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How To Get from Jeddah to Madinah By Train, Bus, Flight!

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Getting from Jeddah to Madinah, or Madinah to Jeddah is very easy due to the many transport options and the fairly short Jeddah to Madinah distance.

Whether you are travelling from Jeddah to Madinah to experience both cities as I did, or if you are travelling Jeddah, Madinah and Makkah for a religious trip like Umrah or Hajj, this Saudi Arabia travel blog will help you get work out how to get from Jeddah to Madinah/Medina by train, bus and by flying with the prices and timing of each option!

How To Get From Jeddah to Madinah

Jeddah to Madinah
Keep reading for the 3 ways to get from Jeddah to Madinah!

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Jeddah to Madinah Train

Haramain

Travelling from Jeddah to Medinah by train is the option I recommend most because it is comfy, easy and quick.

The Haramain High-Speed Railway is the train from Jeddah to Madinah (and the same train that goes from Madinah to Makkah). The HHR is bookable on this website only. Not the normal SAR railways website which has trains leaving from Riyadh.

Up until September 2019, the Haramain train used to travel from Jeddah Central Station, however, there was a fire, and at the time of writing this, the station is not open. Therefore there are 2 railway stations in Jeddah you can travel to Madinah from.

King Abdullah Economic City – KAEC & King Abdulaziz International Airport – KAIA.

King Abdullah Economic City is North of Jeddah City so this is quite far out. Whereas King Abdulaziz International Airport is Jeddah’s Airport and a lot closer to the city centre making it easier to travel from Jeddah Airport to Madinah by train.

With that said, the trains from Jeddah to Madinah do not run every day, they only run on Wednesday to Sunday, and not on Monday & Tuesday.

They offer Business and Economy seats with 4-5 scheduled departures each day and a total travel time of 134 minutes from Jeddah to Madinah. The train from Jeddah to Medina makes it the quickest option!

Remember you can also book your Madinah to Makkah or Makkah to Madinah train using the HHR website too!

Jeddah to Madinah, Al-Masjid a Nabawi

Jeddah to Madinah Bus

SAPTCO

For the cheapest option of how to travel from Jeddah to Madinah, or if you want to travel from Jeddah to Madinah on Monday and Tuesday when the train is not running, you can get the bus, which is what I did.

The Jeddah to Madinah Bus can be booked on SAPTCO. Buses leave up to 13 times a day, nearly every hour and the price of a bus ticket from Jeddah to Madinah is cheaper by bus than the train.

The SAPTCO Bus station is in Al Balad so it is fairly central in Jeddah City and easy to find.

Note that the bus takes 6 hours to travel the distance from Jeddah to Madinah and you need to be at the bus station in Jeddah one hour before departure so it does take a long time.

I found the bus to be pretty comfortable. It is split into the family and women’s section at the front, and men’s section at the back.

We stopped once for 30 minutes so people could pray, buy food and go to the bathroom.

Jeddah to Madinah, SAPTCO Bus Station Jeddah
Jeddah to Madinah, SAPTCO Bus Jeddah

Jeddah to Madinah Flights

If you want to get to Madinah from Jeddah quickly, you can fly.

Many flights leave all day long from Jeddah Airport to Madinah Airport and the flight time is only 55 minutes.

You can book your flights from Jeddah to Medina on Skyscanner here which checks all the airlines including Saudi Airlines and Flynas.

I have found that in Saudi the earlier you book your flight the cheaper it is and if you book it late and just a few days before it will be much more expensive.

Jeddah to Madinah, Al-Masjid a Nabawi

Once you are in Madinah, I suggest the best way to see Madinah and all of the places close by like Quba Mosque and Mount Uhud is to use the Madinah Hop-On, Hop-Off City Bus. You can book the bus here and read my blog post about the Madinah City Bus here!

 

 

Mohammad Baig

Tuesday 5th of October 2021

Ellie, thank you for this - although I have been to Saudi Arabia several time and I still found your blog helpful especially the new things like the Haramain High Speed Train. I am a travel addict and also from UK. All the best with your adventures as the world is recovering slowly from Covid which also put a stop to our adventures.