Table of contents
Travel to Abha, visa requirements / Flights to Abha, airtickets / By road / Get around / Abha attractions and sightseeing / City tours / Shopping, Abha souvenirs / Good restaurants and cheap meals / Abha nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs. / Hotels, youth hostels, lodging / Get outAbha is a city in Saudi Arabia. The capital of Asir province, its high altitude makes it a popular summer getaway for Saudis.
Travel to Abha - Visa Requirements
Flights and airtickets to Abha
There are flights to Abha from Riyadh and Jeddah.
By road
The drive to Abha from Khamis Mushayt can be very interesting trip, but as usual drive carefully. The road from Sharourah via Najran is daunting, but interesting - up and down ribbon across the dunes, with an old version off to one side for may kms. There were Camel warning signs along it, but some were single hump silhouettes, others had 2 humps !
You can also drive in from the west coast , with lots of winding roads, bypassing old washed out bridges, lots of signs of floods, some picturesque villages etc, or from the north from Taif - lots more twisty roads, and not as interesting as going to the coast. Neither trip offers much in the way of accomodations, so be prepared to camp out.
Tours and Getting around Abha
Abha tourist attractions and sightseeing
lookout Mt Sooda. Trip to Habala Hanging Village - couple of hours. Trip to Turkish Fort - also couple of hours - fabulous views down a valley towards Yemen. Many older houses made of mud brick, with slates sticking out to fend off the water. Many nests in bushes of weaver birds. Most hotels will put on tours if enough people interested. One trip in August it actually hailed very hard!
Try driving down the road from near Jabal Sawda (its insane-see picture), almost as good 'Monkey Road' heading to Mohayil or the road to Taif over the mountain range all the way.
Abha city tours
The cable car.Climb up Jabal Sawda. Try to visit the airbase without getting shot.
Abha souvenirs and shopping
Buy traditional Asir clothes for the children from the museum. And traditional 'silver' ware in the Khamis sook.
Abha Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive
Abha nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs
Abha cheap and luxurious hotels, youth hostels and lodging
- Abha Palace
- Intercontinental Abha, atop Mt. Sooda. Wonderful hotel, terrific views. Try to get a guided tour of the facilities. There is a great walk from the hotel to the lookout, and of course the cable car ride to do. Only open in the summer.
Get out
- Najran — well worth a visit, esp the old Governor's Palace in mud brick.
This page was last edited by Jani Patokallio. Based on work by jp, Mark Anderson, Andrew Haggard and Colin Jensen and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. - Content on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license
