Unaizah

Clock Square to the Al Ghada sunset

One day is enough for Unaizah: a cool morning on foot around Clock Square, the Al Bassam Heritage House and the covered Al-Musawkaf market, a long indoor lunch, then the parks of Montazahat Al Hajeb and, with a 4x4, sunset on the Al Ghada dunes. Buraydah, 30 km north, adds a second day for its date market.

Begin at Clock Square, Meydan Al Saah, the landmark at the centre of town. From there walk to the Al Bassam Heritage House while the morning is still cool. Its thick mud-brick walls, small windows and shaded inner courtyard show how Najdi builders kept homes livable long before air conditioning.

Wander next into Al-Musawkaf, the restored covered market, where the roofed lanes keep the sun off the stalls. Spend the middle of the day indoors over a long lunch, as everyone else does.

Drive out in the late afternoon. On a weekend, the parks around Montazahat Al Hajeb fill with families on rugs and food stands selling snacks; on a weekday they are calm and pleasant at sunset. If you have a 4x4 or a high-clearance car, carry on to Al Ghada, where the dunes glow orange in the last light and local drivers race up the slopes. Back in town, end with a juice from Sami Juices on King Abdulaziz Street.

Qassim dates, kleija biscuits, kabsa and jareesh

Dates, fresh juice and Najdi home cooking are what Unaizah eats. Qassim dates come with every coffee, bakeries sell kleija biscuits by the bag, family restaurants serve kabsa and jareesh, and Sami Juices on King Abdulaziz Street does the job a bar would do elsewhere.

Dates come with everything. Qassim's farms grow some of the most sought-after varieties in the kingdom, and in the late-summer harvest you will see them sold fresh on the branch as well as packed in boxes; the rest of the year, buy them from shops around the centre.

The local sweet to look for is kleija, a spiced biscuit of the Qassim region, often with a date filling, sold in bakeries by the bag. For a sit-down meal, family restaurants serve kabsa and Najdi dishes such as jareesh, cracked wheat stewed with meat until creamy.

The real local habits are lighter. With no alcohol anywhere in the country, juice shops take the place of bars, and Sami Juices has been the town's favourite for years, with several branches; the easiest to find is opposite the Alwaha Hotel on King Abdulaziz Street. Order a fresh fruit cocktail and drink it outside. At weekends, the stalls set up in the green parks on the edge of town sell grilled snacks and hot drinks, and they are the best place to eat among Unaizah families.