A metropolis, sprawling commercial buildings, shopping malls, high street highways with bustling traffic, and the capital city of Saudi Arabia. These are the common descriptions that one can give in a spontaneous conversation question, except for those who have explored from the city side to the desert areas of Riyadh City and Riyadh Province.
Another question that people from outside the kingdom would ask is about the lifestyle, recreation activities, and entertainment. Is it exciting, boring, happy, or a lonely place to live? If I were to describe the city or even the country, Riyadh and Saudi Arabia are good places to visit or live.
The West and free countries enjoy facilities, activities, and recreation. You can still not find bars, beer salons, karaoke, and other nightlife recreations to unwind in Riyadh. However, natural amenities, spots, landscapes, mountains, parks, and valleys await healthy outdoor activities. These are the best alternatives to the usual city activities you get used to in your place.
Not known to most people from outside, Riyadh and the whole of Saudi Arabia are a fusion of the city and the country, modern and old ways of life, a mix of past, present, and future. On the city side, there are malls, restaurants, and entertainment areas like cinemas and parks where you can enjoy living the city and modern life. You drive for a few distances only; you will find fantastic desert places with exhilarating sights and mountain landscapes to trek, climb, and go, a place to practice your physical health routine. Golf Courses, race tracks, resorts, and farms are waiting to be visited.
I will not deal much with the city, and the life awaits you. Instead, I will enumerate the best places to visit with scenic sights, fantastic rock formations, and activities to enjoy nature.
Places of Nature Adventures
THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
Do not be surprised to find yourself standing on the top of a tall and deep drop of escarpment and the hundreds of feet height of cliff towers because you are precisely at the Edge of the World. The Edge of the World is the penultimate place of adventure in the Province of Riyadh. Traveling for adventure to Riyadh should never end the tour without experiencing the thrills and fantastic sights of the mountain range escarpment.
The adventure to the Edge of the World is incomplete without stepping on top of any of the four central cliff towers for the full view of the waving look of the vast valley below.
Read more about the Edge of the World here: THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (underratedadventures.com)
Click the play tabs to watch the videos below.
THE RED SAND DUNE
Decrease the tire's air, accelerate your bikes, and go for the drive in the reddish-sugary-fine sand of Riyadh Redsand Dune. Let your imaginations fly your spirit high above the sky in soft, loosened sand as you go around basking in the sea of the sands.
Be amazed by the scenic sights around the place that complete the package of reasons you need to come and experience the secret prize that the desert offers.
SHARK PINNACLE
Feel like the God of the desert guards, view the vast golden lands seated on one stone atop the mountain, and listen to the chirping wild birds as the cold wind of wide-open land touches your skin; enjoy being at the viewing point of Shark Pinnacle.
Click the play tab to watch the video on YouTube.
THE BERRY PARK & CAMEL TRAIL
Berry Park and the Camel Trail, Riyadh, are all in one place and the best alternate destinations to the Edge of The World. The sights and the landscapes are equally exhilarating, and the advantages of this place are that it is close to the city, easily accessible by any car, small car or big car, with a much shorter rough road drive to reach the place.
Read more about Berry Park here: BERRY PARK AND CAMEL TRAIL (underratedadventures.com)
Click the play tabs below to watch the videos on YouTube.
THE WHITE CANYON
A series of outdoor Jacuzzis made with perfection by water currents over thousands of years are found in the White Canyon of Riyadh. All you need is a light pack of things; water and foods to bite, a camera, and let’s go for the trek.
Read more about the White Canyon here: WHITE CANYONS, RIYADH (underratedadventures.com)
Click the play tab to watch the video.
THE HIDDEN VALLEY
It takes only the will to keep finding hidden and discover more things and stories behind the hills and ridges. You don’t stop at the arrival area; you must go behind the mountains to see the fantastic sights hidden behind the peaks.
Read more about the Hidden Valley here: THE HIDDEN VALLEY OF RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (underratedadventures.com)
Click the play tabs below to watch the videos on YouTube.
