Arriving

It is possible to get a tourist visa on arrival, but to avoid hassles I strongly recommend any travellers heading to Yemen to get a visit visa before arriving. Prices of visas vary depending upon where you get it. (200 dirham from UAE, around $US65-70 from USA).

Sana’a International airport is the main destination for flights entering Yemen, however, you can also fly in to Aden International in the south of the country. Gulf Air runs services from many destinations via Bahrain, Yemenia flies direct from many destinations in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. Oman, Qatar airways, Emirates and Ethiopian airways also fly frequent services from their base cities to Sana’a.

The decent into Sana’a is picturesque. You can see small clusters of mud houses and lush green terraced gardens (probably qat plantations) stepping their way down the hillside. The mountains have an interesting form and you can see all the treaded paths along the sides of them. Once you have landed and are taxiing to the terminal you will have the opportunity to see dead aeroplanes sitting all over the place – once flying ships now home to birds.

Sana’a International Airport is still very basic and passengers disembark the aircraft by stairs onto the tarmac then onto buses to the small terminal building. The climate of Sana’a is very pleasing and you will feel its freshness as you step off the plane. The weather is probably the best thing about Sana’a, summer not too hot and winter not too cold.

Sisters travelling alone:

I arrived in Yemen during the time of the 5th Sada’a war (war against shi’ah Houthi separatists in the northern province of Sada’a), so security was extra tight.
I got in, but I was stopped at the gate for some time for questioning before being allowed through and my baggage was specially tagged for searching. I opted not to wear niqab and long khimar for the trip because I heard about a sister who travelled to Sana’a alone and was questioned by armed security men upon arrival. I have also received a number of reports of single sisters being refused entry and returned on the next flight out. I found this to be rather disappointing as I watched many lone kafir women travellers waltz through the gates without any problems. May Allah swt guide them to Islam. Amin.

Transport out of the airport to the city is not a problem. There are taxis which have a fixed fee of 2000 Yemeni riyal which works out to be around $10 - expensive for Yemeni standards - you will not pay anything near that price for taxis anywhere else.

The highway towards town from the airport is usually very busy, but I had arrived at qat chewing time, so the traffic was flowing smoothly. I wasn’t expecting much from Yemen so I was not surprised with the lack of development I saw along the highway heading through Rawdah area. Along the way if you look to your left you can see clusters of traditional mud houses amongst the grey brick development.

There was a particularly highly armed military road block along the way complete with a battle tank sitting on the curb just in case. The police/military are not that interested in a vehicle when they see it is full of women, so we had no problem and were not held up like some others. At the time of writing this, a good 6 months after the end of the Sada’a war, the battle tank is no longer at the checkpoint, but all roads out of Sana’a have police check points posted along them.

One of the first things that marvelled me as we travelled through the city was the external brick and stonework of buildings and the windows. Almost all buildings are made from grey breeze blocks, but the Yemenis take the effort to tile the outside surfaces with varying shades of small stone slabs. These slabs range from white to dark grey, and some have green tinges and are arranged in attractive patterns. This practice has given Sana'a a distinct character of which I never felt in the Gulf countries.

I was also quite impressed by the coloured glass windows atop almost every window and door. They cheer up the interior and at night make a beautiful display.