All praise to God I managed to perform my Umrah yesterday. I will share more photos and information on this as it was such an amazing spiritual activity but also an interesting human experience.
Unfortunately, Hilton let me down with their internet connection as it is extremely poor. I can’t upload any videos or photos as it takes absolutely ages and literally every photo in this post takes at least 20 minutes or so to upload. But I will share as much as I can whilst I am here and inshaAllah (God willing) and all the photos once I get faster stable internet. My head is buzzing with things I would like to share with you.
The most important thing for me was to perform Umrah which has a massive reward and to show people that it is possible to do it under £300 and not a few thousand.
My hotel is literally only 30 seconds walk from the entrance and 2 minutes from my room, depending on how fast the elevator comes. 🙂 So I can’t really complain about proximity to the mosque.
It was THE BEST points redemption ever! Not only value-wise but experience. It is why I love this hobby, makes it possible to experience things that otherwise would have been impossible.
No way I would pay £250 per night for a room. Ok, maybe for a night but not a week.
Here is what it looks like once you get out of the hotel and into the Haram (mosque) courtyard. Basically, our hotel and the courtyard are connected and it is one of the closest to the entrance.
Plus whoever said that New York is the city that never sleeps is totally wrong. Mekkah is literally the city that never sleeps. It is currently 5 am and throughout the night it is still busy with people.

The view from the Clock tower food corner. They are expanding the mosque so it looks like a construction site too.

The view from the courtyard. Intercontinental & Hilton hotels & the Masjid Al Haram

The view from my room at prayer time. It was so busy!

Some photos of the other site of the courtyard. Le Meridien Mekkah hotel in the far right corner.

People and many more people