Fourteen weeks sounds like freedom until you list what is already in them.
What is actually in a student summer
Resits in August. Graduation in July. A placement or an internship. Moving out of accommodation. A job to fund the year. And a family who assume you are around.
So the useful question is not when can I go. It is which of these fourteen weeks is genuinely mine, and that is a shorter list than it looks.
The good news
Even a shorter list beats what anybody else gets. A school family chooses between two expensive weeks. You are choosing between five distinct windows at prices from £499 to £699.
And the one nobody uses
You can take twenty-one nights. At £789 that is £39 a night, and there is almost nobody else in the UK who can realistically do it.
Most students book seven. There is a section below on what three weeks actually buys.
The short version
Your summer has five distinct windows at prices from £499 to £699.
Late September at £499 is the cheapest and coolest. Early September is £529.
Avoid late July and August at £699. Peak on price, heat and crowds.
August resits mean you cannot confidently book August until results are out.
Twenty-one nights at £789 is £39 a night, and you are one of very few people who can take it. |
Send us your exam dates and we will find the week
The five windows in your summer
Window | Roughly | From | What it is |
|---|
Post-exams | Mid to late June | £549 | Quiet, cheap, and genuinely hot |
Early July | 1 to about 22 July | £649 | English schools still in term |
Peak | Late July and August | £699 | Avoid if you possibly can |
Early September | First week | £529 | The cheapest summer week |
Late September | From about the 20th | £499 | Cheapest and coolest |
The spread
£200 per person between the cheapest and most expensive weeks of your own summer, for the identical trip.
The best of them
Late September at £499 and around 30 to 36 degrees. If your term starts late enough, it is both the cheapest and the most comfortable week available to you.
The realistic one for most
Mid to late June, straight after exams, at £549. Nothing is competing for it yet, you have not started a summer job, and the Haram is at its quietest of the summer.
The catch
35 to 43 degrees with the shortest nights of the year. Cheap does not mean easy and there is a section on the heat below.
The one to avoid
Late July and August. £699, the hottest weeks of the year, and the busiest the Haram gets outside Ramadan, because every school family in Britain is there.
And the honest note
If your term starts in late September and you can wait, October is £499 at around 30 degrees. Same price as late September in slightly better conditions.
Full month by month detail in our best time guide.
What is competing for your summer
The section nobody writes, and the reason fourteen weeks is not fourteen free weeks.
August resits
The one that catches people. Many universities run resits in August, and you do not know whether you need them until results come out.
The timing problem
Results typically arrive in July. So booking August in the spring means booking before you know whether you are free.
What to do about it
If there is any chance you will need resits, do not book August. Take June before results, or September after resits are done.
And if you have already booked
Tell us early. Changing dates is far easier at four months than at four weeks, and the deposit position is better.
Graduation
Ceremonies are typically in July and the date is fixed by the university. If you are graduating, that is a hard point in the middle of your summer.
The practical version
Book around it rather than through it. Late June before, or September after, both of which are cheaper than the July weeks either side of a ceremony.
Placements and internships
Usually June to August or July to September, which removes most of the summer.
What is left
The gap at either end. The fortnight after exams before a placement starts, or the fortnight after it finishes before term.
Both of those are cheap windows, which is a rare piece of luck.
Moving out
Most student tenancies end in June or July, which means a physical move and frequently a period living at home.
Why it matters here
Because you cannot leave for a fortnight in the middle of it, and because your address changes, which matters for the visa and for anything posted to you.
A summer job
The thing that funds the trip and also blocks it. Most students who work over the summer work from late June to early September.
The honest tension
The weeks you can most afford to travel are the weeks you would be earning. There is a section on funding below.
Family
Who assume you are around after nine months away, and frequently have their own plans for the summer.
The useful framing
A family Umrah trip solves both at once. Four of you sharing a quad is £499 each, and it is the cheapest way anybody in this market travels.
The summer after you graduate
A section on its own because it is genuinely different from every other summer you will have.
What it is
The gap between finishing your degree and starting work. Typically July to September, sometimes longer, and it is the last long unstructured period most people ever get.
Why that matters
Because after it, your holiday allowance is around twenty-five days a year and every one of them competes with everything else in your life.
A fortnight is a substantial commitment for somebody in work. For a graduate in that gap it is a fraction of the time available.
What we would suggest
Go long. Fourteen or twenty-one nights, in September once the summer prices have dropped, at £625 or £789.
