Intrepid Travel has launched its latest women-only expedition, a 12-day trip through Saudi Arabia.
The tour guides and leaders will all be women, and the tour groups will stay in nine properties owned by women, including boutique hotels, heritage properties, and desert camps.
The expedition will begin in Riyadh and end in Jeddah. Some highlights of the experience are a sunrise visit to the Nabataen site of Hegra guided by a local storyteller, a visit to a local citrus farm run by two sisters, and a visit to the holy site of Madinah with a local female guide.
Saudi Arabia has remained a conservative society, ranking 131 in 146 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index. Sara Omar, a local tour operator partnering with Intrepid, believes that Saudi Arabia’s reputation leads many to hold misconceptions about the destination.
“A lot of people think Saudi women are unable to do anything, that we’re not educated, that we don’t work. Meeting the locals is the best way to understand what the lifestyle is really like,” said Omar.
The tours will begin on November 26 and offer just five departures with a maximum group of 12 travellers, starting from R124 525. This is the latest addition to Intrepid Travel’s Women Expedition range, which launched in 2018. Intrepid’s women-only trips include Morocco, Pakistan, and Nepal.
“With tourism to Saudi focused on vast ultra-luxury offerings, we wanted to balance that by creating something completely unique in Saudi Arabia: a trip putting local women’s voices centre stage. With activities like joining a cooking class with a local female chef and getting pampered at a women-owned salon, the trip will give our travellers the chance to see a side of Saudi few get to experience,” said Jenny Gray, Product Manager for Women’s Expeditions.