AL WASLAH PARK
The suspense and thrills may be light but filled with stunning sights. Al Waslah Park is part of the Al Uraidh Valley, which offers a picture of the mountain landscape and farmlands' simplicity, serene, and unaltered natural good looks. With about a 5 km drive from the city's outskirts, you can start seeing the desert in its exquisite untold laidback exterior as the colors of the green trees.
Read more about Al Waslah Park here: AL WASLAH PARK, RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (underratedadventures.com)
Please click the play tab to watch one of the videos about Al Waslah Park.
For other related videos, click the below links:
Al Uraidh Valley - Al Waslah Side: https://youtu.be/-yfxV3CY40c
Al Uraidh Valley - Al Waslah Park Side 2: https://youtu.be/e6STwtfy_co
AL URAIDH MOUNTAIN
Al Uraida, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Mount Uraida is not the official name of this place; however, I could not find it from any possible source in my efforts to search for a name. Even asking people from the site around and near the area, they don’t know if it has a name or none. So, for reference, since this is near Al Uraida, I named it Mount Uraida.
You will encounter rocks you need to scale up to advance to the top during the past half of the climb.
Closing to the top, cliffs on the right side greet you with chilling effects on your knees. You just knew you had conquered something beyond your usual limit.
Read more about Al Uraidh Mountain here: EXPLORING MOUNT URAIDH (URAIDA) (underratedadventures.com)
Click the play tabs below to watch the videos on YouTube:
SHAIB LUHA POOL
Wilderness by the city's edge best describes the Al Uraidh picnic, camping, and hiking valley in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It has splendid sceneries unnoticed by many, but the magnetic aura cannot be ignored once your eyes see it. The mountain ridges, cliffs, and the valley adorned with the greenery of the desert trees keep those who have come to the place returning.
Read more about the place here: AL URAIDH PICNIC, CAMPING AND HIKING VALLEY (underratedadventures.com)
Click the play tabs to watch the videos on YouTube.
HAEER LAKES PARK
The place where the fantastic natural landscape and the architectural development design perfectly blend. A place of unwinding, relaxing, and family and friends. Haeer Lakes Park is the newest public and rising public park south of Riyadh and has become a favorite place for weekend and holiday promenades.
Supported by the 4As (Accessibility, Availability, Affordability & Accommodation) requirements for a tourism destination, the high crowd attendance of the park goers, picnickers, and promenade is not surprising.
Read more about Haeer Lakes Park here: THE HAEER TOWN AND THE LAKES PARK (underratedadventures.com)
DAHL HIT POINT
Want to experience some nerve-racking thrills interacting with monkeys in the wild? Dahl Hit Point is the best place. You can feed the whole troop and interact inside their territory. Remember to bring some bread and other food items because monkeys expect visitors to feed them.
Click the play tab to watch the video on YouTube.
AL HEET CAVE & POOL OF RED TADPOLES
Al Hyt (Heet) Cave
Al Heet Cave is among the most popular places to visit in Riyadh. The distinctive feature of this cave is that it is an underground cave nestled about 75 meters below the ground surface and a lakelet underneath the shelter.
Besides the cave, you will also be amazed by the scenic sights around it, the hills and trenches waiting to be explored, and the mountain tops waiting to be climbed.
Besides the cave, there is a distinctive pool where you can see the red tadpoles.
Read more about Al Heet Cave here: AL HYT (HEET) CAVE, RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (underratedadventures.com)
Please click the play tab to watch the video on YouTube.
The Pool of Red Tadpoles
The Pool of the Red Tadpoles is another point in Al Hyt, approximately 2 kilometers south of the Al Heet Cave. The distinctive feature is that it is inhabited and a breeding ground of frogs whose tadpoles are different from the usual ones that we know because the color is red.
Going to the pool will give you exhilarating sights of the landscapes of the valley and the hills. An ideal ground also for a picnic and overnight camping.
Click the play tab to watch the video on YouTube.
WADI HANIFA
Wadi Hanifa is the most extended river channel that crosses through the metropolis area, stretching the length of 125 Km from north of Riyadh to the southern town of Haeer. Parks are scattered into several name points, to name:
Wadi Hanifa – Al Hada
Wadi Hanifa – Al Namar
Wadi Hanifa – Laban
Wadi Hanifa - Laban
Wadi Hanifa - Al Masane
AL AMAARIAH CLEFT and STATE PARK
Visit and see the two mountain ridges cut with precision and art perfection to open a gate and connect two places on both sides of the mountain. The road network construction also paved the way for the people to see a magnificent landscape, a picturesque desert enigma.
