Travel Risk Atlas

Saudi Arabia

Western Asia · Capital Riyadh

Level 3 United States Reconsider Travel FCDO United Kingdom Against all travel to parts Orange Netherlands Orange — essential travel only Level 3 Canada Avoid non-essential travel AA Germany No warning in force

Each opens that government's own advisory for Saudi Arabia — the authoritative version, updated far faster than this page.

45.9 Moderate risk
Atlas Risk Score · 157th safest of 220
Al-Ula — Saudi Arabia
Photo: Sammy Six / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

Most of Saudi Arabia's twenty million annual visitors are pilgrims to Mecca and Medina, not tourists — a distinction that shapes everything about the risk picture. Leisure tourism only opened up in 2019 and is growing fast around AlUla, Jeddah and the Red Sea.

Crime against visitors is very low. The real risks are the law, the heat, and — during Hajj — crowds at a scale that has killed thousands of people in living memory.

Where the risk actually is

Each region is coloured by the advice that applies to most of it, drawn by hand from the wording of all five government advisories. Numbered markers flag localised warnings — usually a border strip or remote interior — that cover only a small part of an otherwise lower-risk region.

Al Bahah — Travel with cautionAl Hudud ash Shamaliyah — Travel with cautionAl Jawf — Travel with cautionAl Madinah — Travel with cautionAl Quassim — Travel with cautionAr Riyad — Travel with cautionAsh Sharqiyah — Travel with cautionAsh Sharqiyah — Travel with cautionHa'il — Travel with cautionJizan — Travel with cautionJizan — Travel with cautionJizan — Travel with cautionMakkah — Travel with cautionNajran — Travel with cautionTabuk — Travel with cautionTabuk — Travel with cautionTabuk — Travel with cautionTabuk — Travel with cautionTabuk — Travel with cautionTabuk — Travel with cautionTabuk — Travel with cautionTabuk — Travel with caution`Asir — Travel with cautionDead SeaDead SeaLake Hammar1. Yemeni border — Do not travel1
What governments advise Travel with caution Localised warning — see the notes below

What the warnings actually cover

  • 1
    Yemeni border — Do not travel. Do-not-travel within 10km of the Yemeni border, and essential-travel-only between 10km and 80km from it, because of Houthi missile and drone attacks. Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, Medina and AlUla are all far to the north and unaffected.

A numbered marker warns about the small area described in its note — the rest of that region carries the base advice. Mapped by hand from the official wording in July 2026; always check the current advisory before you book.

What drives the score

Each pillar is scored 0–100 against every other country. Longer bar = more risk.

Road & transport
10% of score
94/100
213th of 220
Conflict & terrorism
15% of score
54/100
160th of 220
Official advisories
25% of score
53/100
189th of 220
Natural hazards
10% of score · mainly drought, flooding
35/100
89th of 220
Political stability
10% of score
34/100
91st of 220
Health & medical
15% of score
28/100
109th of 220
Crime
15% of score
26/100
60th of 220
Women's safety
not in the score
7/100

Biggest factor here: road & transport. Road deaths per 100,000 people - the risk travellers most underestimate.

Practical facts

The things worth knowing before you land.

Emergency number
911
999 in some regions
Currency
SAR ر.س
Languages
Arabic
Visa (EU passport)
Visa on arrival
US: Visa on arrival · UK: Visa on arrival
Population
37.0m
World Bank 2025
Capital
Riyadh
Driving
On the right
35.9 road deaths per 100k
Power
Type G, A, B
220-240V
Basic water access
99%
Widely available · of residents, not a tap-water verdict
Dialling code
+966
GDP per capita
$35k
A rough guide to price levels
Visitors a year
20.3m
International arrivals, 2019
Malaria risk
5.5/10
INFORM exposure score — see a travel clinic

When to go

Average daytime high and nightly low for Riyadh, over 2010-2019. Bars are rainfall; the colour band is how hot the days get.

Mildest and driest around November to March.

