AlUla tickets are not one ticket for one destination. The major heritage sites, Hegra (Mada'in Salih) and Dadan with Jabal Ikmah, can only be visited on an official guided tour booked through Experience AlUla, the platform of the Royal Commission for AlUla, and booking ahead is strongly recommended because the number of tours each day is limited; Maraya can only be entered with an event ticket or on its official guided tour. Old Town and the AlUla Oasis, by contrast, are free and open to all according to their official pages, and the Elephant Rock page lists no ticket. Prices are published on the official platform and change with the season, which is why we do not quote them here. CHAPTERS does not sell these tickets on their own, since their official channel is Experience AlUla; but when a published CHAPTERS journey lists entry tickets among its inclusions, the tickets for the sites in its program are part of the journey and we arrange them; for the Maraya hall, the journey's own page is the reference for whether entry is included. Check each journey's page for what it includes.
Hegra, Dadan and Jabal Ikmah are visited on official tours booked in advance through Experience AlUla; Maraya needs an event ticket or its official guided tour; Old Town and the Oasis are free; Elephant Rock lists no ticket. Book the heritage tours first, then build the rest of the program around them.
This guide answers one question and its branches: how do I book the AlUla sites? Which sites need a ticket, how the official platform works, how far ahead to book, and what an organized journey includes compared with what you book yourself. For season, transport and the other landmarks, start with the complete AlUla guide.
AlUla's sites fall into three tiers of access. First, protected heritage sites that can only be visited on an official tour with a guide and a vehicle, because self-driving inside them is not allowed: Hegra, Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Dadan with Jabal Ikmah, whose official page notes its inclusion in the Memory of the World Register. Second, Maraya, whose official page states that there is currently no access to the interior other than with an event ticket or on its guided tour. Third, open places with no ticket at all: Old Town and the Oasis, and Elephant Rock, which welcomes visitors in the afternoon and evening. The table places each site in its tier as the official platform publishes it at the time of writing.
| Site | Ticket needed? | Where to book | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hegra (Mada'in Salih) | Yes: entry is on an official guided tour, shared by bus or private by 4x4; no self-driving inside the site | Experience AlUla, or the visitor center subject to availability | Booking ahead is strongly recommended because daily tour numbers are limited; the shared tour takes two to three hours including the transfer |
| Dadan and Jabal Ikmah | Yes: one official tour covers both sites, shared or private; no self-driving | Experience AlUla, or the Dadan Visitor Center subject to availability | The Illuminating Discoveries exhibition at Dadan is for tour ticket holders only; the two sites are about ten minutes apart by car |
| Maraya | To enter the hall, yes: an event ticket or the guided Maraya Tour; no general public access to the interior | The official platform and the partner ticketing outlet it links to via its Book now button | Seeing it from outside requires entering Ashar Valley with a reservation, ticket or invitation |
| Elephant Rock | The official page lists no ticket for the site | No booking for entry; the food and coffee outlets welcome walk-ins | Open to visitors daily from four in the afternoon until midnight, with free parking; climbing the rock is not allowed |
| Old Town | No: free and open to all according to the official page | No booking for entry; the optional guided Old Town Tour is booked on the platform | Comes alive after three in the afternoon; pedestrian-only, with free parking and shuttles |
| AlUla Oasis | No: the trails are free and open to visitors day and night | No booking for the trail; the optional guided Oasis Heritage Trail Tour is booked on the platform | The guided tour has a minimum age of six with parental supervision |
The simplest rule: what is archaeological and protected has a tour and a ticket; what is a town, an oasis or a rock in the open is free. But arrangements change with the season and with events. The site's page on the official platform on the day of your visit is the reference, not this table.
The official platform is both the ticket shop and the reference: every site has a page explaining its rules, and every tour has a page with its duration, departure point, inclusions and cancellation policy. You buy with an account on the platform or as a guest without one, and you can retrieve bookings later with the email address used at purchase. If you prefer to deal with a person, the platform lists visitor centers at Old Town, Hegra, Dadan, Winter Park and AlUla airport, whose team helps with booking and rescheduling experiences, with the caveat that visitor center tickets are subject to availability only.
