Raffles The Red Sea opened in October 2026 on Shura Island in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Province, and it is welcoming its first guests this week. The 168-key resort holds 121 guestrooms, 14 suites and 33 private pool villas, every one of them with Raffles Butler Service, and opening rates start at SAR 4,872 per night (about $1,300 USD). It is Raffles’ third property in Saudi Arabia and a flagship of the Kingdom’s Red Sea destination megaproject.
Where exactly is Raffles The Red Sea?
The resort sits on Shura Island in Tabuk Province, on Saudi Arabia’s northwestern Red Sea coast, inside the Red Sea destination megaproject the Kingdom is building as the centerpiece of its tourism ambitions. Shura Island is the destination’s hub island, which makes this opening a statement for the whole project, not just the brand. The coastline here sits beside the world’s fourth-largest barrier reef system, with an archipelago of more than 90 islands, most of them untouched.
This is Raffles’ third Saudi Arabia property. It follows Raffles Makkah Palace and Raffles Jeddah, which opened in May 2026, and it moves the brand from religious and business travel into pure leisure. For travelers weighing the Red Sea against the Maldives or the Seychelles, a globally recognized luxury name on the marquee changes the calculation. The destination is no longer a promise. It is a booking.
How much does Raffles The Red Sea cost?
Opening rates start at SAR 4,872 per night, roughly $1,300 USD, according to What’s On Saudi Arabia’s opening coverage. The 168 keys divide into 121 guestrooms, 14 suites and 33 private pool villas, and every category includes Raffles Butler Service. That last detail is the brand’s signature promise, the same one it makes in Singapore and Paris, and it sets the service floor for the entire stay.
At $1,300 a night the entry point sits well above city luxury, and that is exactly the point. For context, my InterContinental Taipei review covers a flagship city stay at a fraction of the price. On Shura Island you are paying for the island, the reef and the novelty of a destination that barely existed to tourists a few years ago. The 33 private pool villas will price well above the entry rate, as they do at every Red Sea flagship. Book the opening season for the lowest number you are likely to see.
Red Sea mega-resort rate showdown: how does Raffles compare?
This is the original data I compiled for this guide. I pulled published starting rates from two sources I read directly: the resorts’ own December 2025 press release and What’s On Saudi Arabia’s March 2026 Red Sea hotel roundup. SAR figures convert at the 3.75 peg. Four flagships, ranked by starting rate:
- Raffles The Red Sea, Shura Island: from SAR 4,872 (about $1,300) per night, per October 2026 opening coverage. 168 keys across guestrooms, suites and 33 private pool villas. Raffles Butler Service on every booking, five dining venues in phased rollout, powered entirely by renewable energy.
- Six Senses Southern Dunes, inland desert: from SAR 5,734 (about $1,529) per night, per What’s On Saudi Arabia, March 2026. 76 rooms and villas, a 4,000 square metre spa, opened November 2023. The wellness pick, and the only comparator not on an island.
- The St. Regis Red Sea Resort, Ummahat Island: from SAR 5,880 (about $1,568) per night, per What’s On Saudi Arabia, March 2026. The resort’s own December 2025 release quoted from $1,866. 90 beach and overwater villas, St. Regis Butler Service, five restaurants, reached by 15-minute seaplane or 40-minute yacht transfer.
- Nujuma, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, Ummahat Island: from SAR 8,250 (about $2,200) per night, per What’s On Saudi Arabia, March 2026. The resort’s own December 2025 release quoted from $2,250. 63 beach and overwater villas, Neyrah Spa, astronomer-led stargazing.
For context, two more verified Red Sea starting rates from the same March 2026 roundup: Shebara Resort from SAR 9,000 (about $2,400) and Desert Rock from SAR 8,500 (about $2,267).
The bottom line: At roughly $1,300 per night, Raffles The Red Sea opens as the most accessible entry point among the Red Sea’s ultra-luxury flagships, undercutting the St. Regis by about $270 a night and Nujuma by nearly $900 while matching both on private-pool villas and butler service.
The pricing reads as a deliberate market entry. Raffles is the newest of the four, Shura Island is still introducing itself to the world, and a $1,300 starting rate buys the brand a full first season of guests and reviews before it prices like the neighbors. The trade is clear: Nujuma charges nearly double for smaller scale and deeper seclusion, while Raffles bets that a bigger resort with a golf course and five restaurants at a lower entry point fills faster.
How do you get to Shura Island?
