Want to visit Saudi: transit visa or other options?
 

Hiya all,

I currently live in Qatar and it's my wish to visit Saudi once. I think I can convince my husband, so that's fine. The question is on how to do this. Do transit visas still exist? As I'd really love to see the caves near Hofuf, a trip to Bahrain might be a good idea.

We currently only have a company lease car, thus we'd need to buy a car. and sell again after this trip. Maybe friends can help us with that as our knowledge on recognizing a good car is rather low. Though it would be a bummer if transit visas are not available anymore (to Bahrain? other locations?) and we end up with a car we don't really need. What would happen if this car broke down in Saudi?

Can someone tell me more about the paperwork involved? I don't think any embassy would give me a visa for the destination country as I can get VOA for all Middle Eastern countries apart from Saudi of course.

Other alternative: Would we be allowed to accompany friends in their car on such trip, or is that a big NO due to me being a woman?

Do other alternatives still exist?

Thanks a lot

I can't help much but I do know that transit visas do exist as I've exported a few cars to Bahrain and the recovery driver who picked them up came from Bahrain with Bahrain registered truck and Bahrain residency so he and his vehicle must of had a transit visa.

It's somewhat different to your situation but I think it should be possible for you to get a transit visa but I reckon they will only be valid for 48 hours if you are going from Qatar to Bahrain via KSA.

As for the car to buy it depends on your budget, but ideally buy something big, heavy and comfortable with a decent range on a tank. Distances throughout KSA are huge and the driving standard makes Dubai look like Stuttgart.

Good luck, and if it transpires that you can't make it happen I suggest to go the other way and take the ferry to Iran for an adventure.

Hmm.. I posted a reply, but it seems to have gone missing!

I know if a few people who did this trip, but they all did it the last time at the end of 2013, and I wonder if something changed since then. 48 hours for the transit would be brilliant, and more time I'm hoping for, btw.

Regards Iran: we're flying to Iran in April :D again, not allowed to take our own car out of the country, hence flying. We're on a mission to visit all the Gulf states as far as possible, and really, only Saudi is missing. Well, and Iraq but that doesn't seem to be the best destination at the moment. I almost booked a flight to Erbil early on last year, but a look at the advances of IS changed my opinion. Shame :(

I hope you have a great time in Iran, it's a massive and diverse country so I'm certain you won't see all you want to see in one visit. You'll be back!

A colleague of mine was in Iraq last week (I forget which area) and he said that it was a bit of a dump but didn't feel dangerous at any point, but yes probably not a good idea to go touring Iraq right now.

I really hope those Islamist mongoloids don't go destroying any more Iraqi history and heritage, they have so much that I want to see.