Travels in Arabia Safely

Regardless the purpose of your travels in Arabia, you have to prepare everything well before going there. Some groups of people may go there for business, holiday or holy travels like Hajj pilgrimage. In order to make the travels safe, you must consider several important aspects including the basic cross-cultural communication skill, money, and the official documents and so on.

Prepare the money

Although Saudi Arabia is one of the most popular and rich Middle Eastern countries that would accept international payment method like a credit card or even bank check. Yet, the real money in the currency of Riyal is also important to prevent direct transactions with shop operators or street vendors who do not accept automatic payment. There is a wide variety of places that offer the service of currency exchange and the most reasonable exchange rate offered by money changers in towns and cities. The money changers will give you better exchange rate compared those in hotels or in airports.

When the best time to have travels in Arabia

Since Saudi Arabia is a desert country where the weather is hotter than other Asian countries, you must prepare yourself and your family to face the most extreme weather there. To predict when the best time to visit the country, you must acknowledge the daily temperature in each season. Generally, from April to October, the temperature can be more than 40 Celsius degree, meaning you have to avoid the schedule, only in one exception that is for the annual Hajj. For having better moment in Arabia choose the time between November and February. During the months, the daytime temperatures tend to be cooler, so you can have a better trip there. You are lucky if you have a more flexible time schedule for having travels in Arabia, so you can choose the time. Many European tourists would prefer this time since the temperature is equal to spring or fall in Europe.

When you want to travel abroad, make sure you already know how to adapt in the country. Not only know how to behave but also how to secure your life from natures. Hot weather and different atmosphere will influence your health. Some epidemics are often the most worrying threats like MERS, Hepatitis A and B. Ensure you have checked whether your country has issued a travel warning for certain reasons like MERS epidemic in several months ago or other document procedures and security protection of foreign citizen in Arabia. To do so, contact your national embassy in Arabia. Some European countries usually recommend some vaccine for certain severe desert diseases like Hepatitis vaccine, MERS and meningitis. 

The last aspect you must consider is language. Although you cannot speak Arabic, at least, you know the most common daily expressions like how to say “hello” in Arabic, or “how are you” and the responses of the expressions. Moreover, if you hire local people to help you during the travels, let say you hire an Arabic chauffer. Knowing the daily expressions or even Arabic names as mentioned before will ease your activity and prevent miscommunication and bridge a good cross-cultural understanding in a good manner.