The 56 Best Places to Stay and Do in Saudi Arabia

Perched inside the 99-floor Kingdom Centre Tower, this Forbes Five Star hotel is connected directly to one of Riyadh's grandest malls, which tells you something about the scale of ambition here. The lobby arrives with marble floors, soaring ceilings, and a row of sculptural palms that read more as architectural statement than decor. Private butlers and a Clefs d'Or concierge team handle the details, and At-Turaif is an easy trip from the door.

The lobby chandelier situation here is not subtle, and that is entirely the point. This Forbes Five Star hotel was designed as a royal palace before it became one, and the marble, gold, and ornate ceiling moldings left nothing behind in the transition. Fifty-two acres of manicured grounds sit beside the Diplomatic Quarter, which tells you something about the clientele. Pack accordingly.

The Globe restaurant perches at the very tip of the Al Faisaliah tower, giving guests a skyline view that most Riyadh visitors only see from a cab window. This is a Forbes Four Star city hotel sitting squarely in the Al Olaya business district, freshly renovated across all 226 rooms with a women-only spa and the Faisaliyah mall practically at the door, so check-in can quietly become an extended stay.

Only 83 rooms in a city that tends to go bigger at every turn. The St. Regis Riyadh is a hotel in the Via Riyadh district that earns its Forbes Four Star rating by staying deliberately small, pairing Art Deco touches borrowed from the brand's New York roots with a classic Saudi design palette of gold and bronze. Butler service is standard, and the pool is the kind of shaded, greenery-wrapped refuge that feels genuinely scarce in Riyadh.

Sandstone cliffs rise on all sides as you pull in, which sets the tone for what Bab Samhan is doing: a Luxury Collection hotel planted at the edge of Diriyah's desert, where the architecture leans hard into arched doorways and mosaic work rather than the generic global-business look. Rooms have private balconies with desert views, the spa draws on old Arabian ritual treatments, and Michael Mina runs one of the restaurants. Forbes Four Star.

Seven domes crown the exterior in a nod to Islamic architecture, while inside, art deco geometry plays out in black, gold, and warm yellow under dramatic chandeliers. This Forbes Four Star hotel sits inside the Business Gate complex, which means direct access to the corporate towers and a lobby full of people with very important meetings. All dining and conference space is tucked on the ground floor, keeping the upper floors surprisingly calm.

The Forbes Four Star Ritz-Carlton sits on the Al Hamra corniche with King Fahd's Fountain visible across the Red Sea, which is a strong opening argument for the view from your room. The hotel leans hard into palatial, with ornate crystal chandeliers, marble floors, and gardens that feel borrowed from a different century. Several restaurants and a gentlemen-only spa round out the kind of stay that honeymooners and families in escape mode tend to book on repeat.

Canyon-like walls and indoor waterways pull from the shape of Wadi Hanifa, the desert valley cutting through Riyadh, and nearly 700 contemporary works by Saudi artists fill the corridors. This Forbes Four Star hotel pairs cream marble and warm wood with a spa, heated pool, three restaurants, and gardens, all while holding Saudi Arabia's first gold LEED certification. Business travelers and families both find their footing here without much negotiation.

A three-story Swarovski crystal chandelier in the marble lobby sets the tone for what follows at this boutique Red Sea-facing hotel, where the suites come with 24-karat-gold-leaf-wrapped TVs and 24-hour butler service. The name translates to "Palace of the East," and the designers who shaped the Burj Al Arab handled the brief here too. Small enough for real privacy, grand enough to make understated feel like a missed opportunity.

Foster + Partners shaped the buildings here to mirror the dunes themselves, low and curved, so the resort seems to rise out of the desert rather than land on it. Six Senses Southern Dunes is a remote luxury resort on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, running on solar power with its own water plant. Private pool villas open onto unbroken desert, the spa fills two floors with hammam and hydrotherapy, and the cooking school leans into regional flavors.

More than 2,000 pieces by Saudi artists fill the corridors and rooms of this Luxury Collection hotel, making it the only property in the Kingdom that doubles as a working art gallery. The 304 rooms sit in the middle of Jeddah's emerging arts district, close to the Saudi Center for Fine Arts and a stretch of boutiques that give the neighborhood real reason to wander. City views and a quietly lavish sense of scale do the rest.

