Known as the City of Roses, Taif is famed for its fragrant roses and perfume factories. As Saudi's summer retreat, it offers a cool escape with highlights like the Souq Okaz festival and the Crown Prince Camel Festival in August. Key attractions include Al Hada Mountain, with its long cable car ride, rose fields, and trails, plus the Al Kar Tourist Village featuring a water park and toboggan slide. Various hotels and resorts reflect Taif's unique charm.
What Can You Do In Taif?
Al Hada Mountain
It is time to discover the majestic Al-Hada Mountain, one of the most famous mountains in Saudi Arabia. Al-Hada Mountain is one of Al-Sarawat Mountains range extending in a curved line of about 87 km between the two cities of Taif and Makkah.
Al Wahba Crater
It is the largest and deepest volcanic crater in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with a diameter of 3,000 meters, and surrounded by Al Luhayan, Umm Rilan, and Zabna mountains forming a scenic view.
Rose Product Factory
One of the most beautiful exceptional experiences that you will have is a visit to the famous factories of Taif rose products to embark on a rich and unparalleled journey of exploration.
Al Kaaki Palace
In the historical area of Taif, the exquisite architectural artistry of Al-Kaaki Palace combined juniper wood, granite stone, and colored glass to form and build the palace in the ancient Roman style, blended the spirit of the Hijaz community presented in the design of the palace.
The Journey of Rose Water in Saudi!
.Roses are associated with the city of Taif as an authentic icon, it is one of the most prominent symbols of the city as it is famous for the cultivation, production of roses, and the extraction of rose water to use in many popular products. Each year, a journey starts in December that begins with the preparation of rose fields by preparing the soil, fertilizing, and irrigation. By mid-January, at the peak of winter in Taif, Farmers prune rose bushes of various types, such as dark-colored roses and light roses, known as the Rose of Taif.
Celebrating Taif's Roses:
The life cycle of Taif’s roses begins in December of each year when farmers return to care for their fields and bushes. After 55 days, their scent mixes with the fragrant lush juniper trees in the gardens’ paths. The rich colors of nature mix, announcing the season of picking rose petals at the same time early spring of every year. They are then transported in bushels to Taif’s rose oil extraction factories.
Learn about the cultural and heritage aspects of Taif’s roses at the annual Taif Rose Festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture in Al Rudaf Park. Many live performances, music, and perfume-making workshops take place in an atmosphere filled with cheerful crowds, and the beauty of nature where the beautiful scents of roses and the views of the meeting of mountains with heavy clouds. The Taif Rose Festival, in its second edition, has set a Guinness world record for the biggest basket of roses. The basket consisted of 84,450 assorted roses, which took more than 168 hours of work, and 190 young men and women from Taif contributed to making it.