Easy Ways to Book Umrah Packages at a Reduced Cost

by Safeena Rahman Travel Addict

Muslims residing in countries located at a greater distance from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have to make a long journey to the holy city of Makkah to perform their Umrah, also referred to as the 'lesser pilgrimage'. This certainly involves a considerable amount of cost. A couple of decades ago, many of the prospective pilgrims had to put off their plans of performing their pilgrimage owing to budget concerns. However, this has become a thing of the past, as many tour operators or travel companies offering the Islamic religious tours of Hajj and Umrah have come up in various corners of the world today.

The Umrah packages offered by them have helped many Muslims in fulfilling their dream of performing the lesser pilgrimage without worrying about cost, but there are still many individuals who find such packages a bit expensive. What most of them do not know is that they can bring down the cost of these packages if they try any of the effective methods used by many of the prospective pilgrims to reduce the cost of their desired package. One such method, which is commonly used by many, is booking the package well in advance.

When booking a package several months in advance, the date of departure must be decided much earlier. The amount of time that the pilgrim wants to spend in the sacred city of Makkah must also be decided well in advance. Once these dates are confirmed, the booking of the chosen package must be done as soon as possible to get the maximum amount of discount. This would leave them with greater savings, which can be utilised during the time spent in the holy city for buying some attractive souvenirs or while exploring the sacred sites of Makkah.

Another way of reducing the cost of packages for Umrah is by making comparisons between the packages offered by various tour operators or travel companies and selecting the one that is being offered at the lowest cost. This usually begins with a search made online on any of the popular search engines. It results in various packages offered by different tour operators showing up in the search results. All that the prospective pilgrims have to do next is make comparisons between them and select the one being offered at a cost which is lowest in comparison with the other packages. Before making the booking, they must ensure that the tour operator offering the package has been authorised by the Hajj Ministry of Saudi Arabia.

Some of the Muslims might not be concerned about the cost of packages, as they are among the ones whose only wish to make the sacred journey of Umrah a pleasant and memorable experience. They can go for the high-end packages that are offered by most of the tour operators as 5-star packages. One of the reasons why they are placed in this category is that the accommodations provided in such packages are in the 5-star hotels of Makkah and most of these hotels are located very close to the Masjid al-Haram.