Some feed back on Visa On Arrival at Riyadh airport
 

hi, this is some feedback about VOA at Riyadh airport.

It was much faster and traveler friendly than I expected.

First, the visa office is not very well sign posted, or maybe I missed the way they pointed, but anyway it was close to where we entered the airport building, if you don’t see signs better ask the officials standing around the entry hall..

Once there, it was a straight forward process, minimum talking, they asked only passport, money (395 rials by credit card), and they took electronic fingerprints and photo (no need to bring your own photo, contrary to what their website says). They have a nice office, you sit on a comfortable chair, so everything seemed friendly and professional.

They didn’t ask for return ticket, hotel reservations, travel plans , nothing.

They gave me a multiple entry visa, without asking anything, I think it was for a total of 30 days in a year.

There were only 2 employees working at the time, so it was ok for the first people we got there, but until we had finished , 10 more people were waiting on the que standing, so it can be time consuming if you arrive at a busy moment.

I guess that their scrutiny of passengers, and possible delays, may depend also on the country of origin (I had Greek passport). Also, the official rule is that they have the right to deny entry, unavoidably this causes some uncertainty for our trip, I don't know how often this happens, I hope not. Generally it seemed a fast and welcoming procedure. After you get the VOA there is just normal checking in the arrivals hall before exiting the airport with your luggage, they ask passsport , see your visa, scan luggage and that’s all.

So what did you think of Saudi?

I used to live there, so just curious.

You mean the people or the country? well, I didn’t really have the chance to get involved with people, mainly because of the language barrier I think, so I cannot say anything accurate.

But I would say as a first impression, that in Riyadh and Medinah I felt a positive – accepting vibe, better than I expected, felt nice with people even with minimum verbal communication.
Riyadh felt it had a more progresive atmosphere .

In Jeddah it didn’t feel so easygoing. It was also a difficult city to move around.

But as I said, I didn’t have a good chance to really know people, maybe these impressions are a coincidence of random moments...

English is widely spoken, especially in Riyadh, although I can understand not having the opportunity to just launch into a chat with a random stranger.

I'm also curious about your visit - was it for pleasure? I'm always surprised when I hear of someone wanting to visit Saudi (or Kuwait for that matter). I lived in both for several years and it's just not a place I'd ever consider for a pleasure trip, especially as a female.

yes it was a trip for 'pleasure'. But we must say that the pleasure from traveling and exploring a distant country and civilization, is a wide concept, with different meaning for each traveller, well for me it was a positive experience, for the short trip 1 week I had there. But I don't think I would like to live my life there .
Definately SA is not suitable for all kinds of people, together with the social and religious factors which play big role in this country.
Also, I found out that although many things you pay for, are of really good value, as long as they are there for the locals too, but if you go out of the beaten path of the locals, and you need to do 'tourist things' on your own away around the country, then it can get difficult and very pricey .
Also, their interest to attract tourism is not really consistent. VOA is a good measure, but then you dont have tourist information offices, you get conflicting info for things...
I wish they develop more posibilities for independent travelers, and at a more budget friendly way. I dont mean to drop costs to south east asian levels , but to make it more feasible for the 'average' traveller.
Or maybe they dont want that, maybe they will stick more with high- end tourism...

Interesting...I'm glad your experience was positive.

Can you please give us a general summary of what cities, how many days in each city, how you got from city to city, how you got around each city, and what you saw and did in these cities. This sort of info would be very helpful. There are very few KSA trip reports on the internet.