How to travel from Makkah to Madinah during Umrah

The short answer. There are three ways: the high speed train, a coach or private car, and a domestic flight. The first thing to settle is not which one, but whether your package includes the journey at all, because many do not and people assume they do. Ask for it in writing before you pay.

Almost every Umrah includes both cities, and the journey between them is one of the most commonly misunderstood lines in a package. It is also where a family with an older parent or small children feels the difference between a good plan and a vague one.

First: is it even included?

Ask this before anything else. In some packages the Makkah to Madinah journey is included; in others it is not, and in others it is included but the method is not specified, which is not the same as a plan.

Get a written answer to: is the journey between Makkah and Madinah included, and by what means? If the answer is vague, treat it as not included and budget for it. The fuller list of what tends to be left out is in what is included in a package.

The three ways

The high speed train

The fastest and, for most people, the most comfortable. Seats are reserved, so a group travels together if it is booked together, and luggage is handled predictably.

Worth knowing: the stations are not beside the Haram in either city, so there is a transfer at each end. Ask who arranges those transfers and whether they are in your package, because this is where "the train is included" quietly becomes two taxi fares.

Good for: families, older pilgrims, anybody who does not want a long road journey.

Coach or private car

The usual arrangement in group packages, and the most flexible. A private car suits a family that wants to leave when it suits them; a coach is what a group moves on.

It is a long road journey and that is the main thing to weigh. For an older pilgrim, ask about the stops.

Good for: groups travelling together, families who want door to door with their luggage, anybody on a tighter budget.

A domestic flight

Possible, and usually the least sensible of the three for this particular journey, because by the time you have added two airport transfers, check-in and baggage, the time saved is small.

Good for: unusual itineraries, or where a connection makes it natural.

What to check, whichever you take

• Is it in the package, in writing?
• Who handles the transfers at each end, from the hotel to the station or

terminal and back.

• What happens to the luggage, and whether anybody helps with it.
• The time of day. A journey that lands you in Madinah at two in the morning

with a grandparent and three children is a decision, not a detail.

• Hotel check-in and check-out times at both ends, so you are not sitting in a

lobby for five hours.

Timing it well

Do not travel on the day you arrive in the country. People land in the small hours, perform Umrah, and then take a long journey the same day. It costs the next two days.

Leave a margin either side. The journey itself is usually fine; what goes wrong is a tight connection to a hotel check-in or a flight home.

Decide the order in advance. Makkah first or Madinah first is set by your package and by flight availability, and both work. What matters is knowing which before you plan anything else.

With children or an older parent

• The train, if it is available to you and affordable, is the kindest.
• Ask for the transfers in writing, because the station walk with luggage is the

part that is hard, not the journey.

• Carry water, snacks and medicines in a bag that stays with you rather than in

the luggage.

• Give each person a card with both hotel names and addresses in Arabic.

More in Umrah for elderly pilgrims and Umrah for families.

Ask us what your package covers

Send us your dates and we will tell you how the Makkah to Madinah journey is arranged on each of our departures, what it costs where it is not included, and which option we would choose for the people travelling with you. Our departures are on the Umrah packages page.