Umrah packages from Islamabad
The short answer. For a great many Islamabad departures the journey does not start at the airport. It starts in a car from Rawalpindi, from somewhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, or from Azad Kashmir, and that leg is the one nobody counts when they say the trip is easy. Count it. Then judge the package on the same things everybody else should: the hotel, the room, the nights and the exclusions.
The leg nobody counts
Islamabad serves a much wider area than the city itself. Families drive in from Rawalpindi, from Peshawar and the rest of KP, from Abbottabad and the hills, from Azad Kashmir.
So before you compare prices, work out the real door to door time, including the road. Then ask yourself the honest question: can the oldest person coming with us do that leg, and then get on a flight?
If the answer is uncertain, say so to the agency before the package is chosen, not afterwards. Mobility is one of the few things that can be planned around if it is known early and almost nothing if it is known late. Umrah for elderly pilgrims.
What to settle about the flight
- Does it depart Islamabad, or route through another city first?
- If it connects, is the whole journey on one ticket? One ticket means the
airline is responsible for a missed connection. Two tickets mean you are.
- What time does it leave, and what time does that mean leaving home?
A connecting flight is not a worse package. An unexplained one is.
What the departure city changes
The airfare, the flight pattern, and where documents are collected. Nothing else.
The visa, the hotel in Makkah, its distance from the Haram, how many share the room, the nights in Madinah, the transport between the cities: identical wherever you fly from, and that is the whole of what you are buying.
What is included in an Umrah package.
Our departures and rates
Live rates, with the hotels named and the room each price belongs to, are on the Umrah packages page. How the figure is built is in the Umrah cost guide.
Booking a Karachi office from Islamabad
Our office is in Saddar, Karachi. We work with families across the country and everything after the first conversation is handled remotely, with documents couriered to and from your city.
What to insist on, from us or from anybody at a distance:
- One written message holding the hotels by name, the room, the nights, the
exclusions and the cancellation terms. Keep it.
- Payment to the registered company, against a receipt. Never a personal
account, whatever the reason given.
- A licence number you can check rather than a logo.
How to verify an Umrah travel agency
Distance is not what makes a booking risky. Vagueness is.
What to ask, in one message
- Does the flight depart Islamabad, and is it direct?
- If not, is it one ticket?
- Which hotel in Makkah, and how many minutes to the Haram?
- How many share the room at this price?
- Nights in Makkah, nights in Madinah?
- What is not included, and what are the cancellation terms?
- Who do I call in Saudi Arabia if something goes wrong?
Before you speak to anybody
- Passport expiry, every traveller, children included.
- The vaccination with the waiting period, started early.
Umrah health and vaccination requirements.
- Names spelled the same on passport, CNIC and NADRA.
Dates are worth more than budget
In Ramadan and the school holidays the close hotels go first and cost the most. The same money in a quiet month puts you considerably closer to the Haram, and on an Umrah the walk is the whole day.
Choosing a hotel near the Haram, December and winter Umrah and Ramadan Umrah packages.
Ask us
Tell us your dates, who is travelling, their ages, and where in the north you are starting from. We will tell you what we have, what the real travelling day looks like, and what the package leaves out. Our departures are on the Umrah packages page.