This podcast follows a resident's slow route through Saudi Arabia, where the terrain is mostly sandy desert and the climate is harsh, dry and extreme. Travel here means crossing a country without rivers, between the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, and learning how settlement has shifted since oil was discovered in the 1930s.

The host moves between Riyadh, Jeddah, Ad Dammam and the oasis city of Hufuf-Mubarraz. These are not just stops: Riyadh is the capital, Jeddah faces the Red Sea, Ad Dammam sits on the Persian Gulf, and Hufuf-Mubarraz is an interior oasis in the eastern desert.

The show unfolds across seasons, with returns to the same streets and coastlines as temperatures shift from extreme heat to cooler winter days. There is no rush to cover everything. Instead, knowledge builds slowly: a market known in summer, a road understood after rain, a city learned through repeated visits.

Layla Al Qahtani lives in Saudi Arabia and stays for two years, moving between cities, coastlines and smaller towns on a route that follows the seasons. Not a week-long visit — Layla is there in every kind of weather, working out where to eat on an ordinary Tuesday, which train to take, what a festival actually feels like from the pavement.

A new episode arrives every day. Each one is short and specific: one neighbourhood, one journey, one meal, one museum worth the detour — with the practical detail that matters. What it costs. When it closes. Whether the queue is worth it. What to do when it rains. Every episode carries a full transcript and chapter markers.

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Part of Paris2Tokyo — one show for each of the world's hundred most-visited countries. Made for travelers, wherever you are going next.

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https://www.paris2tokyo.com/podcasts/saudi-arabia/