AlUla itinerary 4 days: Hegra, Elephant Rock, Dadan and Jabal Ikmah

The airport is 35 minutes from town. After check-in, drive 11 km northeast to Jabal AlFil, the 52-metre rock with a trunk carved by the wind. Entry is free. Arrive an hour before sunset, around 5.30pm in winter, and grab one of the low lounge seats. An hour and a half.

Head back for dinner in Old Town, a maze of about 900 mudbrick houses lived in until the 1980s. The restored street gathers shops, cafés and restaurants open until midnight. Next door is the AlJadidah Arts District, a neighbourhood of murals and studios for an after-dinner walk. Two hours.

Hegra, Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, can only be visited on a tour. The Hegra Day Tour bus leaves from Winter Park, 5 km from town, and the visit takes two to three hours, from SAR 95. Book on the Experience AlUla website and take the 9.30am slot, before the heat.

The first stop is usually Jabal Ithlib, home to the Diwan, a hall cut into the rock for ritual banquets, and a narrow canyon with cult niches. One hour.

The tour ends at Qasr al-Farid, the tomb of Lihyan son of Kuza and Hegra's most photographed facade. Carved into a lone outcrop in the first century, it was never finished: the rough lower part shows the Nabataeans worked from the top down. If you have seen Petra, you will recognise the style. Forty-five minutes.

Rest at the hotel through the hot hours and drive to the Ashar valley in the late afternoon. Maraya, a concert hall clad in 9,740 mirrors, reflects the surrounding cliffs and changes colour with the light. Inside access is only for events or with a booking at the rooftop restaurant. One hour.

The Dadan and Jabal Ikmah tour also leaves from Winter Park, takes about two hours and costs from SAR 60, including transport and entry. Dadan was the capital of the Dadanite and Lihyanite kingdoms in the first millennium BC, on the incense route. From the site you see the Lion Tombs, niches cut high in the cliff and guarded by carved lions. One hour.

Three kilometres away, the Jabal Ikmah canyon holds hundreds of inscriptions in Dadanitic, Aramaic and other ancient scripts, the largest concentration on the Arabian Peninsula. Take the boardwalk slowly: the best are at eye level. Forty-five minutes.

Rest in the afternoon. For sunset, drive up to the Harrat viewpoint on the lava plateau west of town, which looks over the whole oasis between the cliffs.

Check out and return to Old Town in the morning, with good light and no heat. Climb the castle stairs on the hilltop: from the top you see the mudbrick roofs, the oasis and the cliffs. Forty minutes.

The oasis trail starts next to Old Town and winds between date palms, orange orchards and mudbrick walls, with signs on the old irrigation system. Walk the first section, about an hour and a quarter, and head back to the car. The airport is 35 minutes away.