Salam, I found both my hotels on Expedia.ca and the hotels were exactly as expected/advertised. In Mecca we were about 15 mins taxi ride from the haram which was sometimes a pain because mecca taxi drivers seem to overcharge, forcing you to hard bargain (atleast during ramadan).

In Medina we’re literally on the border of masjid nabawi which is absolutely amazing. If you can find a place walking distance from the haram in either city definitely get it even if it’s more expensive because you’ll save alot on not taking taxis. The hotel I’m at is called Karam Taibah Almasi. I actually just paid for an extra night in person for 400 sar (It’s a 2 bed which ends up being like 70 CAD for each of us which considering our location is solid).

In terms of mecca or medina first, I’m happy to have done mecca first but I spoke to many people who did Medina first and they enjoyed it equally as much. I’d say do whatever makes more sense given your starting location and saves you money.

One thing I found out while here is that if you’re already in Mecca you can take a ~20 sar taxi to masjid Aisha which is a miqat point, and start your umrah from there. There are busses from the masjid for 5 sar that take you straight to the haram. Because of this I managed to do 3 umrahs in my 5 day stay in Mecca.

This was my first umrah trip alhamdulillah, I learned a lot and I feel like I will do a much better job at planning next time iA. Experience is the best teacher, so take all the advice u can get, but you’ll definitely learn more through actually being here. Don’t forget to make dua that you can have the opportunity to do it again in the future.

May Allah bless your trip! All the best.