More Saudi families celebrate Eid in neighboring Arab countries

During the last days of Ramadan, many Saudi families were looking for hotels and flights to different destinations around the world and especially Arab countries. Many of them say they enjoy Eid outside the Kingdom more while others say they are making up for not traveling during the summer.
“This year summer was in Ramadan and my family and I like to spend this holy month among family and friends. We decided to travel after Ramadan to Beirut,” said banker Ahmed Hamouda. “It is the last trip before school starts and I feel sorry for my children who did not do anything during this summer so we decided to spend ten days celebrating Eid in Lebanon,” he added.
Traveling to Egypt after Ramadan is an annual tradition for dentist Wael Mahmoud and his family. Security issues there have urged them to look for an alternative holiday location this year. “We have been following the news about Egypt for months now and I don’t think it is a good idea to visit Cairo this Eid. I fear for my family’s safety,” he said. “We explored different options and decided to visit Istanbul and Adana in Turkey because we heard so much about it from family and friends who have been there,” he added.
Businesswoman Manal Khalifa has been waiting for her baby to older so she could visit her mother in Casablanca. This Eid the time has come. “My husband and I agreed to spend the first three days of Eid with his family in Riyadh and then fly to Morocco. Sadly I found the flights fully booked which made us book a transit flight via Dubai,” she said. “This shows that many Saudis are spending their Eid in Morocco. It will be impossible to find a hotel there,” she added.
Hatema Sayed, a stay-at-home mother, could not find a flight available to Dubai. “I was very disappointed to see fully booked flights and hotels in Dubai but that did not stop me from booking a hotel in Sharja.
From there I can drive to Dubai every day,” she said. “As for the flights, I decided to take an adventurous road trip with my husband and children to Dubai. We will be passing by Riyadh and the Eastern province where we will stay in hotels to rest until we reach there.”
Jeddah based travel agencies said many Saudis went to Turkey this Eid. “We have booked many trips to Istanbul this year with our special offer including a four star hotel. Guests pay for five nights and get the sixth for free. This package was fully booked,” said Mohammad Salah, one of the agents. “We also booked many trips to Dubai where people specifically asked to stay downtown next to Dubai Mall but it was mostly fully booked so we reserved different locations in the nearby area.”