Mina camps during Hajj: what pilgrims need to know

The short answer. Mina is where Hajj is physically decided, and the camp you are given is set by the package you bought, months earlier, by a line most people never ask about. Two things matter and they are not the same thing: the category, which governs the tent and what is in it, and the position, which governs how far you walk to the Jamarat. Position is the one that will matter to you at the time.

Families spend weeks comparing Makkah hotels and then accept whatever Mina camp comes attached. It is the wrong way round. You will spend a handful of days in Mina and they are the days that ask the most of you.

This is the practical picture. For what a maktab actually is and how packages are sold under one, we wrote that separately in what is a maktab.

What Mina actually is

A valley filled with tents, for a few days, holding an enormous number of people. You sleep there, you eat there, and you walk from there to the Jamarat and back, more than once.

It is not a hotel and no package turns it into one. What a better package buys is a shorter walk and a less crowded tent, not comfort in the ordinary sense.

The two things that differ between packages

The category

This governs the tent itself: how many people in it, what the bedding is, whether there is air conditioning that copes with the heat, how the food is served, and how many people share each washroom. Packages are sold against these categories and the price difference between them is real.

Ask which category. "Standard" on a brochure is not a category, it is a word.

The position

This is the one almost nobody asks about and the one you will feel.

Mina is large. A camp near the Jamarat and a camp at the far end are a very different Hajj, because you make that walk more than once, in heat, in a crowd, often having slept badly. For an older pilgrim it is the single most important fact about the whole package.

Ask where the camp sits and how far the walk is. A good organiser answers with a distance and a description of the route. A vague answer is itself the answer.

What a day in Mina is like

• Tents, closely packed, with your group together.
• Food brought to the camp rather than chosen.
• Washrooms shared with a great many people, so timing matters more than you

expect.

• Heat during the day that does not let up inside a tent unless the cooling is

good.

• Walking to the Jamarat and back, with the crowd, at whatever hour your group is

scheduled.

• Very little privacy, and broken sleep.

None of that is a complaint. It is what people are not told beforehand, and knowing it in advance is what makes it bearable.

What to take into the tent

• A light mat or folded sheet, because Muzdalifah is spent on the ground.
• A refillable water bottle.
• A small torch or headlamp.
• A long power bank and a short cable. Charging points are few and shared.
• A drawstring bag for the pebbles and the day's small things.
• Earplugs and an eye mask, which sound trivial and are not.

The whole list is in what to pack for Hajj from Pakistan.

If you are travelling with an older parent

This is the section to act on.

The Mina category and the camp position decide whether an older pilgrim manages well or badly, far more than the Makkah hotel does. Tell whoever is booking about mobility before the package is chosen, because afterwards nothing about Mina can be changed.

Ask specifically: how far from the Jamarat, is there any provision for somebody who cannot walk it, and what happens if they cannot manage on the day. More on that in Hajj for elderly pilgrims.

The questions to ask before you book

• Which category is the Mina camp?
• Where does it sit, and how far is the walk to the Jamarat?
• How many people in the tent, and what is the bedding?
• How is the food provided?
• What is the Arafat arrangement, and Muzdalifah?
• Who is with us in the camp from your staff, and how many pilgrims are they

responsible for?

The full list for any agency is in what to ask a Hajj agency before booking.

Where the money should go

If your budget forces a choice between a closer hotel in Makkah and a better Mina camp, we would take the Mina camp almost every time, and more strongly the older the pilgrim.

A night in a hotel you walk back to is a comfort. A shorter walk to the Jamarat in the heat, on the hardest day, is something else.

Our departures say which maktab and what the arrangements are, on the Hajj packages page. Ask us about the camp before you ask us about the hotel, and we will tell you plainly.