The tour pages we read state no ID requirement for entry, so we do not state one we did not read; keep your booking confirmation on your phone in any case. The policies above change, and the reference is the tour page on the platform on the day you book. For questions about booking CHAPTERS journeys themselves, rather than site tickets, see the FAQ page.
The official platform does not publish a booking lead time in days, but it says two clear things: the number of tours each day is limited, and booking ahead is strongly recommended. The Winter at Tantora festival page adds that tickets are required for most concerts, performances, guided tours and culinary events during the festival weeks, which typically run from mid-December through early January. From those two facts, and from the experience of organizing journeys, we suggest the following rhythm.
| Period | Hegra, Dadan and Jabal Ikmah tours | Maraya and events | Practical rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter at Tantora weeks (typically mid-December to early January) | Demand at its peak; morning slots go first | Tickets required for most concerts, performances and tours, released in waves as the program is announced | Lock in your stay and your journey as soon as your dates are clear, book the heritage tours when their slots open, and add events as they are released |
| The rest of the mild season (October to March) | High demand on weekends and during the other festivals, quieter midweek | The events program changes; the guided tour takes only fifteen people | Book the tours weeks ahead, not days, especially if your date falls on a weekend or inside a festival |
| Summer (May to September) | Daily tour numbers remain limited, and early morning is the realistic choice in the heat | Check what is published for your dates in the What's On section | Book the earliest morning slot available, and do not postpone booking until you arrive |
CHAPTERS is an AlUla tour operator, not a ticketing outlet. Entry to Hegra, Dadan and Maraya is official in every case, with tickets issued by the official platform under its own policies, and what we add is everything around the slot: transport from your stay to the departure point on time, an accompanying guide who connects the sites to one another, the stay, and the shaping of the whole day so that no two slots collide and no afternoon is lost. The table separates what you book yourself from what we arrange.
| Element | What you book officially yourself | What a CHAPTERS journey arranges | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hegra tour ticket | The official tour ticket on the platform | The whole day timed around the slot, and transport to the departure point with time to spare | On journeys with published dates, the journey proposal states whether the tour is included or booked in your name |
| Dadan and Jabal Ikmah ticket | The official tour ticket on the platform | Placing it on the right morning, the transport, and the companion before and after | The shared tour departs from Winter Park, the private tour from the Dadan Visitor Center |
| Maraya and event tickets | The event or guided tour ticket from the official channels and their outlet | Transport timed to the Ashar Valley gate, the program around the event slot, and an arranged fallback if no slot is available | CHAPTERS does not sell standalone Maraya tickets; when a published journey has Maraya in its program, the journey's page is the reference for whether entry to the hall is included |
| Transport within AlUla | Not booked officially; your own car or a taxi | Included: a vehicle and driver from your stay to the departure points and the open sites | Transport inside Hegra and Dadan themselves is part of the official tour, not of our journey |
| The guide | The official tour guide inside the site | A CHAPTERS companion throughout the journey who sets up each site before and links it to what follows | Inside Hegra and Dadan the official tour guide remains the one speaking |
| Accommodation | Booked yourself if you travel independently | Included in the journey according to the proposal, and close to your day's anchor | In peak weeks the stay is fixed before the tickets, not after |
| If the slot or weather changes | You deal with the platform under its published policy | The journey team resets the program and tells you the alternative | The change policy for official tickets remains the platform's, not CHAPTERS' |
On our private journeys, official site entry tickets are listed explicitly among what the price does not include, and the program includes entry coordination and site organization: we tell you which tour to book and for which slot, build the day around it, and reset it if anything changes. On journeys with published dates, each journey's proposal states exactly whether the official tour is included or booked in your name. Read that in the proposal rather than assuming it.
Why do we not sell standalone tickets? Because entry to the protected sites is one official system for every visitor, and its official channel is Experience AlUla. When a published CHAPTERS journey lists entry tickets among its inclusions, the tickets for the sites in its program are part of the journey and we arrange them; they are not a ticket sold on its own. Check exactly what is included, and the change and cancellation terms, on the journey's page or in the final journey proposal.
