A ziyarah with friends from your Umrah group works best when one person books one vehicle for everyone who is genuinely coming, and the friends settle three things before anyone pays: who holds the booking, how the cost is shared, and what happens if someone drops out. Transport is booked per vehicle and per journey, not per seat, and the number of passengers cannot be changed online after payment. Bookings are also subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept) if the customer cancels. So the friendly part of the plan, deciding to go together, has to turn into a short, clear agreement before the booking is made.
This guide is for pilgrims who have got to know other people on the same Umrah trip, perhaps from the same flight, hotel or travel group, and want to see the ziyarah sites around Makkah (Mecca) together without relying on the group’s own programme. It covers checking what your Umrah package already includes, choosing between one shared booking and separate ones, who should hold the booking, splitting the cost fairly, counting passengers and bags, friends at different hotels, and what to do when numbers change. If the people joining you are relatives at another hotel rather than friends, our guide to meeting relatives at another Makkah hotel is the closer fit.
First, check what your Umrah group already includes
Before arranging anything, ask your Umrah group organiser or package provider whether a ziyarah outing is already part of the trip. Some packages include one; some do not. If yours does, you may only need a private vehicle for a site the group programme leaves out, or for a smaller party that wants a quieter pace.
Nusuk, the official Hajj and Umrah platform run under the supervision of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, describes itself as offering packages from accredited service providers and a way to explore more than 140 locations in Makkah and Madinah. If you booked through a provider, your package documents are the place to check what is covered.
Three questions are worth asking the group organiser:
- Is a ziyarah included, and on which day?
- Which sites does it visit, and does it include time inside any museum or exhibition?
- Are group members free to arrange their own outings on other days?
The answers tell you whether a private outing with friends adds something, or simply repeats a trip you have already paid for.
Ziyarah with friends from your Umrah group: one booking or several?
Once you know a private outing makes sense, decide how the friends will travel. There are three workable structures.
| Structure | How it is booked | Works well when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| One shared vehicle | One organiser books all journeys for the whole party | Everyone starts at one hotel and wants the same sites | Cost sharing and drop-outs must be agreed first |
| One vehicle with a collection stop | One journey from the first hotel, with the second hotel added as a stop | Friends are at two nearby hotels | Stops are fixed at booking and cannot be changed online |
| Separate vehicles, same destination | Each household books its own journeys and meets at the site | Households want different return times or budgets | Vehicles rarely arrive together; agree a named meeting point |
For a party of friends, the first structure is the most common and the simplest on the day. The third is the most independent: nobody’s money or plans depend on anyone else’s. The middle option suits friends at two hotels who want to travel together from the start. Our note on ordering the stops of a multi-stop Makkah visit explains how a collection stop works and why the order matters.
Sharing a ziyarah vehicle with friends: who holds the booking
Sharing a ziyarah vehicle with friends means one booking, and one booking needs one organiser. That person searches the journeys, pays, receives the emails and speaks to the booking team if anything changes. Choose someone who will keep their phone on during the outing and who is comfortable being the contact for everyone.
At checkout, the booking asks for the customer’s mobile number. If the organiser is booking for someone else, the checkout also asks for the traveller’s name, the traveller’s phone and an emergency contact, and there is an optional group leader phone field. For a party of friends, the simplest pattern is that the organiser travels too and is the lead contact, with one other friend’s number available as a second contact.
A few habits help:
- One voice to the booking team. Friends should send any change through the organiser, not contact the booking team separately. Two people asking for different things about one booking causes confusion.
- Share the details, not the account. The organiser can send everyone the pickup times, the meeting point and, once assigned, the driver’s name. There is no need for friends to log in to someone else’s account.
- Let others check before paying. The basket can email a secure review link, so a friend can check the date, the sites and the passenger count before the organiser pays.
Splitting a ziyarah booking: agreeing the money first
Splitting a ziyarah booking among friends is a private arrangement between you. The booking itself is paid in full online by one person at checkout, because Makkah Cabs takes full payment online, so any sharing happens between the friends.
