Next up on my world tour was Oman. Why Oman? A few reasons – 1) it neighbors Dubai and Abu Dhabi, both of which are main airport hubs for my further travels across Asia, 2) I read a lot of good things about its beautiful landscapes and kind people, and 3) it was rated as safe to travel as a woman alone, also a big selling factor for me. Once I decided that I had experienced enough of Egypt for this trip, I scoured the net for airfare deals and was able to score a relatively cheap business class flight on Egyptair from Cairo to Muscat. Airport check in was very smooth and surprisingly empty, however, this is was the extent of my pleasant experience with Egyptair. Cairo’s airport facilities in general are pretty poor – with very dated construction, décor and limited food and shopping choices. The business class lounge also fell right in suit with hard, wooden, old seats, low ceilings and abysmal food selection (no, I did not risk trying the somewhat pink looking salad and questionable cold cuts). Egyptair’s plane was no better with seats that looked like they were falling apart, old looking interior design and certainly no in flight Wi-Fi. Sure, you got juice and a hot towel upon boarding along with a bigger seat, but I would definitely rank this as my lowest quality business class flight in all my years of travel. Thankfully, the trip was a relatively quick 3.5 hours and soon I touched down in Muscat.
From the minute I walked off the plane, I could feel my insides relax as I was transported from the chaos of Cairo to the peaceful serenity of Oman. The airport itself is a beacon of tranquility, with its expansive, glistening and modern design, soft white noise and oh, the smell of frankincense that they pump throughout! To top it off, everyone I encountered, including the airport staff was fantastically warm, welcoming and kind, not to mention the bonus of a free 14-day Visa upon arrival!
Prior to my visit, I had debated renting a car in Oman, as the roads were rated as excellent and safe to drive as well as providing the easiest and cheapest way to see the country. However, reviews are only reviews until you see for yourself how things are, so I decided to use cab service at least for the first day until I could evaluate how difficult/easy it would be to drive myself around. The cab from the airport to my hotel was as expensive as promised due to the fact that the government regulates the charges – a hefty $18 USD for a 20-minute ride. However, I determined from that short ride that renting a car would be as beneficial and easy as the reviews indicated – the roads were indeed excellent and drivers clearly followed all traffic regulations (in sharp contrast to Cairo!).
I chose to stay in the center of Muscat for the first few nights due to price as well as proximity to things to see and do. Tripadvisor had rave reviews on the Royal Tulip, which was a steal at $50 USD/night and included a full gym, rooftop pool and restaurant. It was almost 10pm when I checked in and I was famished, but it was simply too late to go exploring and I decided to order room service from the hotel as a quick fix. My food arrived within 20 minutes, was actually very reasonable priced, delicious and served with delightful hospitality. Adding that to the super quick and hospitable check in process, the hotel was off to a great start in earning its top Tripadvisor rating!
After a good night’s sleep, I woke the next morning to begin my usual city ‘walkabout.’ The closest beach was only 20 minutes away by foot and I figured I would start there, making my way up the coastline, seeing how much I could actually get to by walking and just grab an Otaxi (Oman’s ‘Uber’ as they do not have Uber or Careem in Oman) if I got tired / lost. I reached the beach successfully in 20 minutes and while it was very picturesque, with clear blue water and almost no one else in sight, due to the conservative dress standards in the country I did not feel comfortable just plopping down for a sunning session and decided to continue on with my walk.
Oman’s car culture is huge and most everyone outside of taxi drivers has a big, gas guzzling, shiny, new car. However, this also means that while the roadways are clean and new, the sidewalks are minimally used and often end into busy streets without warning. My ‘walkabout’ quickly turned into a bit of an adventure as I found myself walking down dirt roads alongside highways, gathering looks by locals who wondered what this white girl was doing walking around in a city that no one actually walks around in, aside from the Asian worker population. Side note: there is a large population of Asian immigrant (mostly blue collar and service) workers across Oman and the UAE.
