Umrah + Istanbul
Makkah Hotel
Rotana Jabal Omar Makkah
3 nights · Under 2 minutes' walk
Madinah Hotel
Pullman Zamzam Madinah
3 nights · Under 1 minute's walk
Istanbul Hotel
Sura Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
3 nights
Tours included
- Istanbul city tour
- Bosphorus cruise
More tours can be added on request. Just say what you would like to see.
Nine nights, split three ways, with the Umrah first and Istanbul after it. The Makkah and Madinah hotels are the same pair as our Premium tier, so the worship half isn't a lighter version of that trip. The real difference is time: three nights in Makkah rather than four. If long hours in the Haram are the reason you're going, weigh that before you choose. The Makkah hotel's position helps. Being under 2 minutes' walk from the Haram means a short stay isn't eaten up by the walk to and from prayers. The Istanbul half moves more slowly. You stay in Sultanahmet, and the two set outings are a city tour and a Bosphorus cruise. It's a good fit for couples, and for families who'd like a few quieter days to let the Umrah settle before going home, in a city where Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque are both places of prayer today.
Entering Türkiye on a US passport
Türkiye's Ministry of Foreign Affairs currently lists ordinary US passport holders as exempt from a visa for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Three nights sits well inside that, so there's no Turkish visa to apply for. Your passport still needs attention. The ministry advises that it be valid for at least six months from the date you arrive in Türkiye, and it separately requires at least 60 days of validity beyond your permitted stay. You reach Istanbul only after six nights in Saudi Arabia, so those six months run from your Istanbul arrival, not from the day you leave the US. Look at the ministry's page again in the weeks before you fly. Governments do revise these rules.
A base in Sultanahmet
Your Istanbul hotel, Sura Hagia Sophia, is on Divanyolu Caddesi in Sultanahmet. The hotel says you can see Hagia Sophia from its rooms, its pool and its terrace restaurant, and it names the Blue Mosque in the view from its King rooms. For a Muslim traveller that view carries extra weight. Go Türkiye, the country's tourism promotion site, notes that Hagia Sophia returned to use as a place of worship in 2020, and it calls the Blue Mosque an active place of worship too. If you'd like to pray Dhuhr or Asr in one of them, fit it around the two tours. Don't carry Makkah's timetable over, though. Türkiye's Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) publishes the daily prayer times for Istanbul, and those are the ones to follow.
Same clock as Makkah, colder weather
Istanbul has stayed on UTC+3 all year since 2016, which matches Makkah and Madinah. The big adjustment happens once, when you land in Saudi Arabia. Makkah is 7 hours ahead of US Eastern time while American clocks are on daylight saving time and 8 hours ahead the rest of the year, or 10 and 11 hours from the West Coast. After that, the move to Istanbul costs your body clock nothing. The weather is another matter. Long-term records from Türkiye's state weather service put Istanbul's average January high at about 49°F, with some precipitation on around 16 days of the month. On a winter departure, pack a warm coat and a rain layer, and accept that both will ride through Makkah and Madinah in your suitcase before you need them.
Package highlights
- 3 nights in Istanbul after your Umrah
- City tour and a Bosphorus cruise
- Flights, visa and insurance included
- Nine nights in total, so the Umrah half stays a proper trip in its own right rather than a stopover on the way to a holiday
What's included
- Round-trip international airfare (JFK, IAD, ORD, ATL & LAX)
- Electronic Umrah visa
- Medical insurance
- Daily buffet breakfast
- Haramain high-speed train between Makkah & Madinah
- Assisted transfers between cities
- Umrah guide throughout
- 3 nights Rotana Jabal Omar + 3 nights Pullman Zamzam
- 3 nights Sura Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
- Istanbul city tour & Bosphorus cruise
Fully customizable
Different dates? An upgraded hotel, business-class flights, or a halal destination added on at the end? Every package here can be rebuilt around your needs and your budget. Just ask.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, by one night in Makkah. This trip has 3 nights in Makkah and 3 in Madinah, while the 7-night tiers have 4 and 3. The hotels match our Premium tier: Rotana Jabal Omar, under 2 minutes' walk from the Haram, and Pullman Zamzam, under 1 minute's walk from Masjid an-Nabawi. If you'd rather have more time in Makkah, ask the team what can change before you commit.
The package lists two outings in Istanbul: a city tour and a Bosphorus cruise. It doesn't set out the tour's stops, and we'd rather not guess at them here. Ask the team for the plan while you're still deciding. If there's somewhere you especially want to see, mention it early and ask whether it can be added.
Round-trip international airfare is included, priced from JFK, IAD, ORD, ATL and LAX. The package details don't spell out the routing of the return leg, so ask the team to walk you through the full flight plan. Flying from a different US city can add to the airfare, and the team confirms that figure before anybody books.
Advertised prices are per person based on four people sharing a room, which the industry calls quad occupancy. On our monthly departures, triple occupancy adds $200 per person and double occupancy adds $400 per person. That is the whole rule. Tell us how many of you are travelling and who needs to be in a room together, and we'll confirm your exact per-person price rather than leaving you to work it out from a table.
Our advertised prices are built on round-trip airfare from five gateways: JFK (New York), IAD (Washington), ORD (Chicago), ATL (Atlanta) and LAX (Los Angeles). If none of those is your home airport, it is not a problem. We can arrange departures from any US city. Additional airfare may apply on some routes, and your specialist will confirm the exact cost before you book, so nothing about the price changes after you have said yes.