Al Ula - Shaden Resort Residential Tents

On my recent trip to Al Ula for the first ever Winter at Tantora Festival, we stayed at a residential tent resort called Shaden.  There are three such residential tent resorts in Al Ula now.  Al Ula's striking landscape is other worldly, consisting of interestingly shaped immense sandstone rock formations  nestled on soft sand dunes. These rocks provide the backdrop for every vantage point in Al Ula.  

Right outside my tent was this Saudi "majlis" Bedouin style seating set with a fire pit.  The residential tents offer all the comforts of home - in a tent!  The room interiors are nicely appointed, with comfy beds, TVs, a lovely bath with a hair dryer, and amenities like a coffee machine, fridge, iron and ironing board in each room, and even electrical outlets with USB ports on them.

To read more about my experience at the Winter at Tantora Festival in Al Ula, CLICK HERE.

My friend Laura of the amazing blog Blue Abaya has written a fabulous comprehensive guide and history of Madain Saleh with lots of fantastic photos - CLICK HERE to access it.

SkyWatch - Jeddah Tented Mall

This building is a mall with a tented rooftop.  These special roofs are made of a fiberglass fabric with a teflon coating of fluorocarbon resin, originally invented by NASA to withstand extreme hot temperatures.

There are many structures in Saudi Arabia that have these tented roofs, including the current Jeddah airport's open air Hajj Terminal, which provide much needed shade as well as reflecting 75% of the solar radiation. The special design of the terminal, which has open sides (no walls) and openings at the top of each tent point, also promotes cirulation of air flow which cools the air.  In Mecca there are similar large structures covered with tented roofs to accommodate thousands of religious pilgrims.


To  visit MORE friendly skies around the world, fly on over to SKYWATCH  where you’ll find beautiful skies posted by bloggers all over the world.

Our World: Saudi Arabia Watermelon Season

It's watermelon season here in Saudi Arabia.  On our recent weekend trip to Yanbu to attend the Flower Festival, we spied lots of watermelons for sale everywhere - in small town markets and many vendors in the desert along the highway.  The market above is in the town of Rabigh.

We bought a big sweet juicy watermelon from this distinguished looking vendor in Rabigh for 15 riyals.  Prices can be negotiable, which my husband is good at doing.

The above photo is of a watermelon field off the highway between Jeddah and Yanbu.  We saw many fields like this one.  The vendor tending to this field told us that he doesn't water the crops - he only relies on rainwater.  This was amazing to me, since there is not much rain in our area of Saudi Arabia, but apparently it is enough to grow big juicy watermelons.  The trash all around was disturbing...

This roadside vendor stacked his melons and sold them in sets of 2 or 3.  You can see that several are cut up and can be sampled before buying.  He looks pretty comfortable and relaxed on his red carpet.

The roadside vendors usually have drinking water and many of them have a fire for tea.  This guy also has a stool to sit on in case his feet go to sleep when he sits on the ground for too long, as mine do!

This desert vendor has his fire on the right and a nice tent where he can nap.  In the background to the left, you can see his field where he grows his melons.




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Saudi Arabia Desert Tents

When driving out in the countryside in Saudi Arabia, it's not unusual to see tents here and there. Many are equipped with electricity and are air conditioned.  

Saudi Arabia: Shepherd's Tents

In rural areas, it is common to see Bedouin tents which house shepherds who mind their charges of sheep, goats, or camels.

Saudi Arabia: Bedouin Desert Tent

The black tents that dot the landscape of Saudi Arabia's deserts are made of woven goat hair and are inhabited by nomads called Bedouins.  Many times tents will have the latest 4WD pickup truck parked outside, TV antenna, and a chimney for the fireplace, like the red one shown here.

To learn more about the Bedouin lifestyle, CLICK HERE, and to learn more about the black tents they live in, CLICK HERE.