Night of Stars
1 night
1,200· per person
- Bed in a fitted tent
- Dinner and breakfast
- Naked-eye observing session
Up to 12 people
Thejourneystartsbeforethesun
Desert expeditions and stargazing in AlUla and the Empty Quarter
Before the light comes up, the sand is cold under your feet. You walk a little, you stop, and then you hear the silence, the kind you never hear in a city.
Darb Al-Nujum isn't an itinerary. It's one full day, lived from first light until the Milky Way is directly above you.
Midday
What you'll do
Dune bashing
Climbing the dunes in 4x4s with local drivers who read this sand the way you read your street.
2 hours · after breakfast
The petroglyph trail
An easy walk between sandstone formations, reading inscriptions cut thousands of years ago.
3 km · with a heritage guide
Sandboarding
A board, a long slope, and nothing to stop you but the sand itself.
Open · all levels
From the trips
See for yourself
The dunes before sunrise 
Dune bashing on the big ridge 
Inscriptions thousands of years old 
Camp, as the air turns cool 
The qahwa waits for no one 
The Milky Way, directly above
At midday, the desert teaches you patience
Sundown
The camp
As the first cool arrives, camp goes up. Dinner over the fire, Arabic coffee poured from the right, and an oud played without a microphone.
- Dinner over embers
- Qahwa and dates
- Oud by the fire
Thurayya · The Pleiades
Thurayya
Our grandfathers read the sky
Before maps and satellites, a bedouin knew his season and his route from a star. Thurayya meant rain coming, and time to move.
Tonight an astronomy guide gives you the same reading. Naked eye first, then through the telescope.
People who came with us
What they said
First time I have seen the Milky Way with my own eyes. Photos really don't do it justice.
Abdullah Al-ShammariRiyadhGalaxy Expedition I brought the kids. What they loved most was coffee on the fire and the stars. They didn't open their phones once.
Noura Al-OtaibiJeddahThe Full Darb The guide knows every star by its Arabic name. You feel like you are listening to your grandfather talk.
Faisal Al-QahtaniDammamNight of Stars
Packages
Choose your darb
Most booked The Full Darb
2 nights
2,400· per person
- Everything in Night of Stars
- Dune bashing and the petroglyph trail
- Shared telescope with a guide
Up to 10 people
Galaxy Expedition
3 nights
3,900· per person
- Everything in The Full Darb
- Private astronomy guide
- Astrophotography portrait under the Milky Way
Up to 6 people
Before you book
Practical information
Trips run October through April. The best observing nights are moonless ones, and we send you the calendar when you book.
A heavy jacket (midday to midnight swings more than 20°C), closed shoes, a red-light torch, and a head covering.
Transfer from AlUla airport or from Riyadh. The Riyadh run leaves at 6:00 AM and takes 6 hours by road.
Coldest nights are December and January (4°–8°C); warmest days are October and April (28°–32°C).