Saudis love the tradition of camping out in nature, the desert. You will see many families and especially groups of guys, take a car ride out from the cities, or go to a public park and spread a blanket to set up the meal and enjoy being next to the earth. There is usually a fire if they go to the sandy areas and you can imagine going back in time, before electricity, when the stars were the only lights besides the camp fire. This is the experience that Riyadh Oasis takes into the 21st century with glamour and unique dining and shopping experiences. The 5 star restaurants feature Latin-American, Greek, Japanese and Emirati cuisines.
This new desert experience is about an hour out from Riyadh. The video that you can watch in the link below to the article, quotes the location as about 80 kilometers outside Riyadh. I had posted about Oasis Riyadh from the first arabnews.com article in my blog on Jan. 17th, “Riyadh Oasis opens its doors for winter leisure festival”. This is a great follow up article and interesting to note that the expensive $5,000 weekend cost is not prohibiting people from going. In fact the place is booked and there are more people wanting to go than room for! The opening day was Jan. 17th, which was only two weeks ago. It is proposed to be open through March, as the weather is better/cooler for a winter activity.
Here’s an excerpt from the current article, “Nestled in the heart of dunes, Riyadh Oasis proves to be a huge hit”:
‘“We wanted to take the experience of the Saudi desert to another level. Initially, we thought of making it just one restaurant, along with a weekend experience, like a concert. But his excellency ended up loving the idea so much, he wanted to make it ten times bigger,” he said.
“The Oasis today is a destination for people to enjoy the desert, the fine dining at the four world-class restaurants, the cafe, and the concerts on the weekends.”’
This article was recently published in arabnews.com, Feb. 2, 2021 written by Hala Tashkandi.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1802106/saudi-arabia
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