Perched on the Corniche with the Red Sea stretching out below, this luxury hotel puts the waterfront at the center of everything. The rooftop pool sits high enough to make the city feel small, and the 21st-floor terrace turns dinner into something of an occasion. Rooms are polished and quiet, the kind of place that handles business travelers and leisure guests without letting either group feel like an afterthought.

Perched inside Jeddah's tallest skyscraper, this luxury hotel takes its design cues from a superyacht, think clean lines, a cool nautical palette, and floor-to-ceiling windows that frame the Red Sea on every floor. Balconies catch the sea breeze, and the pool deck and spa do their best to slow you down. Four dining venues and a multilingual staff round out what is, quietly, one of the more polished addresses on the Saudi coast.

A superyacht-shaped luxury hotel on Jeddah's Corniche, where the Red Sea fills nearly every window alongside views of the yacht club and the famous Floating Mosque. Yabu Pushelberg handled the interiors, so everything is precisely, confidently sleek without trying too hard. The pool deck leans beach club, the spa runs Natura Bissé products, and the lobby bar is the kind of place you tell yourself you'll leave after one drink.

The villas here aren't built near the Hijaz mountains, they're carved into them, with suites set into cliff faces and ridgeline perches overlooking open desert. Floor-to-ceiling glass keeps the landscape inside the room whether you want it or not. A spa and stargazing terraces round out a place that takes "remote" as a design philosophy rather than an inconvenience. The Michelin Guide awarded it two Keys.

A 40-story hotel in the Jabal Omar development, designed by Foster & Partners with two towers joined by a sky bridge that holds a prayer room trained on the Kaaba below. Arabesque arches and lattice windows give the scale some soul, and nearly every room looks out over Al Masjid al-Haram. For pilgrims or anyone drawn to Makkah's spiritual heart, the holy sites are walkable from the front door.

The swimming pool sits between two near-vertical sandstone cliffs, which sets the tone. This resort in the ancient Ashar Valley arranges 47 freestanding villas to read like a permanent tented camp, many with private pools. An Arabic restaurant and a Thai one handle dinner, and the spa is the kind you plan a day around. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

Solar-powered villas float across a Red Sea archipelago so remote that the reef below is barely on the map. Nujuma is the Ritz-Carlton Reserve's first outpost in the Middle East, a design-forward resort where personal hosts handle the effortless parts so you can spend your attention on diving, sailing, stargazing, and guided walks with resident naturalists. The Michelin Guide awarded it two Keys.

Mirrored spheres floating above the Red Sea are the opening argument: this is an ultra-luxury private-island resort where the architecture does most of the talking before you've unpacked. Curved, self-contained villas come with infinity pools that blur into open water, and the reef diving is as undisturbed as you'd hope for somewhere this remote. The pace stays unhurried even when you're e-foiling. The Michelin Guide awarded it two Keys.

Ninety-six luxury villas wedged into a box canyon in the Saudi desert, founded by people who met at Burning Man, which tells you almost everything. Our Habitas AlUla leans hard into the communal side of desert life: group hikes, camel rides, and ATV tours sit alongside a spa with regionally inspired treatments and a swimming pool that earns its photographs. The restaurant, Tama, pulls from local Middle Eastern ingredients. Solitude seekers may want to look elsewhere.

Carved wooden doors and marble floors set the tone at this high-end hotel sitting a short walk from the King Fahad Gate entrance to Al Haram. The rooms are spacious, the architecture draws on classical Islamic design, and being tucked inside Jabal Omar Mall makes it practical for larger family groups. Staff here have a reputation for anticipating what pilgrims and leisure travelers need before they have to ask.

Floor-to-ceiling windows and curved suites that echo the building's own silhouette set the tone at this sleek city hotel, parked at the junction of King Abdullah Road and Olaya Street. The business district, the metro, and Tahlia Street's dining strip are all within reach, which makes the rooftop lounge feel less like a perk and more like a reasonable reward for a full day out. Deep tubs and in-bathroom screens in every suite, because apparently that's where we are now.