Why September specifically
Because it is the cheapest end of the summer, it is cooling, and most graduate jobs start in September or October so you are travelling right before the transition.
The practical constraint
Your start date. Some graduate schemes begin in early September, which closes the window. Others start in late September or October, which leaves it wide open.
What to check
Your actual start date before booking, and whether there is an induction or pre-start requirement before it.
Funding it
Awkward, because you are between a student loan and a first salary. The £99 deposit and interest-free instalments matter more here than anywhere.
Booked in the autumn of your final year, a £789 twenty-one day trip is around £69 a month across the year, which is manageable on a part-time job.
And the honest observation
People who take that summer properly rarely regret it. People who go straight from finals into a job frequently wish they had not.
That is not a sales line. It is the thing graduates say afterwards.
What twenty-one nights actually buys
Almost nobody in the UK can take three weeks. You can, and almost none of you do.
The price
£789 for twenty-one days at three star, which is £39 a night. Against £71 a night on a seven night trip.
The split
Twelve nights in Makkah and eight in Madinah on our standard build, though we adjust it if you tell us what you want.
What that changes
| | Seven nights | Twenty-one days |
|---|
Makkah nights | 4 | 12 |
Madinah nights | 3 | 8 |
Per night | £71 | £39 |
Rawdah permit chances | Limited | Many |
Multiple Umrahs | Rushed | Comfortable |
Pace | Full | You settle in |
The Rawdah point
Permits are free through the Nusuk app, released on a rolling basis, and they go quickly. On three Madinah nights you get a handful of attempts. On eight you get many.
For a lot of people that alone justifies the longer trip.
Multiple Umrahs
Each additional one means a trip to the Miqat at Taneem and back, at around £10 to £20 by taxi. On four Makkah nights that costs you most of a day you do not have. On twelve it is straightforward.
The thing people report
That the first week is a trip and the second and third are something else. You stop rushing, you learn the gates, you find your own hours, and the whole thing settles.
The honest caveat
Not in July or August. Twenty-one nights at 43 degrees is a hundred and twenty walks in extreme heat and the heat accumulates.
In late September, or better in October, a long trip is comfortable throughout. Detail on the 21 days page.
And the fourteen night version
£625, £45 a night, and a more realistic ask if you have a job to get back to. Most of the benefit for two thirds of the commitment.
Funding it
The two routes
Save from a summer job and pay close to departure, or book early and spread it across the year. The second is cheaper and easier.
What the instalments look like
Package | Booked 10 months out | Booked 3 months out |
|---|
7 nights, £499 | About £40 a month | About £200 a month |
10 nights, £545 | About £45 a month | About £223 a month |
14 nights, £625 | About £53 a month | About £263 a month |
21 days, £789 | About £69 a month | About £345 a month |
Why booking early is the whole answer for a student
Because £40 a month is a manageable commitment on almost any student income and £200 a month is not.
The trip does not get cheaper by booking early in a quiet month. The monthly figure does, by a factor of five.
The deposit
£99, per person rather than per room, and it fixes your price in writing. Whatever happens to fares between then and departure, you pay the figure on your confirmation.
Sharing
The biggest single saving available to you. Four sharing a quad is £499 each. Travelling alone is from £949.
Finding three friends is worth £450 per person, which is more than any other decision on the booking.
What else to budget
Food beyond breakfast where included, the Taneem taxi at £10 to £20 per extra Umrah, tips, and anything you buy. Around £100 to £150 on top for a week, more for longer.
Full detail on the all inclusive page.
And the thing worth knowing
If you are working over the summer to fund it, booking in the autumn before means you are paying from that income across the year rather than in one lump the month before you fly.
The heat, since it is summer
What you are dealing with
35 to 45 degrees depending on the month, and the shortest nights of the year at around eight hours between Isha and Fajr.
What that means at twenty
Manageable over a week with planning. Genuinely demanding over a fortnight. And considerably harder than you expect on the first two days while you adjust.
The adjustments that matter
- Drink ahead of thirst, because dry heat does not feel like it is taking water from you
- Take rehydration sachets, because water alone does not replace salts
- Buy a sun umbrella on the first day. They are widely used there and sold everywhere
- Restructure the day. Fajr and stay, sleep through the morning, Maghrib and stay through Isha
- Perform Tawaf before Fajr or late at night, never in the afternoon
The hotel point
In summer the distance matters more than in any other season, because at 43 degrees the walk decides whether you keep attending prayers.