Daytime high warm hot extreme heat
Top figure is the average daytime high, below it the average nightly low, and millimetres of rain under each bar. Figures are the average daytime high; bar heights are the month's rainfall. Shaded months are the mild, drier ones. Source: NASA POWER daily observations, 2010-2019, public domain. Saudi Arabia is big. These numbers describe Riyadh only — elsewhere in the country can be nothing like it.

Common scams in Saudi Arabia

Patterns reported repeatedly by travellers and local police. None of this is about individual businesses — it's about set-ups you can learn to spot in seconds.

Unofficial Hajj and Umrah packages

Sold abroad, felt in Mecca and MedinaCommon

Operators sell pilgrimage packages without the visas or permits to deliver them. Pilgrims arrive to find no accommodation, no permit and no legal route to complete Hajj, and risk arrest, fines and deportation.

How to avoid it: Book only through the Hajj mission or licensed agents recognised by your own government. Verify the operator with the Saudi Ministry of Hajj before paying.

Sources Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah UK FCDO Saudi Arabia — safety and security

Fake visa and permit websites

Online, before travelCommon

Sites resembling the official portal charge large fees for the Saudi e-visa, which is issued cheaply through the government system. Some collect passport data and take payment without delivering anything.

How to avoid it: Apply only at the official visa portal. No legitimate service needs to be found through a search advertisement.

Sources Visit Saudi — official visa information

Unlicensed taxis and airport touts

Jeddah, Riyadh airportsOccasional

Drivers approach arrivals offering fixed fares well above the app rate, particularly during Hajj and Umrah season when demand spikes.

How to avoid it: Uber and Careem both operate nationwide and are the norm. Use the app rather than the kerb.

Sources Visit Saudi — official travel information

Risk hotspots

Specific places that come up again and again — either in government advisories or in traveller reports. Everywhere else in Saudi Arabia is not automatically fine, but these are the areas worth a plan.

Yemen border region Conflict

Governments advise against all travel within a wide strip of the Yemeni border. Cross-border shelling and drone and missile attacks have hit Jazan, Najran and Asir.

Hajj crowds in Mina and at the Jamarat Crowd crush

Historic crush disasters have killed thousands. Follow your group's timing slot, never move against the flow, and treat heat as the primary danger — 2024 killed over 1,300, mostly from heatstroke.

Summer heat Natural hazard

Interior temperatures pass 50°C in summer. Heatstroke is the most likely medical emergency a visitor will face.

Desert driving Traffic

High speeds, long empty distances, camels on unfenced roads at night, and patchy phone coverage between towns.

The law is the risk

Alcohol is illegal to import, buy or drink, and penalties include imprisonment and deportation. Drug offences carry the death penalty and it is imposed. There is no tolerance built into enforcement for tourists.

Same-sex relationships are criminalised. Public criticism of the state or the royal family, including on social media posted from abroad, has led to the arrest of foreign nationals. Photographing people without consent, and military or government buildings at all, causes problems.

Dress rules have relaxed substantially: women are no longer required to wear an abaya, but modest dress covering shoulders and knees is expected of everyone, and Mecca and Medina have stricter rules again. Non-Muslims may not enter central Mecca.

Hajj and Umrah

Hajj requires a specific visa issued through official channels and quotas; the tourist e-visa does not permit it. Unofficial operators selling Hajj packages leave pilgrims without accommodation or legal status, and Saudi authorities deport people found performing Hajj without a permit.

The 2024 Hajj saw more than 1,300 deaths, overwhelmingly from heat among unregistered pilgrims without access to air-conditioned facilities. Temperatures exceed 50°C. Book only through your country's official Hajj mission.

Compare with neighbours

Sources for this page

Vaccinations, malaria and outbreaks. This atlas does not give medical advice — it is personal, it changes, and it is the one thing worth getting from a doctor. Both national services publish current advice for Saudi Arabia:

CDC Travelers' HealthTravelHealthPro (NHS/UKHSA)

Check the official advisory before you book. This page reflects data as of August 2026. Advisories change without warning, and only your own government's advice affects your travel insurance.