A Parisian-style facade pressed up against Salmani architectural lines sounds contradictory until you see it. This upscale hotel on King Fahad Road runs the full spectrum from rooms to penthouses to private villas, all done in oak, stone, and deep blues. The rooftop pool looks out over the Riyadh skyline, and the serviced apartments have real kitchens, which suits the business and government crowd that fills the floors.

Six restaurants under one roof, running from Italian to Lebanese to Arabian desserts, gives a sense of the scale this hotel is working at on King Fahad Road. The voco brand leans into warmth over grandeur, so while it isn't the flashiest address in Riyadh, it comes with a spa, health club, and outdoor pool, and its design reads as genuinely contemporary in a city where that still counts as a statement.

Soft coral tones and marble floors fill one of the northern district's tallest towers, and the floor-to-ceiling windows make the Riyadh skyline feel like a design choice rather than an accident. This is a full-service hotel with well-sized rooms, a spa, an outdoor pool, and enough dining options that you could easily stay several nights without repeating yourself, including a chocolate boutique that earns its square footage.

Tucked into City Yard, an upscale mixed-use development in Al Rawdah, this 114-room boutique hotel leans into a residential brief: warm interiors, lived-in textures, and enough detail to make a suite feel less like a room number and more like somewhere you actually sleep. Cafés, restaurants, a gym, and a pool mean leaving the building is optional. Jeddah being Jeddah, the whole operation runs closer to luxurious than modest.

Perched in the quiet hills of Wadi Laban, this villa resort sits close enough to Riyadh that you can get there easily, yet far enough that the city feels like someone else's problem. Private villas come with their own pools, outdoor grills, and views down into the valley, making it more of a rented retreat than a conventional hotel. The Michelin Guide has it among its Selected Hotels.

A large, well-run hotel off the road to Medina, sitting close to the airport and Jeddah's commercial corridors, which tells you most of what you need to know about who ends up here. Rooms and suites are spacious with a muted, current aesthetic, the spa and fitness center cover the basics, and The Olive Tree handles everything from sit-down international meals to poolside grills. Reliable service keeps the whole operation moving.

Laid out like a walled village around a winding lagoon, this resort on the northern edge of Riyadh runs fully self-contained, which is sort of the point. The buildings spread low and wide, the spa offers a dizzying roster of treatments, and there's an 18-hole mini-golf course for when holistic wellness hits its natural ceiling. Restaurants run from a poolside bar to a hookah lounge, and the rooms blend modern touches with traditional detailing in a way that never overcorrects.

Balconies opening directly onto the Red Sea put King Fahd's Fountain in your sightline from the room, which is a reasonable way to wake up. This large hotel on the Corniche has spacious, neutral-toned rooms with classic Arabic geometric detailing, a palm-lined pool, and several dining options on site. Al-Balad and the shoreline cafés are close. A Michelin Selected Hotel and a dependable address for the city.

Yachts dock along the piers outside, which tells you something about the register of this low-rise marina hotel on Jeddah's southern Corniche. It's part urban resort, part private club, with separate spas for men and women and a Red Sea view from most rooms. The architecture speaks in Jeddah's own visual language rather than generic luxury-tower. Mecca is under an hour away, so the mix of guests runs wider than your average business hotel.

A gated compound off Sari Road where 45 private villas spread across manicured gardens instead of stacking up into yet another tower, which already sets Vivienda apart in Jeddah. Each villa comes with a private pool and interiors finished in marble and gold, ranging from two bedrooms up to the four-bedroom Grandioso. The CYAN restaurant moves between poolside and indoor service, and there's a ladies-only spa. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

A hotel that somehow handles hundreds of guests without feeling like a terminal, the voco Jeddah Gate sits in the Fayhaa District with quick reach to the Corniche, the airport, and the pilgrimage corridor between Makkah and Madinah. Rooms run generous in size and considered in design. Dining covers Japanese, Italian, and regional options, while a pool, spa, and kids' club keep everyone occupied. Selected by the Michelin Guide.

