Oman is a small country on the Arabian Peninsula. It is a very pleasant and safe country.
There are very few sensible travel guides about Oman on the internet. When planning my trip, I came to the conclusion that most travelers only visit Oman when they have a long layover in Muscat. I believe it deserves better than that.
We traveled to Oman for the November 2019 holidays: flew into Muscat at seven in the morning on November 2 and left at three in the afternoon on November 9. Spent a total of 7 nights and 7 and a half days in the country.
How we planned the trip
We planned the trip on our own with a young man. We have a division of responsibilities: I work out the route, he deals with organizational issues. This is not our first trip. It so happened that we were bored with cities, so we chose countries with interesting nature. This vacation we wanted something unusual. The main requirements were as follows:
- It’s warm.
- You can swim.
- No crowds of tourists.
- It’s a short flight.
We thought and chose long and painfully, in the end we decided to take a risk and did not regret it.
We had two main points on our itinerary: the capital Muscat and the second largest city Salalah. We stayed overnight in them, and during the day we went sightseeing around these cities in a rented car.
Money
The country’s currency is the Omani riyal, OMR. It is the third in the top of the most expensive currencies in the world against the dollar. One Omani riyal is equal to $2.6.
The purchasing power of the local currency is so great that the government issues 1/2 and 1/4 real bills. One Omani real contains 1,000 local pennies – they are called baizah – rather than 100 as in many other currencies. The smallest banknote is 100 baisa. The smallest coin in circulation is 5 baisa, but the coins are not quoted in the country, in some places we even refused to take them: they said that no one would accept them later.
Transportation
On the first day we took public transportation from Muscat airport to the hotel. We spent an hour and a half on a transfer bus. The fare from the airport to the bus hub in the city was 1 OMR per person, from the hub to the hotel – 200 baisas.
Early the next morning we had to go to the airport again to fly to Salalah. We decided to sleep longer and leave by cab. The local aggregator Otaxi offered us a ride for 6 OMR and 200 baisa, the porter at the hotel offered us a ride for 9 OMR. With a cab driver we found near the hotel entrance, we bargained from 15 OMR to 6 OMR for a 30 minute ride.
For the rest of the days we rented a car. Many large international rental companies operate in the country: Avis, Dollar, Sixt, Enterprise. You need to read the terms and conditions carefully, some rentals have a limit on kilometers of 200-250 km per day. In rentals where there are no restrictions, the cars are slightly more expensive.
In Salalah we rented a car from Dollar for two days with a limit of 200 km per day and at Muscat airport from Avis for four days. In both cases we took insurance with zero liability. I didn’t remember how much extra we had to pay for it at Dollar, but at Avis the insurance cost 7 riyals per day.
We took ordinary passenger cars, their power was enough for us to drive everything we had planned. If there is a desert or off-road, it is better to take a 4 × 4 car.
All offices make sure to freeze 100-130 OMR on your credit card in case of fines. We did not see a single policeman on the roads, but there are a lot of cameras. It is not difficult not to exceed – speed limits are quite adequate and reasonable. If there is a sign 50, you won’t want to drive more than 50 km/h.
Gasoline is cheap. They were asking 216 baisa for a liter of 95.
Housing
The first night after arrival we spent in a hotel in Muscat, in the Matrah district. We rented a car only from the second day, so we chose the area by the number of attractions nearby. The city is stretched along the coast and includes 6 large wilayats or regions, between which it is difficult to move without a car.
Major attractions such as the mosque and the sultan’s palace, the national museum, the royal opera house and others are scattered on different sides. Public transportation in the country is underdeveloped, so we were left to either walk or pay for cabs.
The rest of the days we stayed in aparthotels. Each of our rooms had a separate kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. Some rooms were larger than a standard two-bedroom in a Khrushchevka apartment.
Itinerary and attractions
Our itinerary looked like this.
Day 1: Muscat. We walked around the old market of Muscat Suk Matrah and looked for things to buy before the flight. From Oman they bring incense, cotton things, spices, sweets and amazingly beautiful Arabian lamps. We walked along the promenade along the sea, looked at the forts, lay on the grass in the park, reached the palace of the Sultan of Al Alam.
Day 2 and 3. Salalah. In the morning we flew to Salalah. This is local Hawaii, it is very green and you can’t even believe that just a few hundred kilometers away is a lifeless desert. The road itself is very beautiful, I liked even just driving and looking around. And also on the road there are camels and cows, sometimes it is even quite difficult to pass some section, because they stand on the road and do not understand that you need to pass.
In Salalah we visited several natural sights: Ain Atum waterfall, Wadi Darbat reserve. The word Wadi is very common in the names of sights, it is the name of dry riverbeds, there are plenty of them all over Oman. There is not a single river in the whole country that does not dry up once a year.
The Atair Well is a deep break in the ground that is home to thousands of birds. There you can take shelter in the shade and there are trees where they nest. Ain Khor – another waterfall, but we were not lucky, it dried up. Marnif Cave is a very nice place.