Four sharing at four star under five hundred metres is £629 each against £499 further out. In July or August that £130 is the best money on the booking.
The length point
Seven or ten nights in July or August, not twenty-one. Heat and sleep debt accumulate and the second week is genuinely harder than the first.
The way round all of it
Late September, at £499 and around 30 to 36 degrees. Cheapest week of your summer and the most comfortable, which is an unusual combination.
Full heat guidance in our summer post.
Going with friends
The arithmetic
Four sharing a quad is £499 each. Three in a triple is from £579. Two in a twin is from £679. Alone is from £949.
What that means
Getting to four is worth £450 per person against going alone, and £180 against going as a pair.
If you are three
Ask us whether another group is going on your dates with a spare place. Mosque groups, community trips and ISoc trips frequently have one.
If you are more than four
The arithmetic steps rather than scaling. Eight in two quads is £499 each. Five is £589 each, because the fifth person opens a room.
Full breakdown in our large parties post.
Mixed groups
Men and women travelling together as a group is common and straightforward. Separate quads, same hotel, same flights. Tell us the split at the enquiry.
Women travelling without a Mahram
Under current Saudi rules, women aged eighteen and over may perform Umrah as part of an organised group without one. Confirm the position for your specific travel date.
An ISoc trip
Twenty students in five quads pay £499 each, the same as a family of four. What a group gets is rooms held together and individual deposits rather than one large payment.
The timing
Five to six months for a group booking. Which for a summer trip means starting in the autumn term, and societies frequently start far later than that.
Practical things to sort
Your passport
Six months validity from your travel date, not from today. Student passports are frequently ones issued at sixteen and about to run out.
Check it now
Renewals take time and this is the commonest reason a student booking falls apart.
The ACWY vaccine
A visa requirement, and the certificate must be dated at least ten days before you arrive.
You may already have it
Many UK students were given ACWY before starting university. Check your record before booking an appointment.
If you have it, you can travel at ten days notice rather than four weeks, which matters if a window opens unexpectedly.
Your address
If you are moving out of student accommodation, make sure we have an address that will still reach you in three months.
Non-UK passports
If you are studying here on a student visa, the Saudi visa process differs and your UK immigration status matters for re-entry. Tell us your nationality and visa type at the enquiry.
The Nusuk app
Set up your profile the day your visa is approved. The Umrah and Rawdah permits are free, released on a rolling basis, and nobody can sell you one.
Insurance
Cheap at your age and worth having. Check whether a bank account or family policy already covers you.
And the flight
Sleep on the outbound decides how the first two days go. Students book the cheapest flight regardless of the hour, and a three in the morning departure costs you the first day of a seven day trip.
Summer prices for students
Window | 7 nights | 10 nights | 14 nights | 21 days |
|---|
Mid to late June | From £549 | From £599 | From £689 | From £859 |
Early July | From £649 | From £719 | From £819 | On request |
Late July and August | From £699 | From £769 | From £869 | On request |
Early September | From £529 | From £575 | From £659 | From £825 |
Late September | From £499 | From £545 | From £625 | From £789 |
Per person, quad sharing. Includes return flights, both hotels named in writing with the distance in metres and the nearest gate, the Saudi Umrah visa, all three transfers and guided Ziyarat in both cities. Held with a £99 deposit.
The per night figures in late September
£71 at seven nights, £55 at ten, £45 at fourteen and £39 at twenty-one days.
The best student booking of the summer
Fourteen nights at three star in late September, £625, four sharing. Comfortable weather, a quiet Haram, and £45 a night.
The one for a graduate
Twenty-one days in late September at £789. £39 a night, and you are one of very few people who can take it.
And the one we would talk you out of
Fourteen or twenty-one nights at three star in July or August. The per-night figure looks excellent and it is a hundred and twenty walks in extreme heat.
How we price
We check comparable UK packages every month and sit £20 under the lowest we can find for the same nights and the same hotel tier.
What to do now
- Work out which weeks are genuinely yours. Resits, graduation, placement, moving out and a job all sit inside those fourteen weeks.
- If resits are possible, do not book August. Take June before results or September after.
- Aim for late September if your term starts late enough. Cheapest and coolest week of your summer.
- Find three friends. £499 each against £949 alone is the biggest saving available to you.
- Book in the autumn before and spread it. £40 a month against £200 is the whole decision.
- Check your passport and your vaccination record before anything else.
- If you are graduating, consider going long. Twenty-one nights at £39 a night, in the freest window you will ever have.