The rule everyone who has organized an AlUla trip repeats: the least flexible slot first. The Hegra tour and the Dadan and Jabal Ikmah tour run on schedules with limited seats, so they are fixed before anything else; then Maraya is added if a slot exists; then the gaps are filled with what needs no ticket, Old Town, the Oasis and Elephant Rock, at their natural times. Since both shared tours depart from the Winter Park bus stop and each takes two to three hours including the transfer, the morning is their place, and they do not share a day.
This is a planning framework, not a product for sale. If you are coming from Madinah for a single day, make Hegra the only anchor; if you land at AlUla airport in the morning, book an afternoon tour, not a morning one. Details in the following articles.
The tour pages on the official platform publish a standard classification for every experience: the ages welcome, the physical intensity, and suitability for wheelchairs and strollers. We pass on here what applies to tickets, and add nothing to it.
The remaining organizational questions about CHAPTERS journeys are answered on the FAQ page, and the season-by-season packing list in the clothing guide.
The official Elephant Rock page lists no ticket for the site: it mentions free parking, a wooden path from the parking lot to the rock, food and coffee outlets that welcome walk-ins, and opening daily from four in the afternoon until midnight. It does not, however, state explicitly that entry is free, so check the page before your visit, especially during event seasons. Climbing the rock is not allowed.
Not on their own: tickets for Hegra, Dadan, Jabal Ikmah and Maraya are issued by the official Experience AlUla platform and the channels it links to. But when a published CHAPTERS journey lists entry tickets among its inclusions, the tickets for the sites in its program are part of the journey and we arrange them, with one exception to read carefully: Maraya is a hall rather than an open site, so when a journey has it in its program, the journey's own page is the reference for whether entry to the hall is included. Check each journey's page for what it includes. On journeys that do not include them, such as our private journeys, we time the program around your tour slots: we tell you which tour to book and for which slot, take you to the departure point on time, and accompany you before and after.
In practice, do not build your day on it. Self-driving inside the site is not allowed, entry is by official tours with limited daily numbers, and the official platform strongly recommends booking ahead. Visitor center tickets are available subject to availability only, and in season there may be none left for the morning slots.
On Experience AlUla, the platform of the Royal Commission for AlUla, through its website or app, with an account or as a guest; and at the visitor centers in Old Town, Hegra, Dadan, Winter Park and the airport, subject to availability. The Maraya Tour and concert tickets are handed over by the platform to a partner ticketing outlet via the Book now button.
To enter the hall, yes: the official page states that there is currently no access to the inside of Maraya other than with an event ticket or on the guided Maraya Tour, forty-five minutes for a maximum of fifteen people, booked in advance from the tour page through the ticketing outlet it links to. Seeing the building from outside requires entering Ashar Valley with a reservation, ticket or invitation shown at Ashar Gate.
No. The two official pages state that Old Town is free and open to all, and that the Oasis trails are free and open to visitors day and night. What can be booked there is optional: the guided Old Town Tour, and the guided Oasis Heritage Trail Tour with a minimum age of six and parental supervision.
At the time of writing, the Hegra and the Dadan and Jabal Ikmah tour pages state: cancellation with refund up to three days before the booked date, date or time changes up to one day before subject to availability, no refunds or changes on the day of the tour, and bank card charges non-refundable. Anything booked through a third party, including the Maraya ticketing outlet, has its changes handled with that party. Check the page when you book, as policies change.
We deliberately do not publish prices here: they are shown on the official platform and change with the season and the tour type, shared bus or private 4x4, and between a tour ticket and an event ticket. Any figure in an old article or post may be wrong on the day you book; open the tour page on Experience AlUla and you will see the current price before paying.
Share your dates, your guests' ages and what you have booked or plan to book on the official platform, and we will build a program with transport, guide and stay around your tour slots. Or choose a journey with a published date that puts the heritage sites at the top of its days.