About Solo Umrah

What it does

You choose where you leave from, when, how long to stay and how close to the mosque to sleep. The trip builder lays out the journey stop by stop: the visa for your country, the trains, the hotels by distance from each mosque, a day-by-day plan in both calendars, a checklist and a budget. The plan is stored in the page address, so you can bookmark it or send it to whoever is travelling with you.

The rule it works by

This site states as fact only what an authority sets or records, or what we worked out ourselves from a named source. Visa fees and rules come from Saudi Arabia's tourism site and the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah; train fares and times from the Haramain railway; travel advice and emergency contacts from your own government; temperatures from the climate records Saudi Arabia files with the World Meteorological Organization. How far a hotel is from the mosque is a straight line in kilometres, worked out the same way for every hotel, from the Kaaba in Makkah and from the centre of the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah. Each fact names its source and the day it was checked, and changes are recorded on the what has changed page.

Flight fares and room prices are different. They change every day, so the site does not quote them. It gives a rough range, sends you to check today's price, and uses the price you find. The full list of sources is on the sources page.

Religious content

The guide to the rites is written only from Islam Question & Answer, the website of Shaykh Ibn Baz, and official Saudi bodies: the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, and the Presidency of Religious Affairs at the Two Holy Mosques. Each page summarises its sources briefly and links to them. Arabic text is copied from the source and checked against it. Government regulations are kept separate from religious rulings, and where the two differ both are shown.

None of it is a fatwa. For your own situation, read the sources and ask a scholar you trust.

What it is not

• Not a travel agent. It sells nothing and books nothing.
• Not a price list. Flights and rooms change daily; the price buttons show today's.
• Not travel or safety advice. Read your own government's advice before you book. It is shown at the top of every plan.
• Not connected to any government, airline, hotel or scholar.

How it earns money

It does not, at present. The buttons that open Aviasales, Booking.com and Google Maps are plain links, and nothing on the site is paid for or sponsored. More on this.