Neom.
Your next chapter?

Overview

Neom (نيوم Niyūm, stylized as NEOM) is a futuristic megacity being built in northern Saudi Arabia. Its luxuries are being teased years in advance, but as of 2026 construction seems to be grinding to a halt with numerous contracts being unceremoniously cancelled and the planned coming out party, the 2029 Asian Winter Games, moved to Kazakhstan.

Understand

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / a stately pleasure dome decree . . . " Saudi Arabia receives over 3 million pilgrims each year and thousands of business travellers, but facilities for secular tourists were almost non-existent, and even getting a visa for such purposes was difficult. Meanwhile their neighbours Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf States draw a large income from tourism. The country has therefore set out to attract tourists, and Neom is the latest and most ambitious of a string of megaprojects. They also intend to transition to a post-oil carbon-neutral economy, and see the way to do this as enticing tourists to fly thousands of miles to Saudi Arabia, there to cavort in water parks in a parched country, and to crank up the aircon against the roasting summers.

All along the coasts of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf are rusting tracts of part-built developments that flopped. Neom may yet join these; however it has a huge state oil budget behind it and political drive right from the top. The town name derives from Neo (new) M-for-Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and de facto absolute ruler of Saudi Arabia, who launched the project in 2017.

Neom has already hosted a sporting event, an ultramarathon in 2023 when only two buildings had been completed, but travellers' reports are as sparse as those of Mecca before Burton snuck in and out in 1853. "Neom" strictly refers to the resort city, while the wildest component of the grand plan is The Line, a linear city that's meant to be 170 km long, 500 metres high and 200 metres wide, with a high-speed train running down the middle. Others include the Oxagon, a 250 sq km floating industrial city, and Trojena ski resort in the middle of the desert. Each of these is a mega-project, and "giga-project" is the term coined to describe the whole thing. It remains to be seen how many of these schemes will see the light of day, but at least the artificial moon is not intended to.

Saudi-Egypt Causeway is the final big piece in this jigsaw, a plan for a 15 km bridge across the Straits of Tiran from Sharm-el-Sheik in Egypt, with links north up the coast to Jordan. Neom would then become the lynchpin of a tri-state Special Economic Zone, and Middle Eastern travel would be transformed. But the planning phase has been moving slowly, and as of 2024 there is no official agreed upon design or timeline.

Get in

Entry requirements: see Saudi Arabia#Get in. Most western passport holders are eligible for an e-visa or visa-waiver, and there are no special rules for Neom.

By road: Neom is 1600 km northwest of Riyadh, a 9 hour drive. Saudi Arabia's extensive bus network doesn't come this way, and the Riyadh-Jordan railway passes far to the east. So either hire a car, or it's a very expensive taxi ride.

Get around

Don't worry about it. Due to Neom's nature as a luxury resort city, you likely won't need to venture very far for amenities. It is said that Neom will be quite walkable.

See

Sindalah Island. Officially, Sindalah was opened in October 2024; however, the "opening" only seemed to cover the yacht club, as none of its hotels are operating yet. As of 2026, even the yacht club appears to have closed.

The Line. Neom's most infamous project, a linear city 500 meters tall and 170 kilometers long, with a high-speed train running down the length. Plans have been scaled down to a comparatively modest 2.4 km by 2030, but as of 2024 it's only a rectangular hole in the ground and off limits to tourists since it's a construction site.

Do

Sports are intended to be a major part of the local attractions, and not just facilities and tournaments, but the arena for Saudi Arabian control of popular sports. This allied mega-project is coming along nicely in boxing, tennis, Formula One motor-racing and soccer, and in golf has reached critical mass: LIV Golf has bought up enough star players to launch its own playing structure, to rival and then gobble up the existing PGA and R&A. This is often called "sports-washing" as if it was just a PR initiative, but Saudi ambitions go much further. Golf: a single course has been laid out at Sharma and is nice and green, but hole-yardage and other information is not yet published. Another course is in preparation on Sindalah Island. Yachting: a marina is under construction on Sindalah Island.

Skiing and winter sports. Trojena in the mountains was to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games, but this has been "postponed" until further notice. Yes, snow does fall there, about as often as heatwaves in Zermatt, so the pistes will be mostly artificial snow.

Buy

Nothing as yet, but Dubai has set the standard for Arabian shopping, and Neom is aiming to better it.

Eat

Hotel restaurants are your only option. All food offerings will be halal.

Sleep

Marriott was supposes to open the first three hotels in Neom at Sindalah Island by 2024, but as of December 2025 the project seems to be on hold. In the meantime, your only options are on the mainland.

Royal Tulip Sharma Resort. One of the few hotels in the area that predate Neom. Good luck actually staying though, since much of it is booked out to extended stays by staff associated with the construction.

L'Azure Beach & Resort 2 km west of Royal Tulip is likewise booked out to project staff in 2024.

The resorts of Xaynor (opening 2027), Leyja, Epicon, Siranna, Utamo, Norlana, Aquellum and Zardun remain under construction or exist only as promotional videos.