The one that decides the price
The third. £200 per person between the cheapest and most expensive weeks of your own summer, for the same trip.
And the one people regret not doing
The last. Almost nobody else in the UK can take three weeks, and almost no student who can does.
The summary
Fourteen weeks is not fourteen free weeks
Resits, graduation, placements, moving out and a summer job all sit inside them. Work out which weeks are genuinely yours before you look at prices.
There are five windows and £200 between them
Late September at £499 is the cheapest and coolest. Late July and August at £699 is the worst on price, heat and crowds.
Do not book August if resits are possible
Results arrive in July and booking in the spring means booking before you know whether you are free.
Four sharing is £499 each
Against £949 alone. Finding three friends is worth more than any other decision on the booking.
And going long is the thing nobody uses
Twenty-one nights at £789 is £39 a night. Almost nobody else in the UK can take three weeks, and the summer after you graduate is the freest window you will ever have.
Send us your exam dates
Related reading
Tell us what is already in your summer
Not just when your term ends. Whether resits are a possibility, when your graduation is, whether you have a placement, and when you need to be back.
Those decide which weeks are genuinely yours, and once we know them we can tell you which is cheapest and what it costs four of you sharing.
Packages Umrah
WhatsApp or call: +44 7737 144 335
Office: 7 Huxley Avenue, Manchester, M8 0SJ
English and Urdu. Same-day quotes.
From £499pp four sharing. £99 deposit fixes your price, from around £40 a month.
Trading name of Uraan Travel Ltd. |
Send us your summer dates
University summer: 65 questions answered
Grouped by topic. Direct answer first. Term and exam dates vary enormously between universities and courses, so check your own.
Which week
When is the cheapest week of a student summer?
Late September at £499, if your term starts late enough.
And the second cheapest?
The first week of September at £529.
What about straight after exams?
Mid to late June at £549. Nothing is competing for it yet and the Haram is at its quietest of the summer.
Which week should I avoid?
Late July and August at £699. Peak on price, heat and crowds.
How much is between the cheapest and most expensive?
£200 per person, for the identical trip in your own summer.
Is late September comfortable?
Around 30 to 36 degrees, which is the most comfortable week of your summer as well as the cheapest.
Should I wait for October?
If your term allows it, £499 at around 30 degrees is marginally better again.
Is early July cheaper than August?
£649 against £699, because English schools are still in term for the first three weeks.
What is competing for your summer
Why is fourteen weeks not fourteen free weeks?
Resits, graduation, placements, moving out of accommodation, a summer job and family plans all sit inside them.
What about August resits?
Many universities run them in August, and you do not know whether you need them until results arrive in July.
So can I book August?
Not confidently in the spring, if there is any chance you will need resits.
What should I do instead?
June before results, or September after resits are done.
What if I have already booked?
Tell us early. Changing dates is far easier at four months than at four weeks.
When is graduation?
Typically July, and the date is fixed by the university. Book around it rather than through it.
What about a placement?
Usually June to August or July to September, which leaves the gap at either end. Both of those are cheap windows.
Does moving out matter?
It blocks a fortnight and it changes your address, which matters for the visa and anything posted to you.
What about a summer job?
The weeks you can most afford to travel are the weeks you would be earning. Booking early and spreading the cost resolves most of that.
And family?
A family trip solves both at once. Four sharing a quad is £499 each and it is the cheapest way anybody travels.
The graduate summer
What is different about the summer after graduating?
It is the last long unstructured period most people ever get, between finishing your degree and starting work.
Why does that matter?
Because afterwards your holiday allowance is around twenty-five days a year and every one competes with everything else.
What should I book?
Go long. Fourteen or twenty-one nights in September, at £625 or £789.
Why September?
Cheapest end of the summer, cooling, and most graduate jobs start in September or October.
What should I check first?
Your actual start date, and whether there is an induction or pre-start requirement before it.
How do I fund it between loan and salary?
Book in the autumn of your final year. A £789 twenty-one day trip is around £69 a month across the year.
Do people regret taking that summer?
Rarely. People who go straight from finals into a job frequently wish they had not.
Going long
Can I really take twenty-one nights?
You are one of very few people in the UK who can, and almost none of you do.
What does it cost?
£789 at three star, which is £39 a night against £71 on a seven night trip.
How does it split?
Twelve nights in Makkah and eight in Madinah on our standard build, adjusted if you tell us what you want.
