Saudi | GlobalSalsa: travel writer Belinda Jackson

Oct

Shortlisted for Australian Travel Writer of the Year 2025

I’m very, very pleased to announce that I’ve been shortlisted again for Travel Writer of the Year in the Australian Society of Travel Writers 2025 awards!

I titled my collection of three features The Underrated and the Understated, reporting on a train journey in southern Spain, AlUla in Saudi Arabia and Oman (that’s me, stopping to smell the roses, after being trapped in flooded Dubai on the way to that mountain of fragrance).

Thanks to ASTW and to the companies who continue to support travel journalism, including InnTravel, Saudi Tourism, Emirates, Shangri-La Muscat in Oman and Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar, and their PR representatives

And thanks also to the editors at the Traveller section of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers and Luxury Escapes’ Dream magazine, who commission features from these adventures, which sometimes (Ok, often) slip away from the conventional path.

The competition is daunting – my friends Justin Meneguzzi and Kate Henessey complete the trio shortlisted for the TWOTY (best acronym, right?) Luckily, they are both great humans as well as extremely talented writers.

@hh_510 thank you so much, once again, for this photo from Al Jebel Al Akhdar It’s one of my favourite travel photos.

Nov

Saudi Arabia on a plate

Camel kebabs, gold-flecked savoury porridge, shakshuka, mint tea, green coffee and lots and lots of dates. Eating in Saudi Arabia is an adventure in its own right.

I recently wrote a story about food in Saudi Arabia for Gourmet Traveller magazine, detailing my delicious meanderings amongst oases, deserts and desserts.

Click to read about street eats and Michelin-starred restaurants serving up food beneath the stars, on desert sands and in the mudbrick town of oasis AlUla and seaside city of Jeddah.

All this takes place as Saudi Arabia transforms from secretive kingdom to global leader of luxury travel, with the money and imagination to make even the most incredible projects manifest.

In a whiplash reversal of protocol that took place just before the global pandemic, non-religious tourists are now welcomed into the Kingdom.

Women don’t need to cover their hair and while I admire and covet Saudi women’s dramatic abayas – long, often beautifully embroidered cloaks – there is no requirement for me to be so covered; simply modest clothing is just fine.

What to learn more about travelling in Saudi Arabia? Click to read more of my stories, such as travelling solo as a woman in Saudi Arabia.

Aug

Women in Saudi Arabia

Until late 2019, I could not visit Saudi Arabia as a solo, female traveller. Only business visa holders and religious pilgrims could visit Saudi Arabia, and even then, as a woman, I would have needed to be accompanied by a male guardian. Living in Egypt in the late noughties, my father had passed away, I was unmarried and neither of my brothers wanted to visit Saudi Arabia. It remained one of a few countries I had not visited in the Middle East, yet with an all-pervasive influence in the region’s economy, politics and societal expectations, there was a Saudi-sized gap in my understanding of the region.

Then, just before COVID closed the world down, Saudi Arabia threw out its own rule book, and brought in e-visas for independent travellers, issued online and almost on the spot.

I am so proud of this story, published in the Traveller section of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (Melbourne) newspapers, about my adventures in the Saudi city of Jeddah and the AlUla oasis, up toward the Jordanian border. To read more about travelling as a woman, and meeting the women of Saudi Arabia, click on the link below.

https://www.traveller.com.au/visiting-saudia-arabia-as-a-woman-i-went-to-the-notoriously-sexist-country-as-a-solo-female-tourist-h24v9q

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Shortlisted for Australian Travel Writer of the Year 2025

Saudi Arabia on a plate

Women in Saudi Arabia