Taif

Naba Al-Ikram runs private day trips from Makkah to Taif, roughly 90 km up the escarpment and about 1 hour 30 minutes on the Al Hada road. It is planned as a full day out with rest and prayer stops rather than a race to fit it in, taking in the rose farms, the cooler air and the Ziyarat sites around the city.

Ascending into the clouds: the Al Hada escarpment

Leaving the dry heat of Makkah and winding up the hairpin engineering marvel of the Al Hada highway is an unforgettable sensory shock. In under 45 minutes your car climbs more than 1,800 metres. Desert air is replaced by cool mountain breeze, mist rolling across granite cliffs, and wild baboons perched along the roadside barriers.

What a private day excursion covers

The thirty-petal Taif rose farms. Travel between March and April and the valleys are ablaze with pink blossom. We arrange visits to traditional artisanal distilleries — the Al-Qurashi and Al-Ghadheeri estates among them — where copper stills extract authentic Taif rosewater and the precious Wardh Taifi attar.

The spiritual solace of Addas Mosque. The historic orchards of Taif, where the Prophet ﷺ sought shelter after being rejected by the city’s elders, resting in the vineyard where the Christian servant Addas brought him grapes and embraced Islam. It is a moment of deep, quiet reflection for any believer.

Shubra Palace and the mountain markets. The classic Hijazi-Ottoman palace, and stops at ridge stalls for fresh Taif pomegranate, wild mountain honey and fresh mint tea.