What's the cheapest month for Umrah?

A five-night Umrah trip during Ramadan in February 2027 costs more than twice what the same trip costs in October 2026. Same hotel, same room, same Makkah. The only thing that changes between those two bookings is the calendar.

We track nightly hotel prices across the year for the same panel of 29 hotels in Makkah. Our latest edition takes the median of every one-night Booking.com rate for two adults we sampled in each month, taxes and fees included, with the last prices pulled on 12 October 2026. The pattern is consistent enough to plan around: if you have flexibility on when you travel, picking the right month can fund the entire rest of your trip.

October is the cheapest month in this edition

Why October sits so low

October is the tail of the post-Hajj seasonal low. The pilgrims who came for Hajj have long gone home, summer holidays have ended, school terms have restarted, and family travel has thinned right out.

It is also still genuinely hot, with average highs around 37°C, though the worst of the summer heat has broken. That lingering heat is what keeps the discount alive: most international pilgrims will not book Umrah for October if they have any flexibility, and that reluctance is exactly what holds rates down.

At £191 a night across the panel, October is the best value Umrah month on our current data, with March (£193) the only month close to it.

November: the compromise month

From October the climb is steady rather than sudden. November averages £213 a night, before prices step up hard for the winter run.

Highs drop to around 33°C, the city is comfortable to move around, and you are paying well short of winter money. If October's heat is more than you want to take on, November is the genuine middle ground of the year.

Peak prices: December and January

December and January are the winter peak outside Ramadan. December averages £292 a night and January £250, and together the two make one long expensive stretch rather than two distinct months.

Demand is driven by a few overlapping factors:

• Winter escape demand: pilgrims from cold-climate countries time Umrah for the cooler months.
• School holidays: the December break overlaps with Christmas and New Year travel windows in Western markets.
• Comfortable weather: December and January are the coolest months in Makkah, averaging around 30°C high, 19°C low.

Hotels know all of this. Budget hotels reach prices that look like five-star prices the rest of the year. Jumeirah Jabal Omar goes from £214 a night in October to £326 in December, half as much again, for the same bed.

Ramadan is not a bargain, and this year it is selling out

Ramadan 1448 runs from 8 February to 8 March 2027 on the Umm al-Qura projection, and moon sighting could shift the dates by a day either way. Our February figure covers the whole calendar month, so it takes in the first three weeks of Ramadan and a few nights before it.

February averages £410 a night, up 115% on October, and it is comfortably the most expensive month in this edition. The more telling number is availability. Four of the twenty-nine hotels on our panel had too few February nights on sale to price at all, which means the £410 average is drawn from what is left rather than from the whole market.

Eid al-Fitr is expected around 9 March 2027, and our March figure covers the whole calendar month, so it takes in the last nights of Ramadan and the weeks after Eid. At £193 a night, March lands well below December, so the post-Eid window is one of the better times to go. Four hotels had too few March nights on sale to price, so treat the figure as an early read.

How to actually use this

A few practical takes from the pricing pattern:

• If you can handle the heat, book October. It is the cheapest month in this edition and the city is calm, though March after Eid comes in only a couple of pounds dearer.
• If you want a compromise, book November. Highs around 33 degrees and well short of winter prices.
• March is back on the table. Once Eid passes, rates fall a long way below the winter peak, which makes late March a genuine alternative to autumn.
• Avoid December, January and February if you can. December and January are the winter peak and February is Ramadan itself, by far the most expensive month. All three are the busiest visitor stretches of the year: Mataf gets packed, wait times at Makkah's food halls get even longer, and the value-for-money equation works against you on every line item.
• Don't treat Ramadan as a deal. February 2027 is the most expensive month in this edition and some hotels already have too few nights on sale to price. Go for the reward, not the price.

Worked example: same room, three different months

A representative 5-night Umrah trip at the DoubleTree by Hilton Jabal Omar Makkah, same room category, same flights:

• October booking: £157 a night, about £785 for five nights hotel total, plus ~£120 food and ~£100 transport = ~£1,005.
• December booking: £223 a night, about £1,115 for five nights hotel total, plus ~£120 food and ~£100 transport = ~£1,335.
• February booking, during Ramadan: £297 a night, about £1,485 for five nights hotel total, plus ~£120 food and ~£100 transport = ~£1,705.

The hotel line is doing all the work. Food and transport are essentially flat year round. Between October and December the gap is roughly £330, the cost of shifting from autumn to winter. Book the same room during Ramadan in February and the hotel line alone nearly doubles the October price.

If you want a fuller breakdown of how a 5-night trip splits across hotels, food, transport, and extras at both ends of the spectrum, see our Budget vs Luxury 5-night Umrah breakdown.