A logistical guide to doing Umrah by yourself.
Alhamdulillah I have been to Umrah many times between 2009 and 2024. I have seen the changes and evolution of the process and I wanted to share with you all the tips and tricks I have learned in order to make your Umrah as affordable and successful as possible.
I will be discussing the process from the perspective of someone coming from the USA, and going to Umrah during off-season. Off-season is usually outside of Ramadan and Hajj seasons.
Most people are under the impression that they have to go through a group for Umrah, but if you are from the US, you can book everything yourself and save yourself some money. At the very least, you will have more transparency in pricing by breaking down the cost yourself, and then comparing it to what a group would charge. The benefits of doing it all yourself is that you are in control of your time and not anyone else. You can plan how you want things to be done, and not pay for anything extra that you might not have time for or need, such as extra touring trips.
Make sure you have the obvious things in check first:
Passport - it should have at least 6 months of validity before travelling. Not my rules.
Tickets - book your flight like you would any other flight from your airline of choice. You will need these dates for your Visa since they will ask you what day you plan on arriving and leaving.
Visa - this is very simple and you can easily do it online. Once you have filled out the application, you will get your Visa via email in literally 10 minutes. They do ask for a Passport sized photo, but the lighting and crop doesn’t have to be perfect. I had a clear background in my photo, but the lighting was a little bit off yet they still accepted my photo for the Visa. Any smartphone that can take a clear photo will do. Do not spend $20 having your photo “professionally” taken at CVS or Walgreens. You will also be able to scale the image on the Visa website, so you don’t have to worry about the zoom of your photos. Worst case scenario, you take another photo at home and upload it if you zoomed in or out too much.
The Visa website is a bit glitchy, but once you get your Visa you don’t have to worry about interacting with the site again. The cost for the Visa and obligatory health insurance was $107. You will get your Visa via email, but you can also login to the website and print your Visa on the main page.
If you have multiple family members, you can set up one account on the website, and apply for multiple people under your account. I did that for my wife and 3 kids, and all their visas were listed on the main landing page once I logged in.
Make sure you select the travel Visa and not the Umrah visa. The travel Visa gives you a whole calendar year to enter multiple times. Sure you don’t get a free zamzam bottle if you would have chosen the Umrah visa, but you can easily purchase a zamzam bottle for like $4. Selecting the Umrah visa might also limit the length of your Visa.
Before leaving
At least a month before your trip, you should start conditioning your body for the significant amount of walking that you will be doing. You can easily hit 15,000 steps per day in Makkah and Madinah without even realizing it, so make sure you have a basic fitness routine that involves a lot of walking before you leave.
You do not require the meningitis vaccine with the travel Visa. I have never selected the Umrah Visa option, so not sure if that would require you to have the meningitis vaccine. I would assume you would not need it. No one has checked my meningitis vaccine status in the last 2 years that I have gone for Umrah.
Make sure you pack your medications. Don’t overpack, but have enough of the basics that you might need if you tend to get sick when going overseas. Worst case scenario, there are plenty of pharmacies there that you can use to replenish your stock. Medications are about the same or even a bit more expensive than buying them from the USA.
A good, thick, cotton Egyptian made ihram costs about 100SAR in Saudi (about $27), so it might be cheaper to get it from there (assuming you’re going to Madinah first).
Buy all your non-scented soaps and non-scented deodorants before hand so you’re not wasting time in the Holy lands looking for these items. You want to maximize your time there for worship. A quick search on Amazon for “unscented soap bar,” and “unscented deodorant,” will get you what you need.
Stick to one authority when it comes to the rules of Umrah so you don’t get confused about what breaks your Umrah and what minor violations require paying a penalty (fidya). Don’t try to learn the Fiqh of Umrah on the fly! Here is a document I made up and used based on information from islamqa.info and also based on lectures from Shuyukh who discuss what penalties require a fidya.
Don’t overpack your suitcases, especially if you plan on buying gifts/dates to bring back to the US. Personally I pack light and I don’t buy gifts for people, and I don’t expect gifts from people either when they go to Umrah. Just focus on worship and keeping yourself healthy and hydrated.
Book your ground transportation from a website like umrahtaxiservice.com. Very simple to book your transportation between airport to hotel, Makkah to Madinah, etc. Initially you only have to make one reservation from your airport to hotel of choice. Afterwards, you can make appointments for whenever you want to depart to Makkah or Madinah or back to your airport.
(No I don’t get any commission from them, and no I don’t have any stake in this company.)
Most communication will take place thru WhatsApp. Even if your Urdu or Arabic sucks, they will be able to communicate in English as best as they can. At the end of the day, they just need to know where to pick you up from, and what hotel/airport to drop you off to.
Make sure you have physical copies of your Visas and not just digital copies. You will have to show your Visa many times during your trip, so keep it handy at all times.
Makkah or Madinah first?
This really comes down to personal preference. In the beginning you are at the peak of your health, so it might be best to do Umrah first. Makkah is more hectic overall than Madinah, so this would be what I would opt for in the future. I did Madinah first in 2023 and then Makkah second, which was not bad since I was by myself.
