DIY Umrah: how to plan Umrah on your own, without a group

You can arrange your whole Umrah yourself, with no agent in between: the visa, the hotel, the transport and the permits. Since August 2025 even the Umrah visa can be applied for directly. Many pilgrims now travel this way and set their own dates, hotel and pace. The catch is that everything a group leader would handle becomes your job. Here is the order to plan it in, as the rules stood on 28 October 2026.

Who can go without an agent

In October 2025 the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah confirmed that any visa that lets you into Saudi Arabia lets you perform Umrah. Pilgrims going on their own usually take one of two routes:

• The tourist eVisa, or the free stopover visa with Saudia or flynas, for the nationalities that can get them. You book the flights and the hotel yourself.
• The Umrah visa on Nusuk Umrah. The Ministry opened this platform, umrah.nusuk.sa, on 20 August 2025 so that pilgrims abroad could apply for the visa directly. You can take a full package or build your own from separate services: the visa, accommodation, transport, tours and support. It works in seven languages and takes several ways to pay. The visa is issued once your stay is registered in a licensed hotel, so the hotel is part of the booking.

The rules and the season's dates are in the Umrah visa and the Nusuk app. They change often, so check them again before you pay.

Flights: Jeddah or Madinah

Fly into Jeddah if you are starting in Makkah, or straight to Madinah if you are starting there. The plane to Jeddah passes the miqat in the air, so you enter ihram before it does: bathe and change at home, or on board in good time, as ihram and the miqat explains. Fly to Madinah first and you travel in ordinary clothes, then enter ihram at Dhul Hulayfah (Abyar Ali) when you leave for Makkah. Makkah or Madinah first? weighs the two.

Choose the hotel by the walk

Without a group bus, you will walk to the mosque for most of the five daily prayers, and walk back after a long tawaf and sa'i. So judge a hotel first by its distance from the mosque and the gate it brings you to. In Makkah, check whether the way runs through a tunnel, up a slope or over a bridge. In Madinah, check which gate you will use and, if women are travelling with you, how far the women's entrances are. Our lists of the closest hotels to the Haram in Makkah and the closest hotels to the Prophet's Mosque go gate by gate.

Book your permits in Nusuk

A group books these for you. On your own, you book them in the Nusuk app:

• The Umrah permit, for the time you perform Umrah in Masjid al-Haram. Staff check it at the entrances to the courtyards. Book it before you reach Makkah.
• The Rawdah permit, to pray in the Rawdah in Madinah. Book it as soon as your Madinah dates are set; visiting the Rawdah shows how.

Pick an Umrah permit slot a few hours after your flight lands, so a late flight or a long queue at passport control doesn't make you miss it. If you do miss it, wait until the slot ends and book a new one.

Getting around

• Between the cities: the Haramain train links Makkah, Jeddah, the airport, King Abdullah Economic City and Madinah. Makkah to Madinah takes two to two and a half hours. See the Haramain train guide.
• In Makkah: Makkah Bus runs twelve routes across the city. Its first route, opened in 2022, links the Haramain station in Rusaifah with Jabal Omar station by the Grand Mosque's courtyards. Buy tickets in the app or on the website, from ticket machines, or at sales points.
• Taxis and ride-hailing apps work in both cities. The roads near the two mosques close to cars at prayer times and on Fridays, so set off early or walk the last part.

Doing the rites yourself

In a group, a guide leads the tawaf and the sa'i and reads the duas aloud. On your own, learn the steps before you leave. Umrah is short: ihram at the miqat, seven rounds of tawaf, two rak'ahs, seven laps of sa'i, then shaving or cutting the hair. How to perform Umrah goes step by step, the duas of Umrah has the ones with a sound source, and tawaf and sa'i covers the floors and the distances. Women will find what differs for them in Umrah for women. No dua is fixed for each round, and you can make dua in any language.

What a group did that you now do yourself

• Finding your way. Save your hotel's location on your phone and note the number of the gate you use. The gates of both mosques are numbered, so agree on a gate where your family will meet if you lose each other.
• Help when something goes wrong. The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah's service centre answers on 920002814, including for problems with Nusuk. The ambulance number is 997. If you lose your passport, contact your country's embassy or consulate.
• Ziyarat. Groups take a bus to Quba, Uhud, Hira and the other sites. On your own, a taxi or a booked tour gets you there at your own pace: see ziyarat in Madinah and ziyarat in Makkah.
• Company. Travel with family or friends if you can, above all if someone elderly is coming: Umrah with elderly parents will help.

Keep your passport, visa, hotel booking and Nusuk permits on your phone and on paper. At the Haram you show the permit in the Nusuk or Tawakkalna app, and a phone with a flat battery can't show it, so carry a power bank.