I’m not going to lie, I’ve been to A LOT of luxury resorts, and the majority of them were either sponsored collaborations or paid for with my points. Shebara, the ultra luxury futuristic resort in Saudi Arabia, was unattainable for me in either of those ways since celebs and the world’s richest are already flocking there. But! Luckily I have some really nice travel friends (all women) who splurged for a few nights there, and invited me as their guest!
If you haven’t heard of Shebara yet, I’m sure you recognize it from the photos. It’s hard to miss/forget overwater bungalows in the shape of a giant silver pod. At first I actually thought the photos were an AI creation of a luxury resort for aliens.
To this day, I can’t quite understand why they chose silver pods as a design for over water bungalows, but they’ve got me intrigued and talking about it, so I guess that’s part of the answer!
Anyway, here’s what it was like staying at the super exclusive alien resort, what you need to know to book a trip there, and of course, my affiliate links – please click them so I get a little tiny commission since like, they ain’t paying me to promote them! They will also get you a discount!
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Shebara is located on an island off of the western Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. It shares the red sea with Egypt directly across from it (Mara Salam), and Jordan in the north.
Part of Shebara’s exclusivity is that it’s relatively difficult and expensive to even get to! You need to fly into Red Sea International airport, and then take a transfer (book through the resort) to then get to a boat transfer, unless you’re a baller and prefer paying for the private sea plane!
I always use this cheap airfare finder for flights, and would recommend looking to fly into Riyadh or Jeddah first!
The average price for Shebara’s overwater bungalows is around $2000 per night and includes only breakfast, access to the pools, wellness activities, and snorkeling gear.
You can get it for less using sites like this one (hint hint, please use my affiliate link!)
Flights from Riyadh to Red Sea International were around $300.
Boat transfers to and from the resort is around $200.
Shebara has four restaurants that are not included with the nightly price, and meals start from $17 for small bites (like tuna tacos), up to the hundreds.
Other additional costs and fees at Shebara were:
Shebara is on a pretty decent sized island, and there’s a good amount of things to do! Here’s the ones I know:
Recently Saudi Arabia eased up on their strict rules for what women wear, taking away the mandatory requirement for the hijab (head covering) and abaya (robe). But, everyone it still required to dress modestly in public.
This doesn’t apply as much at resorts though. You can wear shorter dress or strapless tops, and you can wear bikinis if you’d like, but I’d recommend a one piece, and definitely a cover up!
You can see what I wore in the photos and I also have this full blog post: What to Wear in Saudia Arabia: Full Packing Guide
Shebara is on it’s own private island, so if you want to go do something else, you have to transfer back to the mainland, or another island. There’s an island nearby with an Editon and SLS hotel, but on the mainland where you get transferred from, there’s not too much to do.
Nope. Saudi Arabia is still a completely dry country due to Islamic laws, but there are rumors that they are going to start allowing beer and wine to be served at the high end luxury Red Sea Resorts soon in the future to attract more tourists. Shebara will hopefully be one of them!
They have various non-alcoholic beers, and a full non-alcoholic wine list and mocktail menu. The villas also have mocktail bars in the rooms!
If you can afford it, or afford to splurge for it, I’d definitely say yes. We had a few hiccups in the beginning, like an extremely long check in process, and lack of a walk through or explanation of the property, but luckily the staff is nice and helped us out.
The space pod villas are REALLY cool, unlike anything I’ve seen before in the 145 countries I’ve been to so far, and the beach and water on the island is stunning!
Again, this was not sponsored at all, so the only way I can make anything from it is through my affiliate link, so please use it if you end up booking a stay here! Thank you!!
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