6 Easy Guides for DIY Umrah!

For an updated umrah diy guide, click here!

Millennials like to take charge of their life. As travelers, millennials do not want to be confined to fixed travel itineraries prepared by travel agencies. Today, millennials like to travel on their own, from backpacking to bespoke packages of the DIY trip.

Similarly for millennial Muslims, having the luxury to perform umrah on your own, with your customized itinerary, and possibly without having to rely on the travel agent, is bliss in attaining the blessings of performing the umrah rituals! :)

So here, we share how you can also perform your own umrah from Singapore. You decide your number of days, which airline to take, what hotel to stay and plan your own schedule. It’s fun and definitely way more comfortable.

For us, we spent less than SGD $3500.00 per pax all-in for our 10 nights umrah experience in December 2017!

So what do you need to consider for your own bespoke umrah?

1) Umrah Visa

You need to get umrah visa from the approved travel agencies. Try to contact any of the travel agencies in your country. We contacted several in Singapore and they quoted between $150-$250 per person for them to handle your visa application. Do this 2-3 months before you travel and before you book your flight!

We paid less than $200 for our visa from a well-known travel agency here. They are very good and helpful. They issued our visa very fast.

In order to get your visa done, you need to get the meningitis vaccine from your local clinic. Just go to any GP and order the vaccine if they do not have it in stock. Otherwise, go to polyclinics or travel clinic at Tan Tock Seng Hospital! It’s that easy.

Remember also to get your biometric registration done before getting your visa. Contact the Saudi Embassy to find out more!

2) Flight

We booked Emirates SIN-DXB-MED and JED-DXB-SIN. Meaning for our trip to Saudi, we took the flight that goes to Madinah. Why Madinah? It is less of a hassle as immigration clearance is generally faster and more efficient. Also, you do not have to be in your ihram on the plane. Most travel agencies also bring pilgrims to Madinah first, but they have to take 6-8 hours bus ride from Jeddah to Madinah. And that is after 8 hours flight. Certainly, some of us would prefer another option.

For our return flight, we departed from Jeddah. Jeddah is only 45 mins away from Makkah, so it is really convenient. We booked our flight with 5 nights transit in Dubai, for post-umrah vacation. This is not necessary unless you really want that extra holiday!

All-in we spent less than $1500.00 for our Emirates flight. We booked our flight through Expedia.

3) Accommodation

Accommodation is very very important. We surveyed several hotels at Trip Advisor and finally chose the following hotels:

Madinah: Shaza Al-Madinah

This five-star hotel is really the state-of-the-art accommodation, located just steps away from Gate 25 of Masjid An-Nabawi. It is so convenient! You can even leave the room after hearing the Azan and still get a good spot in the mosque! Of course, being early is more preferred. Why this hotel is for you? Location, location, location!

The room is super spacious and the bathroom is exquisite with high-quality bathroom amenities. Just the right place you want to get your rest in between the prayer times!

The breakfast buffet is super awesome! Great selection of food and juices. If you are lucky, you can get the table with the picturesque view of the Prophet’s Grand Mosque. Breakfast with THE VIEW! A taste of heaven on earth?

Service is par-excellence. Check-in was super fast and they really attend to your need!

We paid around $220.00 per night for a deluxe room. How to get good rates? We booked at Expedia. If you book your flight and accommodation on Expedia - you will get a huge discount! We have been doing that for many of our trips!

Makkah: Swissotel Al-Maqam

For our Makkah's leg, we stayed at Swissotel al-Maqam. There is also another Swissotel, but that is probably more expensive. Swissotel al-Maqam is located inside the Clock Tower @ Al-Abraj Complex. It is in the left corner of the complex. There is a lift from the main lobby of the hotel to the side exit of the building. This is the fastest route to the entrance of the Haram, around 7-10 mins walk?

This hotel is very new and also a five-star hotel. The room is very modern and spacious. The bed is really good, definitely the Swiss standard. It also inside the Abraj Complex, so if you need to do some shopping, it is just a few floors away from your hotel room.

We tried the in-room dining upon checking-in, prior to entering the Haram. It was really necessary after four hours journey from Madinah! The in-room dining was delicious. Can be shared for 4 pax! Just the right meal we need before we start our umrah rituals.

