time. A rudimentary command of Arabic would make life a lot easier.
An approach from the Aqaba might be a lot easier and much more fruitful.
For vessel-supported diving, the closest reliable charter familiar with diving would be in Yanbu, approximately five to six hours drive to the south of Dhuba. Yanbu has reliable commercial air service from Jeddah, Riyadh and probably a small handful of local foreign airports (EGY, JOR, etc).
I'd probably start with Dream Divers for your research (Dream Diver). I don't know if they have a small vessel up in Yanbu. When they run their 26 berth LOBs out of Yanbu, they steam up from Jeddah. I've dived with Dream Divers quite a bit and Will (the DM/guide) is a good guy. Although Dream Divers has done some scouting dives north of Yanbu, I don't know how much he knows of the Dhuba area.
To charter a smaller boat operator local to Dhuba would require you to be fluent in Arabic with time on the ground or to have a trusted agent fluent in Arabic who can dedicate time to secure the support you desire. Business in KSA is much different. Business owners and customer service employees don't seek out opportunities to do business with you even when you make it clear you are ready to pay for a service. What is promised over e-mail or the phone and even face-to-face will not necessarily be what you get. For many businesses, just the notion of an idea is regarded as sufficient rather than providing a service that meets reasonable expectations or, most familiar to Westerners, is beyond reproach. You may be able to secure a vessel to take you out but if anything were to go even slightly awry, expect it to quickly turn into a worst case scenario.
Good luck.
Thank you for the very accurate and complete first hand info NothingClever
My idea would be to leave from Eilat or probably better from Aqaba in Jordan
Then get a car for rent and move on to Dhabu and see something of Saudi too, especially before they will finish to build that new town of Neom
My idea would be to leave from Eilat or probably better from Aqaba in Jordan
Then get a car for rent and move on to Dhabu and see something of Saudi too, especially before they will finish to build that new town of Neom
Good plan, brother.
While we're exchanging notes, thank you for all that Italy has done for the SCUBA industry. Your nation's indistrial expertise with plastics and rubber has been foundational to the SCUBA industry.
@Sbiriguda and others who may be interested.
This vendor in Yanbu is attracting attention amongst Jeddah divers.
Dolphin Free Diver
As soon as my prison sentence. I mean mandatory quarantine, is complete, some dive buddies and I intend to take them for a spin. Once we do, I’ll share our observations and overall experience here.
This vendor in Yanbu is attracting attention amongst Jeddah divers.
Dolphin Free Diver
As soon as my prison sentence. I mean mandatory quarantine, is complete, some dive buddies and I intend to take them for a spin. Once we do, I’ll share our observations and overall experience here.
Covid-19 messed up with my plans to dive from Saudi this year, but hopefully 2021 will provide some opportunities.
You'll need to do some serious homework here and double-check everything.
Renting a car in Jordan and taking it into Saudi will be a major challenge and might not be possible.
Renting tanks in Jordan and taking them into Saudi - expect them to be opened for inspection and then you'll need to find someplace to fill them.
Starting in Saudi will be far easier and with visas now available on arrival for certain nationalities at the major airports now has made life easier for some.
Doing this on your own however will be challenging and better to have some solid contacts in the country.
When I lived there back in the 80/90s we did all of our trips outside of Jeddah as major expeditions, and most of us had several tanks (I owned 16 AL80s when I left in 1997), and 4x4s are necessary for accessing some great sites. Knowing how to drive a 4x4 and having recovery gear is also essential.
You'll need to do some serious homework here and double-check everything.
Renting a car in Jordan and taking it into Saudi will be a major challenge and might not be possible.
Renting tanks in Jordan and taking them into Saudi - expect them to be opened for inspection and then you'll need to find someplace to fill them.
Starting in Saudi will be far easier and with visas now available on arrival for certain nationalities at the major airports now has made life easier for some.
Doing this on your own however will be challenging and better to have some solid contacts in the country.
When I lived there back in the 80/90s we did all of our trips outside of Jeddah as major expeditions, and most of us had several tanks (I owned 16 AL80s when I left in 1997), and 4x4s are necessary for accessing some great sites. Knowing how to drive a 4x4 and having recovery gear is also essential.
Similar threads
