Farasan Island for a week end

Thanks for sharing so nice information regarding Farasan Islan........Some from us sure try to go there in off days.

we spent a few days there and i agree finding any info regarding hotels etc is pretty difficult.
the room of 450 riyals a night is actually a room with a double bed. so we were two adults and two kids sharing.
the price xcluded breakfast. one of the mornings we ordered breakfast, it was terrible and costed something like SR75 for just one plate.
there was no one at the hotel that could speak english, maybe things have changed since then.
my husband happened to find a taxi driver somehow who would come to the hotel each night to fetch us and take us into the city to get food.
luckily, i packed in loads of crackers,juices and snacks, which we had for breakfast and lunch
not so sure about getting a private boat - the SR50 one is an old wooden one. takes an hour to get to the island,  with no life jackets just by the way in case u cant swim
u also need ur iqamah once u arrive at the port.
if ur travelling by car to jazan, then you would be able to take your car with you on the ferry. the ferry leaves at 7 and 3 from the island as well. bookings for the ferry has to be done 24hrs in advance
as for hotels in jazan, the little bit i saw, goodness, the city is so terrible looking i cant imagine spending a night there - good luck with that.
other than the coral farasan, theres another hotel called farasan hotel. it was about 100 or 200riyals more, but located some distance from the beach which didnt make sense to us
upon enquiry, we were told that the hotel could organise diving / snorkelling trips. we never got around to doing any of these.
in fact we were quite happy lazing around on the beach all day. people rarely swam, now and again a few people would come down to the beach and leave soon after. so we pretty much had the beach and water to ourselves all day!

- there will be no ferries or boats from Gizan to Farasan in night, you will have to spend the night in  you will find a lot of hotels and budget places to stay in around Gizan.
- daily there are 2 ferries (8 am and 3pm from Farasan).
- there about 3 hotels and quite number of furnished apartments you can stay in, not sure of actives though..
- not sure about renting equipments as well..

Hope the above helps

Hi,

please check out Haya Tour. They offer a Trip to Farasan Island or also just provide you with all necessary information, if you want to make the Trip by yourself (you get Hotel recomandation, maps, contacts of guides on the site and much more for a little charging fee). Here is the Hayatour side:  facebook.com/#!/hayatours
Here is the Program Schedule for 2013 till May - hayatour.com/Schedule/Schedule_En_Seasonal_2013.pdf
You can always contact them under: [email protected]

Hope that helps!
Good luck for your trip!
Lionlove

@Lionlove -> Do not hesitate to recommend this Tour Operator into the Riyadh Business directory.

Thank you,
Aurélie

Ok, I will! Thanks!

Hi princes,
Glad to see your informative post regarding farasan island. I am willing to travel on 13th Mar 2014 to Jizan and mainly to visit and stay in Farasan Island. I will be travelling from Jeddah by road accompanied by my wife and 3 kids. I have few questions,
1. I want to take my car on ferry. I heard we need to book atleast one day in advance. Since i am travelling from jeddah how to book 24 hours in advance? Any website, online or phone booking possible? If yes, what is contact number and whats the procedure?

2. Is there any other option to stay in downtown other than SASO FArasan hotel and Coral Beach Resort hotel? I will stay for single night.

3. How u been to down town (Fursan Al-Kabeer)? any details regarding restaurants, food, pharmacies? Apartments or hotels?.
I would highly appreciate if u or any one could guide me.
Thanks in advance

Hello adnan,
How to book Jiz-Far ferry  in advance while staying in jeddah. I am planning to go on 14-14 march. I heard it is necessary to book atleast 24 hrs in advance if u r boarding the ferry with your car. If u know how to book remotely or possibly online booking or any tele booking pls let me know. U can mail me at xxx.

One more thing i am seeking some info regarding Farasan Al-Kabeer downtown, budget hotels, apartments, safety, restaurants and food.

Thanks

@ aejaz30 > Please note that you posted on a quite old topic here, maybe you will obtain more responses if you can create a new topic on the Riyadh forum with your questions.
Important advice : i would advise you to create a new topic for each question that you need to ask, it will help you to receive more constructive responses.