A few sweaty hours later I made it back to my hotel and decided to cool off in its lovely pool, where I would be welcome in my Western beach wear. Once the sun went down, I headed to my room to change for dinner and to check out a decent looking Thai restaurant I spotted earlier. I assumed that as it was surrounded by other small Asian food stands and shops that it had a good chance of being authentic and my assumptions proved right! My meal of morning glory and laarb was all the Thai spicy delight I could’ve hoped for! I ended the evening with a quick blog update and rental car search, as after the day’s walkabout experience it was definitely going to be my best option to see the country.
The next day I chose to relax by the pool and workout before picking up my rental car at the airport, which I found for $40 USD/day including all fees from Europcar. In line with my experience in Oman thus far, it was the smoothest rental pickup I’d ever experienced with zero wait time and a brand new car to boot. In fact, when I inquired about how to contact them if I decided to keep the car for extra days, they simply replied, “relax, enjoy, bring it back when you like, we will just charge you the same rate for however long you keep it, a week or a month!” With my new whip ready to go, I managed to drive myself back to the hotel with only one wrong turn, but boy did it feel good to have my own set of wheels to get around in after weeks of depending on other drivers! The rest of the evening I spent plotting my Oman road trip and ensuring my offline maps on both Google and Waze were in order.
The next day I had to check out of my hotel as it was sold out of rooms; however, I had already booked an early morning snorkeling tour to the Daymaniyat Islands and found another reasonably priced hotel, the Avani hotel and suites, at $45 USD / night, located close to the marina on the west part of the city (my rental car was already coming in handy). The 5 hour snorkeling tour, a reasonable $70 USD, was run by Oman Sea Tours, and consisted of an hour transit to / from the Islands, plus 2 snorkeling stops and 1 beach stop as well as a snack and (non-alcoholic) drinks.
After successfully driving myself to the marina, I checked in with the tour company and boarded the boat. My tour had 8 other passengers, a couple and their 2 children from South Africa, 2 Germans and 2 Italians. It was a nice little group and right on schedule, at 8:30 am we were on our way. Did I mention that the weather was amazing in Oman this time of year? The sun was shining and the seas were calm for our trip and soon we were in sight of the gorgeous island turquoise waters and a pretty white sand beach. Our snorkeling stops were also decent, with an abundance of sea turtles and marine life. On our way back from the islands we even spotted a pod of dolphins which we chased for a good 20 minutes! We arrived back at the marina at 1:30pm and I headed to my hotel which was nearby but also a bit outside of the city center. Along the way I was able to observe some of the Omani ‘countryside,’ with its quirky signage and food trucks (yes they have a lot of them in Oman, mostly burgers!).
At the hotel, it was time for a quick shower and then a bite before bed as the next morning I wanted to stop at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, largest mosque in Oman, before heading out on my road trip. Non-Muslims can only visit the mosque from 8 -11 AM Saturday to Thursday and I couldn’t chance missing it later on in my trip.
The next morning, as planned, I drove to visit the mosque, which was every bit as awe-inspiring as I imagined. Even though I do not practice the religion, I could not help but feel a sense of reverence and spirituality walking the immaculate grounds and admiring the mosque’s intricate architectural elements and design.
After the mosque, the next stops on my road trip were the Bimmah sinkhole and Wadi Shab, both located on the eastern coastline of Oman, about 1.5 hours away from Muscat. The term Wadi is means valley or ravine in Arabic and they are mostly dry, except during the rainy season, and year round they are have little bodies of water and small pools/waterfalls. Both the Wadi and sinkhole were supposed to be safe to swim, hike and free of charge to visit. One can arrange a day trip from Muscat to both areas, but at a price of $150 – $200, driving myself was a much more economical (and fun) choice!