The breakfast offered by the hotel is probably one of the best buffet breakfast spreads in the world! Splendid options. Usually, we eat after the Fajr prayer and that is the time where you have a longer time to rest. The only thing we didn’t quite like, the hotel restaurant is very far. You have to take different lifts and walk 5-7 mins! Well, good for the purpose of burning calories after the heavy meal in the morning I guess! Alhamdulillah.

The hotel also has a shared prayer space if for any reason you choose not to go the Haram. For example, if you not feeling too well or turned out to be very late, you may do your congregational prayer here. The congregation follows the jamaah at Haram. In fact, some believe that you will get the same ‘rewards’ like praying in the Haram. But of course, when you are there, you really want to be in the Masjidil Haram, physically!

Service wise, the room service is excellent. They clean up your room daily and it is very very clean! However, the reception wasn’t that receptive. Some improvements needed. Overall, it is a good hotel with close proximity to Haram!

We paid $170.00 per night for the standard room.

4) Transportation & Land Transfer

We booked a local transport to receive us from Madinah Airport, half-day transportation for the tour around Madinah, Madinah-Makkah transfer, half-day tour around Makkah and transfer to Jeddah Airport.

The company provided us with spacious 7 seater GMC for all our journey. It was super comfortable for the four of us! (I went with my wife and my in-laws) The last time I went for umrah it took me 7-8 hours from Madinah to Makkah via coach. This time around it was only 4 hours, Alhamdulillah!

The transport company that we engaged was extremely efficient. Always there on time and the journey was super smooth. The only issues with the driver was language proficiency. He only speaks Arabic. But he was able to understand our rotten fusha, and that was good enough!

On days where we do not have transport, we used Uber. It’s pretty reliable too. Beside Uber, there is also Kareem. We didn’t get to try that but heard it is good as well.

5) Tour Guide & Sightseeing

We hired a personalized tour guide for our Madinah and Makkah ½ day sightseeing. The tour guide brought us to places of interest and explained its historical significance. Our tour guide met us at our hotel and brought us (using the transport we hired) around Madinah and Makkah.

In Madinah, there is also the hop-on-hop-off bus. You can opt for this if you do not want to hire any tour guide!

We personally like this as this is OTOT (own time own target) we get to choose where we want to go and how long we want to stay at a particular place. Compared to travel in a group tour, we have to wait for everyone and not all the places the tour agencies bring are places of interests to us.

In Makkah, upon arriving at Masjidil Haram, we also hired a mutawif (the person who guide you while doing your tawaf). As the Masjidil Haram is undergoing major renovations, it can be confusing as to where to enter and to exit. Having the mutawif around helped to ease our movement around the Haram. We got our guides who are Indonesians and the price they charged us are super-value-for-money!

6) Food

There is plenty of good food in Madinah and Makkah. It is not a problem not having tour agencies that cater to three meals per day. For breakfast, we took the hotel breakfast. For lunch, most of the time we go out to buy nearby our hotels.

In Madinah, opposite Shaza Madinah is Hardeez (fast food) and around the hotel, there is a nice stall serving delicious Middle Eastern rice (Mendi and Kabsah). If you need Malay food, just walk across the street. There is this delicious Indonesian restaurant that serves Malay rice (Nasi padang?), bakso, fried noodles and a lot more. Located opposite the Millennium Hotel.

In Makkah, there is a lot of food at the two-storey food court at the Abraj Complex (Clock Tower). Plenty of options. If you really craving for Malay food, the food court at Sofwah Tower, located beside Abrjaj Complex have D’Saji Malaysian Restaurant. Get your teh tarik and other Malay food there!

If you are tired of walking, just get room service. Easy and worth! We didn’t get to check if they have Uber food there. Insya’Allah next time we will try that!

Overall, it’s been a lovely umrah experience, Alhamdulillah. Really love the bespoke DIY umrah. If you really like to travel using own itineraries but do not wish to pay the premium rate for VIP umrah treatments, DIY umrah is definitely for you. You get the premium service for the same or lower than the average package price!

What are you waiting for? Start planning for your umrah experience now!

If you have any further enquiries, or looking for the contact of the parties we engaged for our DIY umrah, drop me a message on my FB page or my Instagram.

#Umrah #Makkah #Madinah #Travel