Jeddah: A Red Sea City Where the Water Never Gets Cold

Some coasts you plan around a season. Jeddah is not one of them. The sea in front of this city sits between 26 and 31 °C every month of the year, and the swell rarely gets past a metre.

That is the reason to pay attention. A Red Sea coastline with no cold months, attached to Saudi Arabia's second-largest city, with a major international airport, restaurants, hotels and a 30 km waterfront avenue.

It is a very different kind of Red Sea trip from a liveaboard week. You are basing yourself in Saudi Arabia's main commercial city and going to the water from there.

A city that has always faced the sea

Jeddah has been a port for a very long time. It became the main harbour serving travellers to Mecca around 647 CE, and it has been a trading city ever since, which is why the population is such a mix. Today Jeddah Islamic Port is the thirty-sixth largest seaport in the world and the second-busiest in the Middle East.

That history is still standing in the old city. Al-Balad, on the southern side of modern Jeddah, is a warren of multi-storey houses built from coral, crumbling in places and fascinating throughout. Historic Jeddah has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2014.

Worth knowing if you are the sort of diver who likes a town with something in it besides tank fills.

How the coast is laid out

Jeddah sprawls. The city covers 5,460 square kilometres and stretches along the Red Sea, tied together by the Corniche, a seaside avenue nearly 30 km long dotted with strange sculptures.

The Corniche is the largest waterfront in the Kingdom, with hotels, beaches and resorts clustered along it. North of the city there is a string of beach resort compounds, known locally as the more relaxed end of things.

Keep going north and the built-up area now runs past the airport and around toward Obhur Creek, about 27 km from the old city centre. That northern stretch is where the coast opens up away from the commercial port.

When to go

The climate here is arid and hot. Winter days can run from 15 °C at dawn to 28 °C in the afternoon, while summer regularly breaks 40 °C. For time out of the water, January and February are the least hot months of the year.

The sea tells a slightly different story. It becomes genuinely hot from July to October, peaking near 31 °C in September. Waves stay modest all year, with the calmest average in November.

Those are modelled monthly averages from Open-Meteo, so treat them as the shape of the year rather than a forecast. The pattern is clear enough: March is the coolest the water gets, and even then it is 26 °C.

Getting there and getting around

King Abdulaziz International Airport is the largest in the Kingdom and is served by airlines from around the world. Terminal 1 handles Saudia and other SkyTeam carriers plus domestic flights; the North terminal takes all other international arrivals. A taxi into the city runs around SR50, so agree the fare before you set off.

There are other ways in. SAPTCO buses connect almost every Saudi city and some international ones, though a run from Amman can take 18 hours. Ferries arrive from Port Suez weekly, a 42-hour crossing, and from Suakin three times a week in about 10 hours. A high-speed railway to Mecca and Medina opened in 2018.

In the city, green taxis and Ubers are everywhere. A mid-size rental car goes for SR100 to 140 a day, and fuel is cheap. Given how far the coast stretches, wheels help.

Planning it

If you want the city comfortable and the water still warm, January and February are the pick. If you want the sea at its warmest, aim for the July to October window and accept the heat on land. Book ferries early during Hajj and Ramadan, when they fill fast, and check that your visa is not marked "by air only" if you plan to arrive overland.

Mecca is 65 km east of Jeddah and Medina 360 km north, which is why so many people pass through here. Most of them never look down.

If you dive the northern coast out toward Obhur, log it in Scubaspot with the water temperature you actually saw, then check it against the September figure in the table above. Add a photo of the coral houses in al-Balad to your trip while you are at it, and rate the sites so the next diver heading to Jeddah knows where to start.