This past month we did the same thing, but I ended up getting sick and so did my kids by the time we got to Makkah, so it would have been better for us as a family to go to Makkah first, do Umrah at our maximum health, and then go to Madinah. Being sick in Madinah is always better than being sick in Makkah because Madinah is just more peaceful and getting around is a lot less stressful.
Tips for Makkah
The authorities in Makkah only allow you to go to the ground floor to do tawaf if you are performing Umrah. The way they check this is not through the Nusuk app, but they just do a visual check to make sure you are wearing an ihram. If you are wearing ihram, you get to go to the ground floor to make tawaf. If you have already performed Umrah, and are wearing street clothes, you cannot go to the ground floor and make tawaf unfortunately. The only tawaf you can do is on the 2nd floor, and you get a very, very, limited view of the Ka’bah itself.
There is a way around this though, and it might be controversial, but there’s nothing haram about it. All you have to do is wear your ihram without being in the state of ihram, and you can go to the first floor and make tawaf the way you were meant to. You can watch this fatwa if you have any doubts about whether or not you should do this.
If you have a son who is also doing Umrah, keep his ihram clean after doing your actual Umrah since he would need to wear his ihram again just like you in order to gain access to the ground floor for tawaf. My son is 10 years old, and the cleaning crew told me that if he wears street clothes, they won’t let him in to make the ground floor tawaf.
For this reason alone, it is not a bad idea to have an extra ihram with you because your first one could get quite dirty and it would take at least a day to get it washed. You will already be pretty tired, and it is just easier to have a second ihram that you use after your Umrah in order to gain access to the ground floor for tawaf.
While you are on the ground floor, make sure you look at the Ka’bah a lot because this is the only place where you can look at it in its full glory. This is the best time to reflect upon the house of Allah and to increase your faith, knowing that this is the place where Ibrahim AS raised the foundations of the original house of worship. This is also your only time to have an opportunity to touch the Yemeni corner and to kiss the Black Stone.
The roof does have access for tawaf, but you can’t see the ka’bah at all like you could in the past as the edges of the roof are blocked off for construction. The second floor is the same way, where the inner sections of the second floor are blocked off for construction and you can barely see glimpses of the Ka’bah.
Tips for Madinah
Madinah is a lot more organized and peaceful. If you do go to Makkah first, you don’t have to hoard zamzam water because Madinah also has plenty of zamzam available. In Madinah you do have to make an appointment on the Nusuk app when it comes to visiting Riyad Al Jannah, so make sure you familiarize yourself with the app.
The caveat with making a Riyad Al Jannah appointment is that you can only have one appointment in a calendar year. Since I went in 2023 and less than a year later again in 2024, I was not able to make an appointment this time around unfortunately.
The day before you make your appointment, make sure you locate the place where you have to go so you know exactly what to expect and where you need to be. Masjid al Nabawi is a giant square so it is really easy to find your way around with all the gate numbers and landmarks.
If you have young kids who want to have fun, there is a great place (Quba playground) for kids to ride electric drifting bikes and even feed cats. There are also some local desi restaurants here that will satisfy your back home food cravings. Both the food and the entertainment is pretty cheap. Don’t take a taxi to get there, because it’s only a 10-15 walk from your hotel to get there.
General tips
Do not buy too much food. I know it is tempting since you will be more hungry, but make sure you don’t have leftovers because none of the hotels have microwaves. The hotels in 2023 didn’t have them, and the ones we went to this year also did not have them. They have refrigerators, but who really wants to eat cold food? Just buy small meals, finish them, and then buy another fresh hot meal when needed.
Shop for data plans. See what your local US carrier offers you, but if you do purchase a SIM in Saudi, you can get a decent plan for around $33 per person. My wife and I each got around 60GB of data plus plenty of local talk time for that $33/person. Even after 10 days, I had more than 40GB left, so I could have gotten an even cheaper plan. Of course, make sure your phone is unlocked and has no carrier restrictions.
Public restrooms - you will eventually need to use the public restrooms located outside the Haramain of Makkah and Madinah. When you go down the escalators to use the restrooms, that floor will usually be packed with people trying to use the restroom. Almost all the bathrooms have a 2nd floor you can go down to, and those bathrooms are almost always empty! So make sure you go down 2 sets of escalators and use those restrooms in peace without people trying to knock on your door. This also comes in handy when you’re trying to find a US toilet seat versus a squat hole.
Using local taxis - I would recommend you use the Kareem app to get your local transportation to visit Masjid Quba, Mountain of Uhud, etc. They are a lot cheaper and hassle-free than the regular taxi drivers that you would have to haggle with. Plus the regular taxi drivers charge you a roundtrip rate, and that will always leave you with less time to spend at Masjid Quba for example. They will always be in a rush to get you back. With Kareem, you can choose to pay either by card or “cash in hand,” so the experience is the same without any of the hassle. After you spend time in Masjid Quba at your own leisure, you can just get another Kareem taxi back to your hotel.
Get your currency exchange done at the market. Do not do it at the hotel. The hotel will rip you off and give you a worse rate by far. You can easily ask around and find out where the currency exchange is located.
Hope these tips were helpful. May Allah subhana wata'aalah bless your Umrah trip!