Category: tourism

Saudi-Road Trip Top Ten

Last week I skipped posting because I was on a week long road trip around Saudi-Arabia. Our journey was awesome, surprising and eventful. Promise to post about it very soon with pictures from the most amazing places I never thought existed in the Magic Kingdom. For the Saudi Road Trip Part One fromRead more

Sans Abaya in Saudi

One of the most unsettling aspects of traveling to Saudi-Arabia for women are of course the abayas. The abaya always seems to make women wearing it for the first time feel insecure and very self-conscious. Wearing abaya for the first time feels strange but expats quickly get used to them. ThatRead more

Culture Fair for Children in Riyadh King Fahad Cultural Center

An interesting event worth checking out in Riyadh is the International Children Culture Fair organised at the King Fahad Cultural Centre. Aimed at parents and children in Riyadh, this exhibition was organised for the first time in 2011 at the beautiful King Fahad Cultural Centre. This building is aRead more

Incredible Istanbul

Our family recently took a quick trip to Istanbul and I wanted to share some photos I took of this magical city. We had just under a week there which I found was not enough to explore everything Istanbul has to offer. Incredible, irresistible, inspirational, intriguing, sometimes irritatinglyRead more

Ice Skating in the Desert

Ice-skating in the desert? Well yes, in a shopping mall that is. Actually there are quite a few places in Riyadh and around the country where they have small ice-skating rinks inside the children’s entertainment areas. The problem is (if you’re a Finnish woman craving to do someRead more

The Finnish Dude’s Ultimate Guide to Coffee Drinking in Saudi-Arabia

This humorous cultural guide to Saudi coffee (gahwa) drinking ceremony is directed at the traditional Finnish man, but could be useful for any western men when navigating though the Arab coffee drinking culture. For Saudis visiting Finland for the first time it’s recommend to read the SaudiRead more

Tourism in Saudi-Arabia Faces Many Obstacles

“My Kingdom will survive only insofar as it remains a country difficult to access, where the foreigner will have no other aim, with his task fulfilled, but to get out.” – King Abdul Aziz bin Saud, c. 1930 Not exactly the most welcoming words, coming from the founder of a countryRead more

Janadriyah Cultural Heritage Festival in 2011

Janadriyah Cultural Heritage festival of Saudi Arabia is held annually on the outskirts of Riyadh at the Janadriyah Village. This post depicts images from the festival in 2011. For more information about the folk festival itself, the timings and dates of Al Janadriya, check out Blue Abaya guides toRead more

Saudi-Arabia’s Surprising Little Bro Kuwait-Worth a Visit!

I recently visited Kuwait and was very surprised on how advanced they are compared to neighboring Saudi-Arabia. I had an image in my mind of Kuwait as being a post war-zone developing country. Although these countries share similar demographics, culture and history, they seem to be in differentRead more

Riyadh To Do Guide

I often hear people complaining or boredom and lack of activities in KSA, especially from the expats who have moved to conservative Riyadh and assume there’s just nothing to do, or that they as women are not allowed to go out and do anything! Which is of course completely untrue. I’mRead more