A New Approach

The traditional Shaikh way of doing this trip would always be to travel to Makkah first. I guess it's the normal approach for a family who likes to get the hard work out of the way first - Makkah is seen by many as the crowded, busy, intense phase of any visit to the two cities, while in contrast Madinah is peaceful and easy going. I'm not sure where we got the idea of trying Madinah first but here we are travelling directly there.

The benefits have already materialised: the main one being not having to don an ihram on the plane. The stress saving alone might be worth the change.

Otherwise the trip will be a vanilla ten day tour, split between the two great cities in order to offer a Jummah in each. As is becoming our preference, we stuck to the part-DIY approach, where we research and book our own hotels directly. Not only does this allow us to exercise more choice in accommodation, it's also cheaper and allows us to have a direct relationship with our hosts. There'll be no nightmare room changes for us this way.