Umluj Beach

Umluj is on the Saudi Red Sea coast in Tabuk province, about two hours south of the Neom development area. Offshore lie something over a hundred small islands, and the combination of white coral sand and shallow turquoise water has led to the coast being marketed locally as the Saudi Maldives — a comparison that is doing work but is not baseless.

The relevant fact is access. Saudi Arabia did not issue tourist visas until September 2019; before that, entry was effectively restricted to pilgrims, workers and business travellers. That closure has an unusual consequence for a register of beaches: the Red Sea reefs along this coast are among the least visited and least damaged anywhere, having had almost no recreational diving pressure through the decades when reefs elsewhere were being trampled.

The beaches are fine white coral sand with reef-protected water, calm and very clear. Development is minimal at present and about to change substantially — the Red Sea Project and Amaala, two very large state-backed tourism developments, are being built along this coast with stated sustainability commitments that will be tested by their own scale. The islands offshore are largely uninhabited and reached by local boat, and the reef between them has been surveyed only in recent years.

Visitors should know the practical frame: Saudi Arabia is a conservative country, public dress codes apply outside private resort beaches, and alcohol is prohibited nationwide. AlUla and Madain Salih are a day inland, and the Red Sea coast is increasingly sold as the second half of that itinerary.

Reefs almost nobody has dived, because the country did not issue tourist visas until 2019 — and two very large developments now under construction on the same coast. Come while both halves of that sentence are still true. Dress codes apply off the resort beaches and alcohol is prohibited nationwide.