That makes it sensible to agree the money before the organiser pays, not afterwards. Keep the agreement short and write it in your group message.
Decide the basis for sharing
The price is for the vehicle and each journey, not for each passenger. Friends commonly share it in one of these ways:
- Equally per adult. Simple, and fair when everyone does the whole outing.
- Per household. Useful when one household has three children and another is a couple.
- By journey. If one friend only joins the outward trip and makes their own way back, they share only that journey.
There is no right answer. What matters is that everyone agrees before payment.
Settle it before the booking, not after
Ask friends to pay their share to the organiser before the organiser pays for the booking, or at least to confirm in writing that they will. This protects the organiser, who otherwise carries the full cost if a friend changes their mind.
Know what happens to the money if plans change
Bookings are subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept) if the customer cancels. If we or the transport partner cancel, or cannot supply the journey and you do not accept a suitable alternative, you receive a full refund for the affected journey. The cancellation and refund policy sets out the detail. Among friends, agree in advance that a share paid is a share committed, and that any refund from our side is passed back in the same proportions.
The one amount that can appear later
If the organiser asks for a new pickup time and it is approved, a £5 rescheduling fee applies, converted into the booking currency and added to the cash paid to the driver at pickup. The account shows any cash due to the driver. Decide who covers it if it arises; usually it is shared like everything else.
We do not quote fares here, because the price depends on the actual journey, class and date. Our note on what the Makkah price preview includes explains the figure you see before you pay.
Counting everyone, including children and bags
A party of friends is often larger than it first sounds. “Four of us” can mean four couples, or two couples, a grandmother and five children. The planner shows only vehicle classes that pass the capacity check for the passengers and luggage you enter, so the count decides the vehicle.
Ask each friend to give you, in writing:
- the number of adults, children and infants in their household who will actually come;
- any child seat they need (infant seat, child seat or booster can be added in the search);
- any pushchair, folding wheelchair or walking frame, which counts as a large bag;
- whether anyone needs the wheelchair requirement added.
Then add it all up. Our guide to counting passengers for a Makkah taxi covers the details that are easy to miss, such as infants counting as passengers.
As a guide, a Hyundai H1 family van or a GMC Yukon XL seats seven, a Toyota Hiace eleven and a Toyota Coaster minibus nineteen, each shown as an example model “or similar”.
Friends staying at different hotels
Umrah groups are sometimes spread across more than one hotel, and friends may not be at yours. You have three options:
- Gather at one hotel. The friends at the second hotel make their own way to yours and everyone leaves together. The booking has one pickup.
- Collect them as a stop. The journey starts at the first hotel and adds the second hotel as a stop, where the friends get in. The vehicle must be big enough from that point onwards.
- Meet at the site. Each hotel’s party books its own journey and you meet at an agreed point.
Where vehicles may stop around the Haram and busy central hotels is managed on the day by the authorities, and we do not promise a particular entrance or hotel frontage. Agree a meeting point everyone can find, write it in the booking notes and be ready to send a live location.
Agreeing the day before you book
Friends from an Umrah group may know each other well enough to share a meal, but not well enough to know each other’s pace. Before booking, agree the shape of the outing.
Which sites, and in what order
Keep to one side of the city. The Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites lists landmarks including Mount Hiraa (Jabal Nour), Mount Thawr, Masjid Asayidda Aisha and the parks of Makkah, and they sit in different directions. Choose one or two sites everyone wants and treat the rest as optional.
How long at each place
Decide in advance how long you will spend at each site, and book each onward or return journey for the end of that time. A stop within a journey is a point where people get in or out, not time for a visit; a place where you spend time usually means a drop-off and a separate onward journey at a time you set when you book.
One meeting point and one return time
The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah’s Umrah and Visit Guide advises groups to set a clear meeting point before starting, so that nobody gets separated. The same habit works on a ziyarah. Name one meeting point for the return and one time to be there. Our guide to setting one group return time on a Makkah outing shows how to work back from the booked pickup.