Google maps easily led me along the 1.5 hour drive to the sinkhole through Oman’s scenic mountain range before finally reaching the gorgeous coastline. Side note: The speed limit on most roads in Oman is a hearty 120 km/hour and rather than physical police monitoring your speed, there are radar cameras almost every 1/2 mile. My rental car company warned me that I would be charged for any incurred speeding, parking or other road violations and my car was even equipped with a warning once I reached 120 km/hour, so I resisted taking advantage of the mostly empty roads and kept to the speed limit.
The Bimmah sinkhole was literally right off the road and required almost no walking to get to. It was located in a parklike area, with only a handful of other people were around. It was indeed gorgeous; however, slightly underwhelming and the water was too cold to really swim around in, plus I wanted to get to the Wadi, so after a few pictures I headed back to the road for the 30 minute drive to the Wadi. Again, Google Maps did not fail me and I soon reached the clearly marked entrance to park my car. If you have never seen a Wadi in person, it is pretty mind blowing to come across huge canyon with palm trees and water right out in the middle of seemingly nowhere.
At the entrance of the Wadi, to get to the hiking portion of it, one has to take a 2 minute boat (really a small motorized canoe) ride across the river for $.50. At the boat ‘dock’ there are a few vendors renting life jackets, waterproof bags and even offering guide services for a few dollars. When the boat captain asked how many people I was with and I told them I was alone, one of the guides hanging out on the dock said, “my friend is also alone, she is from Morocco, let’s go together, as she is waiting on the other side (meaning where the boat drops you off).” I thought it was a strange and slightly suspect offer, but figured I would just ignore him once I got to the other side, as I really just wanted to hike alone. However, once we got to the other side of the river, there was indeed a younger Moroccan girl waiting on the other side, clearly a tourist as well. I can only assume the guide thought that naturally we would want to hike together as women traveling alone; however, the girl and I introduced ourselves, saying not much else and we set out walking. About 10 minutes in, the guide asked us why we were not talking and we both said that we wanted peace and quiet because our lives were so hectic that it was nice not to talk. The girl and the guide were walking kind of slowly and, because the girl also wanted to be alone, I had no qualms about picking up the pace and hiking forward on my own. I quickly lost sight of them and was soon amongst the stillness of the canyon and the pools. I had hiked alone about an hour and was sitting on a rock, enjoying the beauty of it all when the guide and the girl showed up. The guide was amazed I had made it on my own and so quickly, saying that I must have done something good in my life to have such good luck on my own. Ha! Luck or no luck, sundown was coming at 5 pm and I needed to get out of the canyon if I was to make it to my hotel before nightfall, so I made a quick hike out of the canyon and got in my car.
My next road trip stop was to be Wahiba Sands for an overnight stay in the deser;, however, I did not want to drive another 2.5 hours that same day and decided to break up my trip by staying on the coast for a night. Prior to my trip, I had scoped out the Wadi Shab guesthouse, located near Wadi Shab for a reasonable $35 USD / night. The hotel options were very limited near the Wadi (and the coast in general) as there are no large towns to speak of outside of Muscat in Oman. The photos of the guesthouse looked really lovely, but again, one has to see it to believe it. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot of the guesthouse I knew I had made the right choice. It was set apart from any other buildings and poised directly on a beautiful beach, with nothing but donkeys and a few goats roaming around.
I checked in and then wandered down to the ocean to watch the sun set, accompanied by no one else but few donkeys and waited for the bioluminescence that my guesthouse host had told me about to appear. Sure enough, there was bioluminescence (albeit only a minimal amount) in the water and I spent some time just playing around with it before heading up to my room for the night.
The next morning, after a quick breakfast I headed down to the beach again as my host had also informed me that if I was out early enough I could see sea turtles. I read that the sea turtle nesting season ended in October in Oman, but still wanted to see if I would catch a few stragglers hatching along the shore. I soon discovered that my interpretation of seeing the sea turtles was different than what my host meant as while I did not see any turtles hatching, I did see them swimming in the ocean, right off the shore, and not just one or two, but at least 40!
