This page is deliberately limited. It covers what a family can organise: the file, the health side, the booking, the journey and life on the ground. It does not say how to perform ihram, the tawaf, the sa'y or the cutting of the hair, in what order, or what is allowed or avoided during Umrah. Those are religious questions, and this guide publishes no answer to them until a named religious reviewer has approved it.
To learn the rites, speak to an imam or a scholar you trust, before you leave if you can. The words you will hear along the way, such as miqat, ihram, tawaf, sa'y, taqsir and halq, are simply defined in the Umrah and Hajj glossary.
The practical side at a glance
Before you travel: in what order do you prepare the file?
The administrative steps are not part of Umrah in the religious sense, but the journey does not happen without them. For the 1448 season, Nusuk permits and entry to Makkah opened on 1 June 20261. Nusuk is the Saudi platform through which Umrah is booked, and the date of your Umrah slot is set there.
Three things need to be in place before you fly, and each has its own page in the guide:
- The travel papers. Passport, entry into Saudi Arabia and a registered hotel. If you live in Morocco, start with the travel papers for Moroccans. If you live in Europe, North America or elsewhere, start with Umrah for Moroccans living abroad, because your route is not your parents' route.
- The health side. In its Umrah health requirements, the Saudi Ministry of Health uses the term "Umrah areas" for Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah and Taif2. The meningitis rule, and what is still unconfirmed this season, are set out in our page on the meningitis rule.
- The Nusuk booking. If an agency handles your trip, ask whether it makes this booking for you; if you organise it yourself, keep the confirmation on your phone and on paper.
The season itself opens and closes on official dates, which we follow in the guide's official calendar.
The journey: what should you plan for ihram?
The practical question on a flight from Morocco or Europe is when to change into ihram clothing and what to pack. When and how are matters of religious teaching: ask your imam, or your group leader, before you leave, and write the answer down.
On the packing side, common sense helps: if you are packing for a father, put the ihram cloths in his hand luggage, not in the hold, so that they stay within reach during the flight. The rest of the bag is covered by voyageomra.ma's Umrah packing list.
In Makkah: how do you organise the stay?
On arrival in Makkah, most pilgrims leave their bags at the hotel before going to the Grand Mosque, al-Masjid al-Haram. What is done there belongs to the rites, which this page does not describe. The organisation around them, however, can be planned as a family.
- A meeting point. The mosque is vast and the crowd dense. Agree on a precise meeting point before you go in, and write it on paper for a parent without a phone.
- The floors. The mosque has several levels. The upper floors are often less crowded than the courtyard, at the cost of a longer walk: ask your group what suits an older or tired parent best.
- Rests. Nothing in the way a stay is organised obliges you to do everything in one go. A pause to drink and sit down makes a real difference, especially in the hot hours.
- Wheelchairs. We have no verified source on wheelchair access or on hiring one on site, so ask your group or your hotel before the day.
Many pilgrims then stay several days in Makkah to pray in the Grand Mosque. Some want to perform another Umrah during the same stay. What Nusuk allows in that case depends on the season's booking rules, which are not yet in our register; the official calendar will add them once they are published.
What about Madinah and the Rawdah?
Madinah is not a stage of Umrah, although the Saudi Ministry of Health counts it among the "Umrah areas" of its health rules2. Most trips from Morocco include a few days there, before or after Makkah, to pray in the Prophet's Mosque.
One part of the visit is governed by a booking rule: access to the Rawdah, the area between the minbar and the Prophet's former house. According to Gulf News, citing the ministry (December 2023), the Rawdah visit permit is issued once every 365 days, via the Nusuk or Tawakkalna apps3. For an older parent, that single visit is worth planning: decide in advance who will book it and who will go with them. How the booking works, and where its rules stop, is explained in our page on booking the Rawdah on Nusuk.
For the rest of a stay in the city, this guide keeps to the rules. The guide's publisher offers a separate presentation of the places people visit there: Wiki Tours' guide to visiting Madinah.
How does the calendar differ from Hajj?
Hajj takes place only on fixed days of Dhu al-Hijjah. Umrah, by contrast, is performed during a season that stays open for most of the year, according to the calendar published by the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah: for the 1448 season, visas and arrivals from 31 May 2026, and a last entry on 23 March 20271.
For Moroccans, Hajj also goes through a national cycle with its own conditions and lottery, described in our page on Morocco's Hajj lottery4.
What the sources do not say yet
- The description of the rites. No religious reviewer has been named for this guide yet. Until one is, we do not describe the rites, their order or what is avoided during ihram: learn them from your imam.
- The words of the rites. No religious text has been approved for this guide. We reproduce none.
- Special situations. Forgetting a step, illness, interrupting a rite, a woman's period: these are questions of fiqh. We do not settle them; put them to a trusted imam or scholar, before you leave if you can.
- Wheelchairs on site. We found no current official source on hiring or booking a wheelchair at the Grand Mosque.
- A second Umrah during the same stay. The Nusuk rules for this are not in our register for the current season.
- Umrah for a woman travelling without a male relative. A press report mentions a Saudi announcement, but we found no current official page confirming it. We will say so here when we do.
Where should you start?
If the trip is still months away, start with the papers, then the health side, in that order: the travel papers if the pilgrim lives in Morocco, the route from abroad if not, and then the meningitis rule. For the rites, book time with your imam before departure, together with the person who is going, and write your questions on a sheet of paper.
If you would rather have someone organise the trip, the box below explains how to reach the publisher of this guide.