Renate 'Renny' Flanagan — Freelance Writer for Travel and Washington, DC Local Insider Tips

When I tell people that I’ve visited Saudi Arabia, the most common reaction is What was it like? While hidden corners of the world seem to be fewer and fewer, Saudi Arabia is still under the radar for tourism, especially for those of us living in the western hemisphere. The Saudi government is embarking on a suite of projects throughout the country called Vision 2030 which will include amenities and experiences to boost tourism. My brother has been living and working in Saudi Arabia for over 10 years and in 2025 I finally visited him with my husband and 1 year old in tow.

Leading up to the trip I wasn’t sure what to expect. Scouring the internet I found a handful of YouTube videos, Reddit threads, and the Saudi Arabia’s tourism site as my guide for trying to anticipate what I would encounter when I stepped off the plane in Riyadh. What I found time and time again during my weeklong visit was beautiful juxtaposition.

The tallest building in Riyadh, Kingdom Centre was completed in 2003, making the iconic skyline only since the new millennium. Just 7 miles (11.2 km) a away is Al Murabba Historical Palace, also referred to as King Abdulaziz Palace, where you can see traditional architecture utilizing mudbricks. As you go to the historic part of the city, the English translation of the street signs disappear and the navigation signs for the highway are only in Arabic.

Maybe I took the idea of Riyadh being in the desert too literally because I didn’t expect to see major bodies of water in a desert setting. While I did see camels walking through sand dunes on a daytrip outside of the city, Wadi Hanifa Park is 14 miles (23 kim) from city center and if you go a little further 30 miles (50 km) of the city center is Lakes Park part of the Wadi Hanifa, a 120km valley flowing through Riyadh.

With a 2022 population of 7 million people Riyadh has all the buzz you would expect of a major city. In observance of Islamic law, the call to prayer can be heard 5 times a day. When visiting Dubai in 2017, my experience was that all activity didn’t stop during prayer time. In Dubai I was in tourist areas so I wasn’t sure if the observance of prayer, or lack of, was because of the high density of non-Islamic foreigners. So while in Riyadh, a city yet-to-be saturated with outsiders, my husband and I braced for utter compliance to this religious observation. We expected for traffic to stop and streets to empty as everyone made their way into the nearest mosque. And yet, life moved on. Yes there was attendance at the mosques, but the record-scratching, hear-a-pin-drop, time freezes cinematic montage didn’t happen.

There is one particular experience in a coffee shop that stands out. My husband and I stopped to get a coffee. We were clearly foreign and we were the only foreigners I had seen all day. The cashier gave us an enthusiastic “Welcome! Welcome! Enjoy” as he rang us up and handed us our coffee. As we sat down, we could have been in a coffee shop anywhere.

Suddenly a young man came inside and asked something frantically to the cashier. I couldn’t understand what the young man was saying but his anxiety was palpable in a way that doesn’t need words. The cashier pointed to a rug hanging on the wall. The young man grabbed the rug from the wall, rearranged the empty tables to make space, layed the rug on the floor, kneeled down and began praying. It all happened so fast I was caught by surprise.

In my desire to be culturally respectful I didn’t know what to do. Do I stop talking to my husband mid-sentence? Do I make every effort to look so far away that there is no misinterpretation that a passing glance is a disrespectful stare? I looked around at my fellow coffee patrons and the coffe purveyor. As the locals, I could follow their lead. The cashier continued his transaction for the next person in line and poured another cup of coffee. The two young women chatting together at a table glanced behind them and returned to their conversation without skipping a breath. Everyone around me seemed unbothered by the young man praying in the middle of the coffee shop, just as the young man was unbothered by the people around him. Everyone was doing their own thing in the same time and space. It was beautiful.

The contrast of fast and slow, modern and traditional plays out throughout the city and throughout the culture. On the ride to Lakes Park I saw two men pulled over on the side of the highway. They had set up folding chairs, a folding table, had a travel thermos of what I imagine to be coffee or tea, their cups, and dates. I don’t know how far they traveled or how much further they had to go. The scenery along the highway was not the most pictuesque, but I loved that they embraced the moment to stop and have their picnic. While they could have drank their beverage from a travel cup and snacked on dates while driving, they instead chose to slow down, literally stop, and be present in the moment with their drink, with their food, and with each other.

I saw people setting up a barbeque or making a picnic all around the parks that I visited. My brother took my husband, son and I into the sand dunes of the Ad-Dahna Desert. We climbed to the top of a dune and ate dates and baklava while watching camels off in the distance. My son shrieked with glee as he watched the sand run through his fingers, his first experience in a “sand box” that we can never top. While the fresh dates and the baklava were delicious and the scenery divine, the combination of the two was magical.

I was so enamored with my experience picnicing on the sand dunes that I told my brother I wanted the same type of picnic rug he had. We ran out of time to go to the store and get one so he graciously let me have his. My most recent picnic with the Saudi rug was eating sushi at Gravely Point Park in DC, watching airplanes fly in.

Every place I have visited has changed me in some way. Saudi Arabia showed me that contrast and coexistence are not mutually exclusive. Skyscrapers can comingle with historic architecture. Deep rooted culture can persevere in a modern society. Strict religious adherance can pray next to a laissez-faire interpretation of the same religion. A country, a culture, and as people we do not need to be one thing. We can choose to bring in the parts and pieces that make us who we want to be, without concern about outside observation or expectations.