No, Yemen cannot be backpacked independently right now: foreigners need a visa and travel permits arranged through a licensed local operator, and most governments advise against all travel.
In practice every trip in Yemen is guided. On
Socotra, a 7- to 8-day tour typically costs US$700 to 1,600, with flights from Abu Dhabi on top. On the mainland, a guide, driver and 4x4 for the
Hadramawt or the north generally runs US$90 to 170 a day, depending on group size. Checkpoints appear every 20 to 50 kilometers on many roads, and your guide carries the permit papers. What you can still do solo is wander souks, eat in local restaurants and chat over tea within the town you are staying in.
Yemen needs at least 5 days for one region and 15 days to combine the south coast, Hadramawt and Socotra.
Five days covers
Shibam,
Tarim and
Wadi Dawan, flying in and out of Seiyun.
Socotra runs on a roughly weekly flight from Abu Dhabi, so plan 7 to 8 days on the island. Ten days suits the northern highlands: Sana’a for 3 nights, then Kawkaban, Jebel Haraz and Zabid. Fifteen days lets you drive Aden to Al Mukalla (2 days with a stop at Bir Ali), go inland to Shibam and finish with 6 nights on Socotra. Add a buffer day, since flights are often rescheduled.
Not really: in Yemen, foreigners move by private car with a driver arranged by their operator, plus a few domestic and regional flights.
Shared minibuses and Land Cruiser taxis run between towns, but foreigners on them are routinely stopped at checkpoints without permits. Typical drives:
Aden to
Bir Ali in 6 to 8 hours, Bir Ali to
Al Mukalla in 2 to 3 hours, Al Mukalla to
Wadi Dawan in about 4 hours,
Sana’a to Kawkaban in 1.5 hours and Sana’a to Jebel Haraz in about 3 hours. Yemenia flies to Aden, Seiyun and Mukalla from regional hubs, and flights from Abu Dhabi reach
Socotra.
The must-visits in Yemen are
Socotra, the walled city of
Shibam and the
Old City of Sana’a.
On Socotra, give 6 to 7 nights to the dragon’s blood trees of Dixam, the Homhil plateau, Arher dunes and Detwah Lagoon. Shibam’s hundreds of mudbrick towers need 2 nights so you see them at dawn and dusk, with
Tarim 45 minutes away. Sana’a deserves 3 nights for Bab al-Yemen’s souk and the tower houses. If you have time, add
Wadi Dawan for cliffside villages,
Jebel Haraz for terrace walks and
Bir Ali for lava headlands and beach huts on the Arabian Sea.
If you are short on time in Yemen, skip
Marib,
Ta’izz and
Al Hudaydah, which sit on or near front lines and are usually off-limits to foreigners anyway.
You can also drop the
National Museum of Yemen and the
Military Museum in Sana’a, as opening hours are unpredictable and an extra morning in the Old City is time better spent. In the south, Aden needs only 1 to 2 nights, and Al-Ghaydah Beach is a 6- to 8-hour drive east of Al Mukalla for a beach not far different from Bir Ali’s. Put the saved days toward Socotra, where 6 nights is still barely enough.
Yes, our itinerary-planner does exactly that. Set your trip length in days, give your interests and travel style, optionally give start- and end location and/or some mandatory stops you would like to include and the itinerary planner creates your personalized routes for Yemen in seconds. Try it out!
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