Saudi Arabia: NEOM, Dammam and Tabuk Await Me

Saudi Arabia Has Been On My Travel Wish List for Decades…Tonight, I’m Going

I’m setting out on an exciting trip, a new country for me, and a place that I’ve been thinking about from the earliest days of my travels. The country is Saudi Arabia, and my destinations there are varied.  I am starting out by visiting the location of a future city, one day we all will have heard about it. It’s NEOM.

Now, today, NEOM, which means new and city, is nothing but a very dramatic series of rocks, outcrops, and seaside. But I hope that the Saudi dreams to build a world-class gigantic city pan out and I will interview some of the hundreds of people who are working there now to make it all happen.   My first three days will take me out to spectacular remote deserts, and I really don’t know what to expect, but I do know it will be hot.  Well, probably not as hot in NEOM as in Riyadh, but hotter than I’m used to.

The trip visiting NEOM will be three days, then I will head to Tabuk, a city of around 700,000 in the far east.  On Sunday, May 22, I’ll fly all the way across the country to the city of Dammam, on the gulf coast and I’ll even get to visit the Dana Beach Resort. I have no idea what to expect–EXCEPT–the woman who invited me, PR expert Nicolla Davies, has assured me it’s lot more like other cities than I think.  I have heard this from many people–the country is fast becoming modernized and the way women are treated is much better than it ever has been since MBS took power from his father King Salman.

I expect to be pleasantly surprised by how relaxed it is there, and I can’t wait to do a Facebook live to show my friends what it’s like there.