Different paces
If one friend’s elderly mother will tire quickly while the others want a longer visit, discuss it now. A separate return journey for part of the party is easier to arrange before booking than on the day. Our guide to a Makkah ziyarah with elderly parents covers planning around the slowest walker, and our note on one person leaving a visit early looks at a separate ride back for one traveller.
It helps to remember that friends are more polite with each other than families are. A friend may say they are happy to stay for three hours when they would rather leave after one, simply to avoid holding the others up. Ask the question in a way that makes a shorter plan easy to choose, for example by offering two return times and letting each household pick. That honesty early on is what makes a ziyarah with friends from your Umrah group a day people remember well, rather than one they quietly endured.
When a friend drops out or someone new wants to join
Plans between friends change more often than plans within a family. Know the limits before they are tested.
Someone drops out after payment. The number of passengers cannot be changed online. The vehicle you booked will still come, with a spare seat. If the reduction is large enough that a smaller vehicle makes sense, speak to the booking team first; the answer may be a new booking plus a cancellation request for the old one, and a cancellation by the customer is subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept). For a single empty seat, keeping the booking is usually simpler.
Someone new wants to join. A new friend may fit if the vehicle has a spare seat and the capacity check allows it, but you cannot add them online. Contact the booking team before promising a seat, and wait for their answer.
The time needs to move. Only the pickup time can be changed online. In your account, “Request a new pickup time” on a paid booking asks for a new time before the pickup. The request stays pending until the booking team approves it; an approved change carries the £5 fee described above, and a rejected one costs nothing.
Worked example: five households, one minibus
Tariq and his wife Salma met four other households on their Umrah trip from Manchester. They are all at the same hotel, and the group’s programme has no ziyarah on the free days. They decide to arrange one together.
The count. Tariq asks each household for its numbers in the group chat. The total is twelve adults and four children, one needing a booster seat, plus one pushchair and one folding wheelchair for Yusuf’s mother, Hafsa. Sixteen passengers rule out the Hiace, so the planner offers the Toyota Coaster and larger.
The agreement. Before paying, Tariq writes a short message: he will hold the booking and be the only contact; the cost will be shared per household; each household will send its share before he pays; any return of a household’s share will reflect the actual booking refund and the group’s agreement if a household later drops out; and any refund from the company’s side will be passed back in the same shares. Every household replies to confirm.
The plan. The friends choose Hira Cultural District as the main site. Tariq books two journeys, one there and one back, at least 48 hours ahead. He adds the booster seat and notes the wheelchair. He sends the basket’s secure review link to Mariam, a friend in another household, who checks the passenger count before he pays.
The status. Both journeys read Confirmed within the day. Tariq shares the pickup times, the lobby meeting time and the return meeting point.
The change. The day before, one couple falls ill and cannot come. Tariq keeps the booking unchanged; fourteen people still travel in the Coaster, and the couple’s share stays as agreed.
Keeping a ziyarah with friends from your Umrah group simple on the day
- Meet in the lobby first. Count households, then go to the meeting point together.
- Organiser at the front. They speak to the driver and hold the booking details.
- Each household watches its own. Parents keep their own children close; the organiser counts households, not individuals.
- Water and shade. The Ministry of Health’s summer heat advice is to schedule outdoor activities carefully, rest in shade and drink fluids before you feel thirsty.
Checklist for a ziyarah with friends
- Check with your Umrah group organiser whether a ziyarah is already included.
- Choose one shared vehicle, a collection stop or separate vehicles.
- Name one organiser who holds the booking and speaks to the booking team.
- Collect each household’s passengers, child seats and equipment in writing.
- Agree how the cost will be shared and collect shares before paying.
- Agree how to share any cancellation charge or refund; customer cancellations are subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept).
- Choose one or two sites on one side of the city and set a time at each.
- Book at least 48 hours ahead and send a secure review link for a second check.
- Wait until every journey reads Confirmed, then share times and meeting points.
- Route every change through the organiser to the booking team.
When your friends have agreed the plan and the shares, the organiser can enter the hotel, the site and every passenger in the Makkah Cabs planner and book the outing for the whole party.