Thank you,

Priscilla
Expat.com team

Hi,

Did you check out 'Haya Tours' to Farasan?

do we have freedom to be free with family without any restriction in farsan island? also any website for info and pics etc?

please update us whenever you have any updates so that it can be useful for others... I will also go one day In sha allah but since I am staying in Riyadh need to plan and need to look after budget ....

Hello. Just wondering if you were able to find any information about how to make the reservation for the ferry to Farasan. We are planning on taking our car over with us. Any tips on how to make the ferry reservation would be appreciated. Thanks!

Salut!
I have just chalked out a plan to visit the Farasan Islands after getting an attractive rate of flight tickets by Nas Air. A close friend of mine who is a native of Jizan has helped me plan this exciting trip to the virgin islands of Al Farasan. Ferry tickets can be booked online, usually booking available prior to ten days of inbound and outbound journeys. The booking for ferry tickets is free of charge but the website is in Arabic only. The well known hotels on the island is the Farasan Coral Resort and Saso Suite which are quite expensive. A lesser known budget hotel is the Farasan Hotel where I recently enquired about room rate being SAR 250 for 2 or max. 4 persons. The hotel is situated around 11 Kms from the Farasan Port which is a 7 min drive by local car driven by locals. I was told that one could get a ride by paying SAR 20. The hotel has a Restaurant which cook freshly caught fish and other delicacies.
I am looking forward to visiting and exploring the islands with friends. I will update the blog with feedback or reviews about my trip as soon as I get back later this month.

A tout a l'heure!

Inconnu Monde wrote:

Salut!
I have just chalked out a plan to visit the Farasan Islands after getting an attractive rate of flight tickets by Nas Air. A close friend of mine who is a native of Jizan has helped me plan this exciting trip to the virgin islands of Al Farasan. Ferry tickets can be booked online, usually booking available prior to ten days of inbound and outbound journeys. The booking for ferry tickets is free of charge but the website is in Arabic only. The well known hotels on the island is the Farasan Coral Resort and Saso Suite which are quite expensive. A lesser known budget hotel is the Farasan Hotel where I recently enquired about room rate being SAR 250 for 2 or max. 4 persons. The hotel is situated around 11 Kms from the Farasan Port which is a 7 min drive by local car driven by locals. I was told that one could get a ride by paying SAR 20. The hotel has a Restaurant which cook freshly caught fish and other delicacies.
I am looking forward to visiting and exploring the islands with friends. I will update the blog with feedback or reviews about my trip as soon as I get back later this month.

A tout a l'heure!

So did you manage to visit the islands? Can you share some details and experiences?

how to book online Alfursan ferry tickets..? website..?

are there any dive courses on the farasan islands? I'd like to dive there as it's famous for that.

If you need any more information  about farasan island or any help you can contact  : Alsa3ya to organize tourist trips in farasan island
email : xxx
Certified from Tourism Authority of saudi arabia

Your message helped me in booking the ticket online for ferry. Thank you.

The website to book ferry ticket online is https://lm.mot.gov.sa/ the website is in Arabic but you can deal with it with the help of Google Translator. I did by copying text and translating it to understand and it worked.

Please note the following:
1. Enter Iqama expiry date taken from MOI, not from Iqama
2. Enter passport number when adding passenger detail in last step if it gives error with Iqama

I checked the website but couldn't find any options to book for the car, any idea?

Do you want to get the car to move around in Farasan Island? You will find everything there. It is like a small city. The site I posted earlier about is to book ferry ticket from Gizan to Farasan. Farasan is 50 kilometers offshore from Gizan.

I meant I want to take my car to Farasan Island but on the website I couldn't find any option to book a ticket for the car, any idea how to get the ticket in a way that I can take my car as well?

The option is there on third step where you add passenger's information. It says in Arabic السيارة, however, the website might have some functionality issues but don't worry. You can also go there 2 hours earlier and get the ticket for your car as well. That place is not far from the port from where you will take the ferry.