What does the extra time buy?
Many more chances at a Rawdah permit, comfortable multiple Umrahs, and a trip that settles rather than rushes.
Why do Rawdah chances matter?
Permits are free and released on a rolling basis and they go quickly. Three Madinah nights gives you a handful of attempts. Eight gives you many.
What about a second Umrah?
Each one needs a Taneem taxi at £10 to £20. On four Makkah nights that costs most of a day. On twelve it is straightforward.
What do people say about long trips?
That the first week is a trip and the second and third are something else. You stop rushing and find your own hours.
Can I do twenty-one nights in August?
We would advise against it. A hundred and twenty walks at 43 degrees, and the heat accumulates.
What about fourteen?
£625, £45 a night, and a more realistic ask if you have a job to get back to.
Funding
What does £499 cost per month?
Around £40 booked ten months out, or around £200 booked at three months.
And twenty-one days?
Around £69 a month booked ten months out, against £345 at three months.
Does booking early make the trip cheaper?
In a quiet month, barely. It makes the monthly figure five times smaller, which for a student is the whole decision.
What is the deposit?
£99, per person rather than per room, and it fixes your price in writing.
What is the biggest saving available?
Sharing. Four in a quad is £499 each against £949 alone. Worth £450 per person.
What if I cannot find three friends?
Ask whether a group is going on your dates with a spare place. Mosque, community and ISoc trips frequently have one.
What else should I budget?
Around £100 to £150 on top for a week. Food beyond breakfast, the Taneem taxi, tips and shopping.
Can I pay from a summer job?
Booking in the autumn before means you pay from that income across the year rather than in one lump the month before.
The heat
How hot is it?
35 to 45 degrees depending on the month, with the shortest nights of the year at around eight hours.
Is that manageable at twenty?
Over a week with planning. Genuinely demanding over a fortnight, and harder than you expect on the first two days.
What are the key adjustments?
Drink ahead of thirst, take rehydration sachets, buy a sun umbrella, restructure the day, and do Tawaf before Fajr or late at night.
Does the hotel matter more?
More than in any other season. At 43 degrees the walk decides whether you keep attending.
Should I pay for four star?
In July or August, yes. £629 against £499 and it is the best money on a summer booking.
How long should a summer trip be?
Seven or ten nights in July or August, not twenty-one. Heat and sleep debt both accumulate.
What is the way round all of it?
Late September at £499 and around 30 to 36 degrees. Cheapest and most comfortable at once.
Going with friends
What does four sharing cost?
£499 each, which is the lowest figure in this market.
And three?
A triple from £579 each.
And two?
A twin from £679 each.
What if we are five?
£589 each, because the fifth person opens a new room. Eight in two quads is back to £499.
Can we travel as a mixed group?
Common and straightforward. Separate quads, same hotel, same flights.
Can women travel without a Mahram?
Under current Saudi rules, women aged eighteen and over may as part of an organised group. Confirm the position for your travel date.
What does an ISoc group pay?
Twenty students in five quads is £499 each, the same as a family of four.
When should an ISoc start planning?
Five to six months ahead, which for a summer trip means the autumn term.
Practical
What passport validity do I need?
Six months from your travel date. Student passports are frequently ones issued at sixteen and about to expire.
Do I need the ACWY vaccine?
Yes, and the certificate must be dated at least ten days before you arrive.
Might I already have it?
Many UK students were given it before starting university. Check your record first.
Why does that matter?
With it you can travel at ten days notice rather than four weeks.
What about my address?
If you are moving out of student accommodation, make sure we have one that will still reach you in three months.
What if I have a non-UK passport?
The Saudi visa process differs and your UK immigration status matters for re-entry. Tell us your nationality and visa type.
When should I set up Nusuk?
The day your visa is approved. The permits are free and nobody can sell you one.
Does the flight time matter?
More than you think. A three in the morning departure costs you the first day of a seven day trip.
Related reading
Tell us what is already in your summer
Not just when your term ends. Whether resits are a possibility, when your graduation is, whether you have a placement, and when you need to be back.
Those decide which weeks are genuinely yours, and once we know them we can tell you which is cheapest and what it costs four of you sharing.
Packages Umrah
WhatsApp or call: +44 7737 144 335
Office: 7 Huxley Avenue, Manchester, M8 0SJ
English and Urdu. Same-day quotes.
From £499pp four sharing. £99 deposit fixes your price, from around £40 a month. |
Send us your summer dates
