netllama,

I cannot comment on many of the issues you had as I do not drive and only got around via hitchhiking and using public transport. For Al Ula's Old Town, for example, I hitchhiked directly from the main town and asked to be let off right in front of the Old Town, potential parking/shuttle crisis averted.

I also was a bit let down by Madain Saleh, though in my experience the guides don't really keep much track of you-- I stopped to use the toilet and when I came out my group had left me behind.

It seemed like we didn't really see much on the Hegra tour, just the main site, the Lonely Castle, and a few other tombs. Most of the time seemed to be dedicated to taking pictures, and the guide didn't seem very informative. I think a private tour would have been better.

I suspect that they really wanted to keep track of everyone, but weren't doing all that great of a job at it. The bus departed without me as well while I was using the restroom. That's when I noticed the hiking trail literally just past the facility, and the bathroom attendant scolded me for wandering in that direction. I was tempted to ignore them and continue, but as a guest in a country, I generally try to follow the rules.

The Hegra guides were fairly useless, and couldn't answer any questions. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised that the guides were all female, as seeing employed women was relatively rare. Not that I didn't see any elsewhere, but the gender ratio is is still heavily in favor of men.

From what I've read, before the pandemic (and any "vision 2030" plans taking effect), Hegra was basically completely open, with no restrictions or access controls whatsoever. Anyone could just show up and drive around, wander around and go wherever they pleased. While I can understand the desire to protect the site (especially if they want to drive a lot of tourism in the area), I would have much preferred the old system. I could have easily spent a full day there, if I had the freedom to move about as I wished. Instead I ran out of officially permitted activity after ~2 hours.