just came back from umrah... way too much rush... its nearing stampede situation at hateem and riaz ul jannah..
mehfooz travels was used.. kafi khuar to karaya but hogya safar. hotel was not much far away and decent. i went with my wife and mother.
cost about 120000 for each, including ticket saudi airline, hotel food shopping expenses etc.
be carefull dealing with pakistani restaurants and carefully count your change.
take an electric kettle with you.
tea is 2 riyal per cup which is quite expensive..
you can find condensed milk at the baqalah (general store) which are pretty much available every where.
for tawaf, the ground floor is chock full of people. only at about 8-10am you get some space on the ground floor. rest its on the 2nd ring. in sunlight 2nd ring is quite empty and you can do tawaf with sukun.
for moving to saee area, you have to do tawaf and then move to saee as there is no other pathway to it. the way goes from entrance to tawaf (mataf) ring and then to Saee area. to come back you have to come the same way. there is no way connecting the front portion of the haram to the back area directly.
my hotel was on ibrahim khalil road. there is lot of construction going on.