It is a beautiful place and everyone is friendly and helpful but make you sure to be there at ferry on time else they will not let you in.

Bonus tip: If you are planning to stay then get a furnished apartment i.e. mafroosha in Farasan, an OK one will cost around SAR 100 per night. The hotels are very expensive like 300-400.

Thanks alot!

Hi Shoham,

  Thanks and i got the Ticket for passenger following the link given by you but i cant book car by online. further can you help me more by giving and mafroosha name which is not expensive and is there any rent a car if i cant get ticket of my car? I plan to go there in the Eid holidays.

You can reach there like two hours earlier to book the tickets both for you and car from the booking office which is nearby port. Be punctual at the time of boarding, they return people from entrance who are late.

When you will land on Farasan Island, the expensive hotels are nearby but ordinary mafroosha are in the center of it like a few kilometers inside you will find yourself in a normal small city with all the shops, supermarket etc.

I am not sure about rent a car there in Farasan but you will see tons of people traveling in ferry with their cars, maybe they rent cars in Gizan.

The people of both Gizan and Farasan are lovely and helpful so don't hesitate asking for guidance around.

Here is the business card of mafroosha where I stayed for 80 SAR per night in Farasan Island.

Hi everyone

How much is to move my car from Jizan to Farasan by Ferry? Do I need iqama for this?

Thanks
Kelson

Hi

How much is the ticket for the car by ferry? And do i need to book days before or it's ok only 2 hours earlier?

Thanks
Kelson

Ferry tickets for both passenger and car are free. Two hours earlier is also fine.

And do you know if iqama is needed ?
Thanks in advance

Absolutely! Iqama is needed everywhere. But if you have only passport, that will also work.

I've tried to reserve ferry tickets for January 13–18, 2017 using the website: https://sso.mot.gov.sa/account/lg.aspx

Every time I get to the calendar, it shows only the first of the month as an available day. You cannot click on the rest of the days. That can't be correct, can it?

Any ideas for how I can get my car and family registered in advance? Is there a phone number I can call? I'll be driving from Riyadh to Abha, and then on to Jizan, and don't want to drive all that way to find out the ferry is unavailable.

Is there any reason to worry about just showing up 3-4 hours before the afternoon Ferry at the Farasan Ticket Issue Centre in Jizan? I've read further up in this thread that you must book 24 hours in advance, and later in the thread it says you can book passage just 2 hours ahead of time. Which is correct?

Thanks!

Hi Sohahm,

That business card for the furnished apartment for 80 SAR doesn't show up. Can you repost the information? I like the sound of 80 SAR per day since we want to spend as little time as possible indoors while we enjoy Farasan. Thanks!

Jonathan

I believe the website only allows booking of tickets 7-8 days maximum in future. Today you see until 7th as available date, tomorrow it should be 8th and so on. This is my opinion but we can check it tomorrow if it really happens.

I was there again three weeks back and figured that if you have iqama then even the ticket isn't absolute necessary as they will count you in but might ask to come in the end, however, it is much better to book the ticket. Once you book it, you receive a sms which you can show to the officer while boarding along with your iqama as he will write down something.

For cars, it is necessary and important to book it in advance as there is limited capacity for cars on the ship but it could be done like 2-3 days in advance, you don't have to worry too much to book them more than a week earlier. The guys living there suggested me to even do it in person on the same day while you are there but we are a bit skeptical about it as it could be a little bit risky.

In the worst case, Gizan is a good place too. If someone misses the ferry then can also go to Farasan on private boats that charge SAR 50 per person and minimum 350 for the trip means there must be 7 passengers or someone pays extra but it is useless to go to Farasan without a car and for car, ferry is the only way.

About staying there, the furnished apartment I stayed before was closed, probably for maintenance. In Farasan, there is an area called balad, or city center. It's like 20-25 minutes drive from the port. The shops and market are there including fish market etc. right there are three furnished apartments including the one closed. The one I stayed in was for SAR 130 but I got it for SAR 100 after the manager gave me discount.

Dear friends

I'm from Farasan Island, don't hesitate to ask me about anything.