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Hello, it's Monday the 18th of October and thanks for joining me, Simon Calder, for the latest on travel and destinations from the Greenlist and the travel desk of the Independent, currently located in a departure lounge in the Saudi city of Tabuk.

Today I'm in Arabia, Saudi Arabia to be specific for the third time in under two years.

How tricky is travel here? How rewarding is it? And what are the ethics of being a tourist in Saudi Arabia?

Of course, this podcast is completely free, as is my weekly travel email.

You can sign up at independent.co.uk, forward slash newsletters.

In October 2019, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia suddenly transformed the ease of access.

Before that, getting a tourist visa was nigh impossible. It required joining an organised tour,

having the right contacts, paying formidable amount of money,

and it was really something only that friends and family of expatriates living in Saudi Arabia would do.

Then overnight, the Saudi E visa became available.

And goodness, that has transformed things.

It's a fairly easy form.

It takes three or four minutes maybe to fill in, upload a picture. The tricky bit is

paying nearly £100 for the Saudi visa, but I think that is worth it. I'm now on my second

Saudi visa. They're valid for a year, maximum stay of three months, multiple entry, but I'm on my third visit. First time was

very simply to test out the new system to see what it was like, really just nipping across

the border from Akaba in Jordan to the nearest Saudi city of Hackle to try out the system and it seemed to work fine.

...