After packing my things it was time to hit the road again en route to the desert. My 2.5 hour trip was again smooth and went as planned; my only ‘adventure’ was stopping for a quick bathroom break and shawarma snack at a Turkish roadside shop where I managed to score a free bottle of hot sauce from the owner, who saw me putting it on my sandwich and said, ‘take it, enjoy!’ Oh this Oman hospitality….
Wahiba Sands is a very popular place in Oman to camp; however, it requires a 15 minute drive through sand dunes to reach any of the camps and as I did not have an off road vehicle, I arranged for the camp to pick me up at the central parking spot, which the owner assured me that most of the camps use. The parking spot was actually a dirt square next to a closed museum in a very small town outside of the desert entrance, which looked a little sketchy and deserted but I did see 2 other tourists parking their rental cars there and figured that it must be ok. I sent my camp owner a message once I arrived at the parking location and 15 minutes later he showed up in a (very dusty) Toyota Tundra truck and we set off for the bumpy ride to the camp.
Seeing the deserts in both Egypt and Jordan I had no idea what to expect from Oman and I can tell you that not all deserts are created equal! Wahiba Sands has much softer sands with the rolling hills and peaks one expects to see in a desert and the camps themselves are dotted along the dunes. There are also campsites that are more like hotels, with pools and hard walls, along the edges of the desert. I REALLY wanted to get my desert sunset and sunrise experience in, as the light cloud cover in Wadi Rum had prevented me from getting my fix in Jordan and timing prevented me in Egypt. I chose the Moon Light Campsite not only for its authenticity and price, but for its location on the top of a dune, poised in direct sight of the sunrise/set. While it was not as full function as my campsite in Wadi Rum, with an actual hard floor and attached bathroom, it did feel much more like camping with true tent walls and a ‘bathroom’ that was an open air shower/toilet combination (it did have an actual toilet and water, so not too shabby for one night).
Activities in the camp included sand bashing (riding in a truck over the dunes), camel riding, and sand riding (not boarding, but on a plastic sled). As I had done all those activities and more in previous desert spots, I chose to just relax and play in the dunes, watching the sunset for the rest of the day. My $45 USD/night included breakfast and dinner and after the sunset I was starved and excited to see what they had on the menu. Camp style and construction in Oman is Bedouin style with a communal covered area where they served meals in low tables with the ground and pillows as seating. However, the Bedouin cuisine in Oman was definitely different than Jordan; dinner was a surprising smattering of Indian foods mixed in with Middle Eastern cuisine, but still delicious!
There were about 8 other people, all couples, staying in the campsite and after dinner we all sat around the fire, drinking traditional tea and lightly chatting (remember folks, Oman is a mostly dry country – no late night parties or drinking here) until about 9pm, when we all headed off to bed. The temperature cooled down really quickly in the desert and I slept pretty comfortably in my tent, although I did hear some wildlife at various periods during the night, scurrying around and making little noises (yes, I discovered their little footprints in the sand around my tent the next morning)!
I woke up in time to catch the gorgeous sunrise and had a lovely little breakfast at the camp before heading back to my car to complete my road trip and head back to Muscat. The drive back was as smooth and easy as the rest of the trip, sitting at about 3 hours with some choice camel spottings to mix in a little amusement.
While I was in my guesthouse on the coast, I contemplated how much longer I wanted to stay in Oman. I knew I wanted to stay at least another night after the desert to see the corniche, the souk and the east end of Muscat. After ‘roughing it’ in the desert, I decided that I needed a little ‘pampering’ and would splurge a little to stay on the beach in Muscat. I found a decent deal at the Crowne Plaza in Muscat and determined I would decide when to leave Oman once there.