Fly into Red Sea International Airport (RSI), which now handles around 20 domestic and international flights a week from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai, Doha and Milan. Etihad launched Abu Dhabi to RSI on October 4 with a single weekly A320, and adds a second weekly flight on Thursdays from October 25, which opens one-stop itineraries from Asia and Europe via Abu Dhabi. The opening materials did not detail the Shura Island transfer, so confirm boat or seaplane arrangements when you book. The water-first arrival is a ritual I know well from beachfront resorts like the JW Marriott Costa Elena, where the journey in sets the tone for the whole stay.
What restaurants are opening at Raffles The Red Sea?
Five dining venues, rolling out in phases rather than all at once. Ni’ma serves Eastern Mediterranean, Siparaja serves Singaporean, El Nay does Pan-Arabic mezze, Anbara pours Arabian afternoon tea, and a Pool Bar covers the waterfront daytime brief. Early bookers should note what phased means: not every venue pours on day one, so if one restaurant is the reason for your trip, confirm it is open before you commit.
The slate is the most internationally varied the Red Sea destination has seen at opening, with Singaporean and Eastern Mediterranean concepts sitting alongside Pan-Arabic mezze and a dedicated Arabian afternoon tea room. It is the kind of resort-scale food and beverage program I last saw executed at this level of ambition at REM Macau, the City of Dreams hotel, where the dining lineup was a destination in its own right.
What is the spa and wellness offering like?
Raffles Spa & Wellness is built around seven treatment rooms plus a hammam, sauna, steam room, vitality pool and an outdoor lap pool. The adults’ pool and the kids’ and teens’ centres arrive in a later phase, so families booking the opening weeks should know the children’s programming is not there on day one.
The hammam is the detail that matters. It roots the spa in regional bathing culture instead of importing a generic international template, and with the vitality pool and outdoor lap pool beside it, the resort opens with a genuine wellness core rather than a spa that is still finding itself.
What is there to do beyond the beach?
The 18-hole Shura Links golf course is the differentiator none of the Ummahat Island flagships can match: championship golf on the island itself. A marina and WAMA water sports handle the surface of the water, and Galaxea runs the on-island diving program into the Red Sea reef system. The entire resort is powered entirely by renewable energy, the Red Sea destination’s founding promise made concrete at property level.
Why does this opening matter? A photographer’s take
I have not been to Shura Island yet, and I want to go. That tells you how I read this opening. Saudi Arabia is spending its way into tourism the way Dubai did a generation ago, except the Red Sea has something Dubai cannot build: the world’s fourth-largest barrier reef system and an archipelago of more than 90 islands, most of them untouched.
Raffles putting its name on Shura Island is the moment the Red Sea destination stops being a construction story and starts being a booking story. A legacy luxury brand does not open its third Saudi property on a maybe. I have spent 27 years photographing luxury hospitality, and the openings that endure are the ones where the hardware and the story arrive together. Here the hardware is 168 keys with butler service on every booking, and the story is a brand-new island destination running entirely on renewable energy.
If I get the call to shoot it, I am there for golden hour over the pool villas, dawn on the Shura Links fairways, and the hammam in the spa. Desert light on open water is the hardest light to get wrong and the easiest to get right, and I would bet the first wave of published photography from this resort defines how the world pictures the Red Sea for the next decade.
Raffles The Red Sea FAQ
When did Raffles The Red Sea open?
October 2026. The resort on Shura Island is welcoming its first guests this week, with first-guest coverage dated October 19, 2026.
How much does a night cost?
Opening rates start at SAR 4,872 per night, about $1,300 USD, per What’s On Saudi Arabia. The 33 private pool villas price above the entry rate.
How do I get to Shura Island?
Fly to Red Sea International Airport (RSI), served by around 20 domestic and international flights a week from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai, Doha and Milan, plus Etihad’s Abu Dhabi service. Confirm the island transfer when booking.
How many rooms and restaurants does it have?
168 keys: 121 guestrooms, 14 suites and 33 private pool villas, all with Raffles Butler Service. Five dining venues, Ni’ma, Siparaja, El Nay, Anbara and the Pool Bar, rolling out in phases.
Is the spa open?
Raffles Spa & Wellness opens with seven treatment rooms, a hammam, sauna, steam room, vitality pool and outdoor lap pool. The adults’ pool and the kids’ and teens’ centres follow in a later phase.
Is this the first Raffles in Saudi Arabia?
No, it is the third. It follows Raffles Makkah Palace and Raffles Jeddah, which opened in May 2026, and it is the brand’s first Saudi leisure resort.
