Plans have just been announced for the second Ritz-Carlton Reserve property in Saudi Arabia, and this one looks like it’s straight out of the future.
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Ritz-Carlton Reserve planned for mountains of Saudi Arabia
Marriott and NEOM have signed an agreement to open a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Trojena, which is part of the NEOM development. Trojena is intended to be a year-round mountain leisure destination in the northwest of the country. The 60-key resort is expected to open in late 2026, and will feature villas ranging from one to four bedrooms. As far as amenities go, we can expect a spa, swimming pools, and multiple culinary venues.
The property will be situated in a remote area of Trojena, and will offer expansive views across the desert and mountain ranges. Trojena will include activities like skiing, water sports, hiking, and mountain biking. The area will also include many other hotels, with other Marriott properties including a W Hotel and JW Marriott Hotel.
For those not familiar with Ritz-Carlton Reserve, this is Marriott’s uber-luxury hotel brand, which nowadays participates in Marriott Bonvoy. Ritz-Carlton Reserve properties are on a different level than standard Ritz-Carlton properties, and are generally much smaller and offer more personalized service. This will be the brand’s second property in Saudi Arabia, complementing Nujuma, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve property in the Red Sea Project.
The basics of Saudi Arabia’s NEOM development
For those not familiar, NEOM is Crowne Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s $500 billion futuristic mega project. Most significantly, this is where “The Line” is being built, which is Saudi Arabia’s new smart city that looks… almost not real?
The Line is intended to eventually house nine million people, who will live in interconnected societies run by artificial intelligence. This will be a 170 kilometer coastal strip that will be free of cars and streets, and will allegedly have zero carbon emissions. Excavation is underway, and it’s expected that this will open in the coming years.
The region is also expected to have a massive airport by 2030, which will be one of the largest in the world when complete.
Meanwhile this Trojena development is right in the same area, and while not part of The Line, it’s part of the overall appeal of this area.
I’m not suggesting that everyone should suddenly flock to Saudi Arabia for vacation, though there’s no denying that many of these developments look otherworldly. Will The Line really become a thing, or a decade down the road, will this be one of the biggest abandoned ghost projects ever?
Bottom line
A second Ritz-Carlton Reserve property is coming to Saudi Arabia in late 2026, with the opening of the Ritz-Carlton Reserve in the Trojena mountains of NEOM. I can’t say that I’ll be marking my calendar to travel here anytime soon, though logistically I am fascinated by some of Saudi Arabia’s projects.
What do you make of the Ritz-Carlton Reserve NEOM?
The LINE? More like The STUB lmao
I think Saudi Arabia will deliver on most of the promises if the region was stable and we didn't have a WW3.
Swimming pools and spas in the middle of a mountainous desert. Sounds sustainable…
NEOM is never being built. Fiscally impossible even for Saudi Arabia and a logistical nightmare, the spending on it has slowed to a crawl. Total fantasy/vanity concept.
I disagree. NEOM consists of multiple projects, some of them more realistic than others. Trojena sounds like it will most likely be realized since it mainly consists of resorts (that will invest their own money) and is not uber ambitious. Will they build the LINE? THat is a completely different topic.
Marriott seems to be expanding in Saudi Arabia more than any other competitors. IIRC, this’ll be the only country that has 2 RC reserves.
The Jeddah Edition is also opening this week which will be intersigne to more people than the reserves.
Had a bit of a laugh about the claim of carbon emissions when it's going to also have one of the world's largest airports
Saudi just announced that the 105 mile length will now be 1% of that (1.5miles)........
On a random note, in the Matrix movies, "The Machines" originated with an A.I. that took over and killed all the humans in a futuristic Arabian city...
On the random note, I don't think that is canon story at all.
The machine fled to the empty desert because they we're hunted by humans. None of this was in the movie.
Whereas in the movie, the machine is trying to kill humans in Zi..n. (seems to be a loaded vocabulary recently, the Matrix context doesn't make it better at all)
Weird to talk about the Matrix, but here we are…… the Animatrix and Enter the Matrix can't be more canon.
Just spouting Saudi propaganda at this point.
'This will be a 170 kilometer coastal strip that will be free of cars and streets, and will allegedly have zero carbon emissions. Excavation is underway, and it’s expected that this will open in the coming years.'
I mean, either you actually believe this or you are promoting this for some reason. Either way, quite sad...
Is the dismemberment included in the rate, or is there a surcharge?
Wood chipping services are included in the resort fee.
What the hell is the name of this place in Arabic? There is no “J” sound in Arabic.
theres Absolutely a J sound in arabic.
Jamal, Jameela, Jasim, Jihad.
Prime example of someone talking for the sake of talking, SMH.
of JEDDAH?!?! a city IN saudi arabic
Go ahead, have another cup of coffee. You could use it.
There were reports recently that The Line development was being scaled back from the original massive length to just 1.5 miles when it would open (a cutback of 98.6% from its original size specifications). Saudi Arabian leaders have recently stated that this is not true, and that they are still pursuing the original planned size, but will re-evaluate based on market growth and interest (and some other factors).
I expect that the line won't open...
There were reports recently that The Line development was being scaled back from the original massive length to just 1.5 miles when it would open (a cutback of 98.6% from its original size specifications). Saudi Arabian leaders have recently stated that this is not true, and that they are still pursuing the original planned size, but will re-evaluate based on market growth and interest (and some other factors).
I expect that the line won't open quite to the size it was originally planned, but I'll be surprised to see if it is indeed to a large scale.
But Saudi Arabia does have a history of being overly ambitious and abandoning projects. I remember that over a decade ago, Saudi Arabia was planning on building the world's tallest skyscraper (beating the Burj Khalifa) in Jeddah. It was going to have two-story elevators. That building started being built, but it seems construction has halted a while ago and there is this big half-built building in Jeddah now.