Originally Posted by
IAN-UK
Some years back a friend visited me via the land border with Qatar while I was Doha. His passport carried similar restrictions to yours. It seems a bit reckless now, as it carried the risk of the door slamming shut behind him, as it were. He hadn't thought it through, I guess: and ignorance is bliss.
Just a data point. I've no idea if that was a freakish lapse on the part of the border officials, and it certainly couldn't happen today on that border!
From anecdotal evidence I've been reading, KSA had been not worrying too much about the "air only" restriction until last year sometime. Then they started enforcing it, but have recently relaxed again. I've heard that the reason for it in the first place is because the land borders did not have fingerprint readers, which is necessary the first time you visit Saudi Arabia. However, they do now, at least the crossing at Bahrain has them. So they didn't care much as long as it is not your first visit. I'm not sure why they started enforcing it last year though.
I plan to find out. I wouldn't be too worried about getting stuck in KSA, as I could go to Dammam and fly back to Dubai from there. The only caveat is if I rent a car. What would I do with it?
My plan is that if I do rent a car in Bahrain, I'll get it from a company that is also in Dammam. I'm sure it would be very expensive if I had to leave it in Saudi Arabia, but it should be possible at least.