Saudi Arabia

Harry’s first visit, spent in Jeddah with Kieran, framed from the first minute as an assessment: the country opened to tourism in 2019, is spending enormously on it, and the question is whether it is ready.

He states his position on payment up front — he was not paid to come, and the opinions are his own. Obs: the hotel section of the video is a hosted stay he declares on camera, and the video carries an eSIM sponsorship. Neither provider is recorded in this bundle.

Practical facts

• Tourist visas date from 2019. Before that the visitors were pilgrims.
• Very little English is spoken, which he names as the single biggest practical obstacle for a visitor.
• Cards are a real problem. A bike rental in Jeddah would take only the domestic card network — neither Visa nor Mastercard — and his verdict on the spot is that this is precisely what not ready for tourism looks like. Carry cash and expect to use an ATM.
• It is not a walkable country, in the same way that most of the Gulf and much of America isn’t. Where walkability exists it has been deliberately built, like the Jeddah Corniche.
• May is around 32 °C on the Red Sea coast, which he finds comfortable rather than punishing.
• No alcohol, anywhere, including beach clubs and entertainment venues. He credits the country for holding the line rather than compromising for tourists.
• Jeddah over Riyadh. He arrived thinking Riyadh was the better city and everyone he met told him the opposite.

Culture and daily life

• Coffee is the national obsession, second only to oil in his framing. Drive-through coffee on every road, alongside the full set of American chains, and he gives Saudi Arabia the third-latest average bedtime in the world at around half past midnight (from video – unverified).
• The thobe. Foreigners may wear it here — he points out that in the UAE it is banned for foreigners, which is why he wouldn’t there — and the reaction is enthusiastic rather than offended. He ends the video calling it a life hack for talking to strangers.
• Food: half a chicken on an enormous plate of rice for $9 to $15, ordered before you sit down, eaten on the floor with your hands. Restaurants have private family rooms so that women can eat unveiled with their own family. Eating with the left hand is haram.
• Not everyone here is rich. He raises it in the first two minutes as a correction to the assumption, and points at the migrant workforce — the shop staff, the beach club staff and the hotel staff he meets are Bangladeshi, Palestinian, Sudanese, South Sudanese and Somali.
• On being gay in Saudi Arabia, recorded as Kieran’s account rather than Harry’s: in practice he found it widely accepted, expected problems and had none, and the venue they went to was full. Neither of them generalises beyond their own week in one city.

Is it ready for tourism?

His verdict, given straight to camera at the end: yes, just about.

• What works: the infrastructure exists, the cities are modern, the events are world-scale, and the people are warm, generous and genuinely curious about visitors — which, as usual, is what actually decides it for him.
• What doesn’t: the language barrier, the payment systems, and things he says stay behind the curtain, especially for non-Muslims — a phrase he uses without expanding on it.
• The honest caveat: it would not be at the top of his own list, and it is not at Dubai’s level. He still recommends going.

Source

• Inside Saudi Arabia’s Billion Dollar Future City 🇸🇦 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKVUlN2Jjss