Important: Wikitravel is exploring a license upgrade to CC by-sa 3.0, please give your consent or refusal here.

Taif

From Wikitravel

Jump to: navigation, search

Get in
Get around
See
Do
Buy
Eat
Drink
Sleep
Get out

Taif is a city in Saudi Arabia. It is in the mountains near Mecca and is used as the summer capital, letting the royal family get out of the much hotter Riyadh.

[edit] Get in

From Jeddah, take the highway toward Mecca and turn off onto the "Christian Bypass" just before the holy city. This leads to an interesting road of switchbacks up an escarpment and on to Taif.

[edit] Get around

Main Places in Taif are: Al Shafa الشفا: A natural place with green scenery and you can have a picnic there. Al Hada الهدا : Famous for its "Cable Cars" and "Al Kar Tourist Village"(covered in DO Section) The Town البلد: Where you can Eat and where Locals Live

You can travel between these places by a car AND ONLY BY A CAR. A well-established road network connects main places. Don't hesitate to ask locals, but mostly they won't speak English. The best way is to consult the concierge in your hotel.

[edit][add listing] See

Whenever You go, you will see breath-taking mountains. Trust me, Your Camera will be full of mountains pics.

[edit][add listing] Do

Located beside the Ramada Hotel, a newly opened cable cars, which is the largest in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, will show you extremely fantastic scenery of Taif's Mountains. If you are lucky you will be able to see monkeys. These cable cars, Located in Al Hada Region الهدا will cost you a notable amount of money. If you are willing that cable cars drop you in Al kar tourist village, which is mainly a water games center and pools, it will cost you 30 Riyals for an adult and 15 Riyals for kids. If you wish for a two ways trip, you will pay the double. You can have your own cable car for 150 Riyals one way and 300 Riyals for two way. Don't Forget Your Camera.

[edit][add listing] Buy

The most important thing you have to buy is Fruits. They specialize is Peach (khokh), pomegranate (romman), grapes (enab), and Dates (tamr) These are the best Fruits in Saudi Arabia.

[edit][add listing] Eat

Try to Eat Saudi's own Kabsa or Bukhari Rice. However, be careful because hygiene in some restaurants is not satisfactory. Don't miss THE TAZAJ fast food chain.