When I arrived in Muscat, I headed directly to the souk, corniche and Opera house to explore a little. The Opera house and corniche were beautiful to look at and the souk, while interesting to some, held little interest to a backpacker who could not buy anything, so after about an hour I headed to my hotel to check in. I had a bit of laundry I needed to do at this point and Googled a place about 1/2 mile away from my hotel. After driving for ~3 hours I was ready to get some exercise and decided to walk the short distance rather than drive to the shop. Well, in true Omani fashion, that little walk turned out to be a longer 40 minute adventure as they were doing road construction and had closed off large sections of sidewalks and I had to maneuver back routes, looks from drivers and side roads to get to the laundry shop! Oh well, I guess people will now remember the strange foreigner carrying a plastic sack wearing a “Guatever” t-shirt forever now!
The Crowne Plaza Muscat is a gorgeously located hotel with a private beach and 3 onsite restaurants directly overlooking the beach, making for a lovely al fresco evening. After a shower, I headed down to one of them to enjoy an actual cocktail (yes, my first proper Western style meal and drink since Jordan!) and a quick bite, while enjoying the ocean scenery. The rest of the evening I spent scouring the internet for ways to plan the best deal for my next move, which was to be India (more on this deal later). After a lot of searching, I determined that I would have one more night in Oman before heading onward and booked another hotel closer to the airport for the next (my last) night.
The next day I spent lounging at the beach, pool and gym before checking out and picking up my laundry (by car this time) and checking into my final hotel in Muscat, the luxurious (and actually reasonable) Hormuz Grand Muscat. The deal I found at the Hormuz was an Executive Club room, which included a ‘happy hour’ (actually dinner for me) and breakfast, all for $95 USD. While the hotel did not have the prime location of the Crowne Plaza, the rooms and hotel interior were far superior to the much older and dated Crowne Plaza at a cheaper rate!
After a great night of sleep and a huge breakfast at the hotel it was time to shed a tear and say goodbye to Oman, so I headed to the airport, turned in my rental car (just as easy and quick as renting it!) and checked in for my flight.
Final verdict – how did Oman rate on the ‘Outlaw scale’?
FOOD: Good to Very Good – there is a wide mix of cuisine to be found – Middle Eastern, Turkish, Indian and Southeast Asian. The Omani cuisine specifically I did not find particularly special, but nothing distasteful about it. I enjoyed all the other mixes of cuisines instead!
SAFETY: Very safe – I felt completely unthreatened or harassed and comfortable doing everything on my own in Oman. Of course, I did dress conservatively out of respect for their culture.
LANGUAGE: Arabic and English is widely spoken and I could almost always find someone who spoke enough English to help me or get around. I never had to use my Google Translate app.
THINGS TO DO: Very good – there are a lot of things to see and while they might not offer the most in terms of thrill seeking, places in the country are really easy to get to, which makes a huge difference!
TRANSPORTATION: Otaxi (their Uber app) is a great option to get around the city of Muscat, but renting a car versus tour options and pretty limited public transport is the way to go.
MONEY: Cards are widely accepted and I only needed to withdraw money once for my hotel near Wadi Shab.
VALUE: Good – Fair. Oman dollars are tricky, at a USD exchange rate of $2.60 to one Omani dollar, it can fool you. Renting a car definitely helped my budget and I was able to stay in hotels at a range of $50-65 USD average per night. Food varies widely by where you eat and while you can find some smaller food stalls you do really have to look for cheaper food options. You can certainly go wild here, but for the quality you get at moderate prices I feel it is a good value for your money and lots of free things to see. Side note: tourism at the time of writing was also a an all time low for the season due to the conflict in Israel, so I cannot speak to deals in perhaps more heavily touristic times of the year.
OVERALL: If you could not tell by now, I absolutely LOVED Oman. I would definitely go back to visit this gem of the Middle East, even to just bask in its beauty and serenity on the beach!
TRAVEL MILE COUNT: ~400
TRAVEL METHOD COUNT: 1 taxi, 1 Uber, 1 rental car, 1 boat ride
TRAVEL CASUALITIES (Items lost): 0
UP NEXT: How did I get to India? Tune in to the next post to see!