Visiting holy cites of Makkah and Medina is always among the top desires of any faithful Muslim living in any part of the world. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims visit these holy cities and perform Umrah rituals to seek Allah’s blessings.
For Umrah visa processing and all subsequent arrangements for Mutamers, local Umrah agents and their sub-agents offer their services in different countries with their defined Umrah packages from which people can choose a package of own choice depending on budget and required services. Just like all fingers of a hand are not alike, different agents and sub-agents don’t possess same level of professionalism and at times, you might get trapped in a wrong selection of your agent and face the consequences in terms of poor arrangements for travel, accommodation etc.
In this post, we will try to highlight some of the major points that you should be aware of in order to have a pleasant experience of your Umrah journey.
Package Selection for Umrah Travel
Umrah agents in your home country will be advertising and floating a number of packages with different features and different price tags. Be vigilant and smart in the choice of package and clearly discuss each and every item included in the package. For example, if you are choosing some economy package; clearly discuss with them about the following items:
Airline and Flight Duration
If you are coming for Umrah from a country with longer distance, your flight choice matters significantly for a comfortable and hassle free journey towards Jeddah or Madinah airport. Discuss and finalize clearly with them about airline, flight mode (direct or in-direct) and transit time (for indirect flights). Many agents attract the customers showing all good and commit to provide a direct flight but once token money has been paid, they start making excuses that a direct flight is not possible or a flight in the airline of the customer choice is not possible due to some odd reasons from them.
It should be formally agreed with the agent that agreed amount will be paid only if the preferences agreed earlier are considered and any amendments will not be acceptable (except for any cases out of the control).
Direct flights to Jeddah and Madinah do exist for almost all the major airports in the world and ideally you should opt for a direct flight if you have any senior citizens travelling with you or if you have any medical reasons as longer travel duration and longer transits can be really annoying at times.
Inter-City Transportation
Umrah packages do contain round trip from/to airport to/from Makkah/Medinah and ziaraat tour (in some packages). Carefully and clearly discuss all this with the travel agent as what type of buses/cars will be transporting you across all such destinations. Remember that weather conditions in Saudi Arabia are very hot most of the times, so a convenient fully air conditioned mode of traffic should be your choice. However, opting for separate cars or for any luxury options may result in substantial increase of your umrah package price.
It is also important to mention here that Saudi Arabia has recently started a modern train service between Jeddah, Makkah and Madina and this high speed train with great services and a pleasant and super-fast transportation experience can be a great choice contrary to typical buses taking 4 to 6 hours between Makkah and Madina.
Ziaraat of holy and historic places in Makkah and Madina is always in the wish list of any mutamers. If your travel agent includes ziaraat in your package, It will be the ideal case. However, you may rent a cab/taxi or share a taxi with other passengers and go for visiting all such holy and historic places very conveniently.
Hotel/Residence Selection
There are hundreds of hotels & apartments in the holy cities of Makkah and Madina which are used to provide accommodation to the people visiting Saudi Arabia for Umrah and Hajj.
Selection of a residence as a Mutamer for you is judged based on following key parameters:
1. Standard of residence (e.g. 5 star, 4 star, 3 star or just a basic type of accommodation without any premium facilities).
2. Distance from Haram (e.g. hotel/apartment within a circle of 500m, in a circle of 1KM or a a longer distance)
3. Shuttle Service (in case of a residence with a longer distance from haram).
4. Additional Services (e.g. Free Wifi, breakfast buffet, Dish/TV, room service etc.)
It has been observed a lot (specially in Pakistan) that agents try to attract mutamers with catchy slogans and tall claims regarding the residence but once umrah travellers reach the hotel, they see a totally different world. E.g. a person is promised to get an accommodation in a vicinity of 500 meters from Haram but after reaching here, he finds his accommodations miles away from Haram and he is left with no choice than to bear with that.
Be careful and vigilant while dealing your agent and even after reaching your hotel, If you feel dis-satisfied and you feel that whatever was promised hasn’t been delivered, you need not to keep quite rather you should call/contact agent and raise your concern. Many times, agents do bow their heads if you demand your rights properly and they change/adjust accordingly.