The state park is also excellent for overnight camping and picnics. Standing on the valley, you will be surrounded by mountains with mountains geologically carved and manually designed hill formations.
WATHILAN NATIONAL PARK
Eighty kilometers meandering dry river valley offers adventure interests from camping, picnicking, mountain biking, off-road driving, forest exploring, cliff climbing, and sightseeing. Driving for an hour and 15 minutes at a distance of 115 kilometers from the city center of Riyadh will bring you to a place where the perennial desert trees, shrubs, seasonal grasses, plants, unique rock formations, cliff walls, and mountain ridges. Different birds fly all over, and chirping as they perch on the trees will complete your journey to a nature-communing place.
Motor Bike Sports
YAMAMA MX TRACK
Yamama MX Track has proven that a motorbike sport could grow vigor in the middle of the soccer field. Yes, it does. Today, Yamama MX Track is the most popular MX track in Riyadh province and nearby regions. If your passion for sports is motorbike riding, you have the Yamama MX Track, accessible and reachable. Besides playing your favorite sports, you will enjoy the scenic surroundings with picturesque greeneries, valleys, and mountain landscapes.
Read more about the Yamama MX Track here: YAMAMA MX TRACK – THE RISE OF MOTORBIKE SPORTS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SOCCER FIELDS. (underratedadventures.com)
Click the play tabs to watch the below videos on YouTube.
Farm Adventures Experience
WAHBI FARM & TOURISM ESTATE
Wanting to experience desert farming, livestock raising, and dates farming, or enjoy a farm escapade for a break from the hustle-bustle of the city, Wahbi Farm is a good choice. You can sit down, lay down on your carpet under the dates plant, listen to the birds singing, feel the desert winds, and taste the wilderness of the desert. You can interact with the Witchita, the guest relations camel of Wahbi Farm, and the sheep grazing in the grassland. Wahbi Farm and Tourism Estate are where the Yamama MX Track is located.
Click the play tabs to watch the videos on YouTube.
HANGING STRAWBERRY GARDENS
Feel beautiful while picking your favorite sweet strawberry; be a farmer for a moment and pick the fruit you want to eat. The hanging strawberry gardens in Al Amaariah are waiting for visitors to lend the experience of being on first-hand fruit picking. Try the PPE and pick-pay-eat; it’s calm and enjoyable.
AL MAAMOURA FARMS AND NURSERIES
Buying fresh orange fruits, lemon, and pomelo and enjoying the scenic sights of the vast farmland and the golden desert of Hafirat Nisah, Riyadh, this farm is the one you should visit. Just a 1⅟2 hour's drive from the city center, you can enjoy fresh fruit buying at a farm gate price right inside the farm itself. Besides buying, you also have the chance to see and be astonished by the magnificent sight of the desert landscapes, the formation of rocks and mountains, the blending of the golden and reddish desert valley with the green color of the plants all over the plain sides of Hafirat Nisah.
If you are not a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia resident, visiting this farm could be a package of visits to different desert adventure destinations. At least five exciting spots to stop for a visit as a side trip, aside from the charming sights that you can see along the road on your way to the Al Maamoura Farms and Nurseries, and these are the following:
YAMAMA GARDENS FARMS & NURSERIES
Yamama Gardens Farms & Nurseries is a tropical paradise that offers an abrupt transition of sights in the middle of the sea of sands and mountains or rocks in Hafirat Nisah, Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia. If you are into horticulture, anthophilous, floraphilous, or florist, or are interested in the flower business, this farm is one of the places you should visit.
Coming here is multiple treats, and exploring the desert places of Riyadh Province for your trip will never be dull, from when you start steering the wheels to pulling over in front of the farm. The moment you start rolling on the desert sides, the adrenaline rushes fast and high as the golden desert sands and hills start greeting your eyes.
Read more here: YAMAMA GARDENS AND FARMS NURSERIES - THE DESERT BLOOMS FARMING (underratedadventures.com)
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