For newcomers to Saudi Arabia, culture shock is inevitable. It’s just a question of how soon it will strike. Maybe it will happen the instant you arrive at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, entering a terminal that resembles a vast Bedouin tent rendered in stone and marble.

Perhaps the moment will come when you are exposed to the ferocious desert heat, more than 110 degrees in summer. Or possibly it will hit you when you pass the many highway billboards portraying the severe, bearded faces of senior Saudi royals wearing kaffiyeh (Arab headdresses); or when you see advertisements for Casio prayer compass watches or notice a billboard of a man drinking what looks like a bottle of beer, but is in fact a brand of milk.

By the time you reach your hotel, you will undoubtedly know you have arrived in a place that is determinedly different from any other.

This city is beguiling in other ways. Its scale is deceptive, for instance. Heading downtown, you travel on wide, palm-lined boulevards through low-rise suburbs. The main landmarks are the minarets of the many mosques. Riyadh initially feels quite small and unassuming, yet the sprawl continues for mile after mile; more than 5 million people live in this city in the desert.

Eventually the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown loom ahead. To get your bearings, look for the distinctive Kingdom Centre, the 99-story blue-glass tower resembling a giant bottle opener. It is a useful marker when you’re at ground level. If time allows, visit the top-floor Sky Bridge, 900 feet up, for a bird’s-eye panorama of the city. Visit on a clear day; the view is often lost in a sandy haze.

When revenues from oil started flowing in the 1950s, Riyadh rapidly morphed from a sleepy, walled, oasis town into the booming capital of Saudi Arabia. Yet under the rule of the Saud family, modernization has not been at the expense of tradition. The country is very conservative, with many laws beyond the experience of most foreigners. It is essential you familiarize yourself with what is and is not permissible. Ignorance is not accepted as a defense if you inadvertently break the law.

Be sure to have your passport on you at all times (make sure in advance it doesn’t contain any Israeli stamps — you won’t be granted an entry visa if it does). Don’t bring into the country any material deemed pornographic. The definition of pornography is wide and covers any photographs of women deemed to be inappropriately dressed. If you arrive with a newspaper or magazine that includes illustrated stories about, for instance, Miley Cyrus (or pretty much any female celebrity or sportswoman), you may be breaking the law.

Never take photographs of local people without asking their permission first, even in an informal business setting. And until you know your business contacts really well, stick to neutral topics for small talk (sports, weather, your favorable impressions of Saudi Arabia) and steer clear of politics.

For an unpretentious yet practical base, the Business Hotel in al-Olaya district, close to the Al Faisaliah Tower, is an excellent option. The boutique hotel is strategically located and offers meeting rooms and a business center. However, its restaurant is not especially salubrious, and you may want to look to other venues for important breakfast or lunch meetings.

The palatial Ritz-Carlton certainly fits the bill if you’re seeking to impress. Its Al Orjouan Lebanese restaurant, stylish and air-conditioned, offers breakfast from 6:30 to 11 a.m. and lunch from 12:30 to 4 p.m., while the Chorisia Lounge has indoor and outdoor seating for breakfast and lunch. The hotel’s Strike Bowling Alley, open 4 p.m. to midnight, is a great location for an informal business get-together with its six-lane bowling alley. Non-alcoholic drinks are served. (The alley is reserved exclusively for women on Tuesdays and Saturdays.)

For formal meetings, the Four Seasons Hotel at Kingdom Centre has three boardrooms with seating for up to 10 people. Its Elements restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, serving international and Asian cuisine, and has a private dining room for up to 24 people.

One drawback of big international hotels is that they can distance you from the city you’re in. For a hotel with a strong Arabian flavor, try Al Mashreq Boutique Hotel, with 69 guestrooms decorated in the local style. The Tea Lounge is a relaxed venue for afternoon business meetings. There is free WiFi throughout.

As a visitor to Saudi Arabia, you have to adjust the rhythm of your day to the daily prayer times. Most shops close for 20 to 30 minutes two or three times a day for prayers; the shutters are pulled down while shop staff head to the nearest mosque. The precise timing of daily prayers depends on the lunar cycle. Check the prayer times in the local paper each morning and plan any local journeys to coincide with prayers (roads are often quieter then).

Outside of prayer times, Riyadh’s roads are invariably clogged with traffic. The good news is that a new metro system, to begin construction in 2014, aims to relieve the problem. The bad news is the project will take four years, and for the duration there is likely to be significant disruption as a result of construction.

Riyadh is not renowned for its leisure opportunities. There are plentiful state-of-the-art, air-conditioned shopping malls, though because they are popular with Saudi women and children, admission for single men is sometimes restricted by the mutaween, the Islamic religious police who often patrol Riyadh’s public areas. Perhaps the most male-friendly mall is the Granada Center, north of downtown on the airport highway.

At the end of a long, hot day, don’t expect to quench your thirst with a cold beer. Alcohol is prohibited. However, the Cigar Lounge inside the golden globe at the top of the Al Faisaliah Tower is the perfect place to enjoy the sunset with an extensive choice of Cuban cigars and non-alcoholic wine.

Read more about Riyadh’s camel trade.