Beit Jokhdar, Beit Al Rayess, and Beit Kedwan

For centuries, the Al Balad district in the Red Sea city of Jeddah was a cosmopolitan crossroads for global pilgrims who descended on Saudi Arabia en route to Mecca, just 50 miles away. In recent decades, however, the once-prosperous neighborhood had fallen to neglect before UNESCO flagged its importance by anointing it a World Heritage Site in 2014. Al Balad’s crumbling structures, made from coral and limestone with wooden-latticed rawashin balconies jutting out at improbable angles, are now the setting for a flurry of revitalization efforts, including restaurants, artist studios, and a trio of 19th-century houses freshly converted into atmospheric boutique hotels. There are 17 rooms across Beit Jokhdar, Beit Al Rayess, and Beit Kedwan, each with thoughtfully preserved Hijazi vernacular charm brought to life with help from local artisans and historians. Wood-beamed ceilings, gypsum-carved details, stained-glass panels, bone-inlaid tables and chairs, hand-painted antiques, and plush carpets recall a bygone era, while contemporary art and sleek, marble-clad bathrooms are very much of the present. While most of the Kingdom’s recent hotel boom is associated with gravity-defying architecture and headline-making superlatives led by hospitality heavyweights, this intimate retreat gives visitors an evocative window to the country’s rich past.