Blue-and-gold accents run through a neutral backdrop that owes something to Art Deco and mid-century Modernism, which makes this IHG hotel feel more considered than most of its neighbors in the Saudi port city. It leans a little more lavish here than other voco properties, with a full-service spa and three restaurants covering international, Lebanese, and Indian ground. The Michelin Guide lists it among its selected hotels.

A hand-carved door in the wall of AlUla's ancient mud-brick quarter opens into a boutique hotel assembled from a maze of centuries-old houses, carefully restored rather than smoothed away. Reed ceilings, candlelit lanterns, and a record player with a vinyl collection in each of the 30 rooms set a mood that has nothing to prove. A rooftop pool and yoga terrace round things out, and the hotel runs without air conditioning, which the thick walls handle surprisingly well from October through May.

Twenty-two polished Airstream trailers parked in a desert canyon, framed by date palms and sandstone walls, is either the strangest or most logical idea in Middle Eastern hospitality. Each unit comes with a kitchenette, private bath, and locally inspired interiors. Social by design, the camp runs talks and performances in a communal tent, with food trucks handling dinner. A Michelin Selected Hotel, and proof that low-impact travel doesn't have to mean roughing it.

A restored 1907 railway station is the bones of this desert resort, the only hotel inside Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. Stone walls, arched doorways, and leather-bound lamps open onto terraces facing raw desert, while a shimmering canopy traces the old tracks outside. The Nabataean tombs are minutes away, and the silence between visits is so complete it starts to feel deliberate.

A Michelin Selected hotel positioned directly opposite the King Fahad Gate, which means rooms on the right floors look straight out to the Kaaba. Many come with live Haram audio piped in so you don't miss a call to prayer. There's a private prayer hall, several dining options, and a café when you need a quiet moment from the crowds. Mina, Muzdalifah, and Jabal Al Noor are all close by, which matters enormously if you're here for pilgrimage.

The King Fahd Gate is visible from the rooms, which tells you everything about why pilgrims book this hotel. A large Hyatt property in the Jabal Omar complex, it puts Al-Masjid Al-Haram essentially at the door, sparing guests the long walk through crowds after Fajr. The Tea Lounge faces the Holy Mosque for those who want something quiet between prayers, and the Oasis restaurant covers Arabic, Asian, and Western options from breakfast through dinner.

A luxury hotel spread across four towers a short walk from the Great Mosque, with rooms and suites arranged so that many look directly onto the Haram. Private terraces let guests step outside for prayer without leaving the floor. The design mixes contemporary lines with traditional Islamic motifs, and the restaurants cover a wide sweep from Middle Eastern to Indo-Pakistani. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

Thatched-roof villas with private gardens and pools sit inside a wildlife reserve where golden tigers and giraffes roam past the buggy path, and that detail alone tends to end the conversation. This resort just outside Riyadh is the kind of place families and couples go when they want actual space, with an 18-hole golf course, horseback riding, zip lines, and a bird center filling the days before anyone thinks to miss the city.

Nine towers holding over 4,300 rooms within shuttle distance of The Holy Mosque tells you exactly what kind of hotel this is and who it's built for. Rooms sleep up to seven, bathrooms are sized for families sharing them in shifts, and food runs around the clock across every tower. The lobby connects directly to a mall stocked with Ihram clothing and travel essentials. A practical, large-scale base for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims.

The windows here look out over the palm groves of the only UNESCO-listed oasis in Saudi Arabia, which is a better view than most hotels manage. Al Ahsa InterContinental is a large, full-service property suited to business crowds and leisure travelers alike, with a spa, multiple restaurants covering Middle Eastern and international menus, and guided excursions into the surrounding region for anyone who actually came for the oasis.

Guestrooms at this Red Sea resort are built to feel like freestanding beach houses, with wide terraces and windows scaled to make the coral-studded water the main piece of furniture. An electric vehicle fetries you across desert before Shura Island appears. The lobby's tea service quietly becomes a cocktail hour, the beach club runs Indonesian food with DJs, and the spa pulls frankincense and sea salt from nearby. The reef starts at the private beach.