What Started As A Desert Rally Turned Into A Road Trip People Are Dreaming About
Saudi Arabia was supposed to be just another backdrop for speed this week, as the World Rally Championship season roared toward its finale and Elfyn Evans arrived with a slim points lead and a shot at becoming only the third British WRC champion in history. But if you’ve been following the coverage from the Saudi Arabia Rally, you’ve probably noticed something unexpected: alongside the tyre smoke and flying gravel, a different kind of story is starting to trend. Travelers are seeing those drone shots of empty desert, jagged mountains and neon-lit cities and quietly thinking, “Wait… could this be my next big trip?”
The world is watching the rally leaderboard, but there’s another storyline beneath the headlines: Saudi Arabia is trying hard to reinvent itself as a travel destination. And in the dust trails of Evans and his rivals, there’s a surprisingly compelling road trip map being drawn in real time.
So, let’s ride in the slipstream of this WRC finale and turn it into a travel story: five rally-inspired experiences that could make you want to trade your rally livestream for a boarding pass.
Chasing Rally Dust In The Empty Quarter
Watching onboard footage from the Saudi rally, you see it instantly: the desert doesn’t look flat. It breathes. Ridges fold into each other like frozen waves, and the light changes the color of the sand from honey to deep amber in minutes. Somewhere beyond the rally tape is the Rub’ al Khali—the Empty Quarter—one of the largest sand deserts on Earth, and the kind of place that makes even hardened drivers go quiet.
If the WRC sparks something in you, imagine stepping out of a 4x4 deep in that silence instead of watching through a screen. Local guides run multi-day desert trips where you surf dunes at sunset, sleep in Bedouin-style camps, and wake up to nothing but wind-scrawled patterns in the sand. The same terrain that tests world-class drivers becomes a slow journey for you—no stopwatch, no stage times, just the rhythm of campfires, stars, and long conversations with people who actually know this land beyond its headlines.
Pack like you’re going to the moon: layers for temperature swings, more water than you think you’ll need, and a readiness to unplug. The best part of the Empty Quarter isn’t the photo you’ll post—it’s the strange, peaceful feeling of realizing how small you are in all that space.
Trading Pit Lanes For Jeddah’s Night Lights
The rally schedule has thrown international media into Saudi cities that were barely on most tourists’ lists a few years ago. Jeddah, especially, keeps slipping into shots: a sliver of skyscrapers hugging the Red Sea, highways glittering like racetracks, and a corniche that seems designed for slow evening laps on foot.
If you’re used to associating Saudi Arabia with silence and austerity, Jeddah at night feels like someone turned the color up. Families stroll the waterfront. Food trucks line up beside the sea. Cafés spill light onto the pavement, and the air smells like cardamom and grilled fish. This is where the “new Saudi” tourism campaign really lives—in tiny, ordinary moments that nowhere make the news.
Walk Al-Balad, Jeddah’s old town, in the early evening. Its coral-stone houses with carved wooden balconies look like they’ve grown out of the ground, and as you wander narrow alleys you can feel hundreds of years of stories under your feet. The contrast with the rally’s high-tech service park is almost cinematic: mechanics hunched over hybrid engines by day, and you sipping thick Saudi coffee under ancient wooden mashrabiya by night.
Tip: dress modestly but comfortably, and embrace the café culture. You’ll learn more about the country from one long conversation over qahwa than from a dozen think pieces.
From Rally Stages To Road Trip Routes In AlUla
When broadcasters cut to beauty shots around the rally, AlUla often sneaks into the montage—the sandstone cliffs, the rock arches, the Nabatean tombs that look like Petra’s quieter cousin. Motorsport organizers love these landscapes because they look like another planet. Travelers will love them because you can actually go stand inside that “other planet” feeling.
AlUla is fast becoming Saudi’s poster child for tourism: art installations in the desert, open-air concerts, luxury lodges nestled against cliffs. It’s like somebody asked, “What if we built a sci-fi set, but kept it real?” Now, as rally cars zigzag across similar terrain, more people are Googling, “Where is that?” and discovering you can book a flight there instead of just a fantasy.
Base yourself in AlUla for a few days and think of each excursion as your own “stage.” One day it’s Hegra, with its carved tomb facades glowing at sunrise. Another, it’s a hot air balloon ride over rock canyons that look scripted. Add a night-time stargazing session—no engines, no crowds, just a guide pointing out constellations over a landscape that hasn’t really changed since traders crossed it by camel.
For travelers who crave story-rich places, AlUla hits that sweet spot: deep history, bold modern art, and enough quiet roads that you can still feel like you’ve found something ahead of the curve.
Feeling The Speed, Then Slowing Down On The Red Sea
Rally fans crave velocity—the scream of engines bouncing off canyon walls. But one of the most striking things about this Saudi finale is the contrast: a day of dust and adrenaline followed by an evening surfacing near the calm, blue sheet of the Red Sea.
That contrast is your travel template.
After a few days of driving inland routes—whether on a guided excursion, a self-drive between cities, or just transfers following the rough line of the rally—it’s worth giving yourself two or three “off-stage” days on the coast. Think snorkeling above coral reefs instead of watching cars jump dunes; swapping tyre smoke for salt spray.
The Red Sea along Saudi’s western edge is still wildly under-traveled compared to Egypt’s or Jordan’s coasts. That means reefs with fewer boats, beaches that feel unscripted, and towns that don’t exist just to sell you a package experience. If the rally put Saudi on your map, the Red Sea might keep it there.
One practical tip inspired by the WRC crews: hydrate like it’s your job. Even on the water, the heat sneaks up on you. And don’t rush this part of the trip—let your speed obsession live on the replay clips while you slow all the way down in real life.
Letting A Sporting Moment Rewrite Your Mental Map
Heading into the Saudi finale, every article about Elfyn Evans mentions the stakes: a three-point lead, the possibility of joining Colin McRae and Richard Burns as a rare British world champion, and the pressure of a last rally that could go either way. Sport loves this kind of narrative—underdogs, near-misses, unlikely titles. But what gets less attention is what these events quietly do to our maps.
Maybe you’d never thought of Saudi Arabia as a place of twisting mountain roads before you saw onboard footage. Maybe you didn’t know about AlUla’s golden cliffs until aerial shots flashed across your phone. This is how travel dreams often start now: not with a glossy brochure, but with a half-glimpsed landscape during a broadcast you thought you were watching only for the result.
Lean into that. When a big event pops up somewhere you’ve never considered, treat it as a prompt rather than background noise. Look up the host regions, not just the stadium or the special stage. Follow a hashtag not to argue about the podium, but to see where fans are eating, wandering, getting lost. In 2025, the best trip ideas are often hiding in someone else’s sports coverage.
Conclusion
This week, the world is focused on whether Elfyn Evans can finish the job in Saudi Arabia and carve his name into WRC history. But in the dust behind his Toyota and the cars chasing him, a different kind of story is waiting: a string of deserts, cities, cliffs and coasts that most of us barely knew existed before they flashed across our timelines.
What started as a desert rally is quietly turning into an invitation—a chance to rethink a country, to follow the path from service park to souk, from stage finish to starlit camp. You don’t need a race suit or a works contract to follow that route. You just need curiosity, a willingness to be surprised, and the courage to let a headline about speed turn into your next slow, unforgettable journey.