Shebara review - Red Sea, Saudi Arabia

About Shebara

Shebara Resort, which opened its doors in November 2024, is a ultra luxurious and innovative retreat nestled in the heart of nature on the Saudi Arabia coast of the Red Sea.

What sets Shebara apart is its unique eco-friendly and ultra futuristic architecture and the seamless integration of local culture and natural landscapes. It boasts world-class amenities, including overwater and beach villas, spa services, and gourmet dining, all with a focus on sustainability and environmental preservation.

The visionary behind Shebara Resort is a partnership of renowned architects and hospitality experts, dedicated to creating an experience that fosters both luxury and environmental stewardship. Accessing the resort is simple, with direct flights available from major international hubs (including 2 direct weekly flights from Dubai as of 2nd of February 2025) to the nearest airport, followed by a scenic 30-minute transfer by boat to the resort, offering guests a breathtaking journey right from the start.

The Island

Shebara Spans over a huge property and counts a bit more than 60 villas, from 1 to 4 bedrooms (for the beach villas). As a super recent resort, it does not have a grown green area (yet) but it is still very pleasant to walk around and explore, particularly the area around the spa and the gym.

Most of the time, you will be using the buggy to move from one place to an other as the distances are quite big. Count approximately 20 minutes walk if you want to go from the sunset pool (which is adults only) to the family pool.

Surrounding the island of Shebara is a beautiful House Reef that we'll present more in details later in this review of Shebara.

The Villa

One of the key highlights of Shebara resort is before anything else the incredible design of the villas. Wether you choose a beach or an overwater villa, you will be staying in a round-shaped villa that looks like a speceship coming from an other planet.

We absolutely LOVED our villa at Shebara. It is spacious and perfectly laid-out with a huge and comfortable bed, a shower that looks more like a sauna room and, of course, a panoramic terrasse with your own private pool.

During our stay, we were in the overwater villa number 227 facing the sunrise which we can strongly recommend. You can also consider a villa closer to the sunset pool if you want a bit more of the sunset light. In any case, there are only 2 types of overwater villas at Shebara - 1 or 2 bedrooms.

6* Service

As always in the ultra luxury segment, what sets this resort apart is the level of service.

Each villa at Shebara Saudi Arabia comes with its private butler which will organise everything for you.

Wether you want to book a restaurant, do a snorkeling trip, go from point A to B around the island,... just message your butler on WhatsApp and everything will be organised.

This is something you'd often see in the Maldives, and as Shebara definitely targets this segment, it is not surprising to find this level of service here as well.

The House Reef

As avid Maldives travellers, we were very curious to see what the house reef at Shebara looks like.

After all, it is the Red Sea, where we dived many times, but from the Egyptian side. So, how is it on the Saudi shores?

Well, the snorkeling on the house reef at Shebara was REALLY amazing. The corals are extremely healthy and colourful and the fish life is abundant. We did not get the chance to spend lot of time in the water as we only stayed for 2 nights, but our 60 minutes in the water gave us enough time to spot an eagle ray and a turtle.

The visibility on the house reef of Shebara was not super great that day because the see was very choppy, but we can only assume that on a calm day, the visibility would be amazing.

If you love snorkeling, do not hesitate and go to Shebara. You can literally snorkel on the house reef just in front of your overwater villa, or take a quick 10 minutes boat to go on the outer reef.

Click on the images below to see the images full-size.

Spa and Gym

As a top-class luxury resort, Shebara did not disappoint at all when it comes to facilities. The gym and the spa are amazing, both with a super futuristic design.

We particularly loved the lap pool in front of the gym, perfect after a good session to cool down and still burn a few calories.

As for the spa at Shebara, we enjoyed a 90 min signature massage which was divine. The beds are the most comfortable we've ever had and the therapists were very skilled. If you visit Shebara, make sure to make a trip to the spa!

Dining options at Shebara

Shebara offers many dining options but our favorite restaurant was definitely Iki Roe, the Japanese restaurant. Everything was delicious and we wish we could have had more dinners there.

Ariamare was also a very good restaurant but a little bit less sophisticated than Iki Roe.

For lunch, you can either eat at Saria by the family pool or Solera on by the adult's pool. Our preference goes to the second one as the food was a bit tastier and lighter.

As for breakfast, you'll be starting the day at Lunara close to the family pool with a mix of buffet and A La Carte options. Alternatively, you can have in villa breakfast, as we did on our second morning. Nothing better than starting the day with such incredible views.