Besides the cave itself there is a beach, rocks and the ocean. And none of the people, just you and nature. On the way to this place you will pass a long beach with white sand and no people. You can’t swim on it, but you can soak your feet. And also on this beach live hordes of crabs, which dig their holes in the sand.
The evening of the 3rd day and the 4th day. Sur. On the third day we flew back to Muscat in the afternoon, rented a car at the airport and drove to a town called Sur.
On the way we bathed in the Bimma Well – it is also a break in the ground, but with clear blue water, in which live fish that eat dead skin. Aquariums with such fish are often found at resorts: people dip their feet in the water and the fish peel them.
We drove to the apartment, checked in, and then drove 50km out of town to Turtle Beach. This is the place where after sunset the turtles come out of the water onto the beach, lay their eggs and go back into the sea.
After scouring the internet before the trip, we found out that it takes place on the fenced territory of the hotel and that it is a paid event. There were different prices in different sources, but on average they said about 8 OMR per person. It looks like this: people wait in the lobby until a hotel employee finds a turtle on the beach. If it does, people pay and are escorted by the employee to go look at it. November is not the month when turtles come ashore en masse, so the reviews still wrote that people pounced on the poor turtle in a crowd and frightened it.
We didn’t want to spend that much money and go in crowds, so we just went on a random trip, hoping to find the turtles on our own. In the end we didn’t find them, but we were found by a local guide who for 10 OMR for two people drove us in his big car through off-road and sand to another beach where he spotted a turtle. And it was a stroke of luck. It was just the three of us, the turtle was not scared of us, we even got to touch it. Sea turtles are huge! And the process of driving off-road was quite a drive.
The next morning we drove to another natural attraction, Wadi Shaab. This is a must visit place. From the parking lot, you have to cross to the other side of the river for 1 OMR per person and walk 35-40 minutes through the heat in the gorge to get to a stunning place, literally an oasis.
It is a riverbed with fresh and clear water, surrounded by rocks on both sides. You can swim in it and fish live there too. If you swim into the deep water, you will come to a narrow passage between the rocks. If you manage to get through them, you will get into a small cave with a secret waterfall. There we were stuck there for the whole day, swimming and sunbathing. I advise you to take some snack, sunscreen, lots of water and slippers for bathing – you can do it without them, but it is more comfortable with them. By evening we got to an apart-hotel in Muscat.
Day 5. Nizwa. On the fifth day we went to Nizwa, the old capital of Oman. It is located 150 km from Muscat, it takes about an hour and a half one way. The main attraction of the city is the fortress. The cost of visiting is 5 OMR for foreign citizens, locals are cheaper. Once an hour they give tours in English, and in the courtyard there is a table with coffee and dates – it’s a free treat for guests. It is worth it, quite an interesting place.
After the fortress we walked around the city itself, found a bazaar and very tasty date candies. I couldn’t resist and bought almost 4 kg: for myself, my mom, friends and colleagues. In the evening we returned to Muscat.
Day 6. Beaches. We spent the first half of our last full day in Oman at Yiti beach, it is not in the city itself but about 40 km from the conventional center. Despite it being a hot weekend day, there was no one on the beach but us. It was too good, we forgot about the time and managed to burn for the last time.
After swimming we went to the hotel to wash, because the water is very salty, to the bazaar for souvenirs and went to get acquainted with the history and culture of Oman in the national museum, entrance to which also cost 5 OMR.
We met the sunset at a café on the promenade of Qurum Beach, sipping coffee and smoking hookah.
Day 7. Muscat. Our flight was at three o’clock in the afternoon, so we devoted our free morning to the big mosque of Sultan Qaboos. Girls should definitely bring a handkerchief, they don’t give out free ones on the spot, but you can buy one for 3 OMR or in advance at the bazaar, I suspect it’s cheaper there. Clothing of any visitor should not be provocative, knees and elbows should be covered.
The mosque is huge and luxurious. In the hall for men, the ceiling is decorated with a chandelier weighing 8 tons and 14 meters high, decorated with Swarovski crystals. And on the floor is a carpet measuring 70 by 60 meters, which was woven by hand for 4 years by 600 women.
Food
If there is a kitchen in the apartment, you can save money on breakfasts. Several times we bought food from local supermarkets and cooked it. We also tried breakfast in hotels. In Oman, breakfast is usually not included in the room rate, it can be ordered in advance when booking or purchased locally. We only took breakfast once. In other places, people wrote in reviews on Booking that the breakfasts were not good.
Lunch was more difficult, because the heat did not make me hungry. We had our second meal around 14:00-15:00. We stopped at small cafes and restaurants on the way. Arab restaurants in the cities are expensive, and in small cafes you can eat for 5-6 OMR for two people. This cost included a large plate of basmati rice, chicken or fish or a salad or two kebabs and drinks. A couple times we bought fast food at McDonald’s and KFC. For dinner we bought local sweets and had coffee in the room.
Communication
We usually use international sim cards when traveling, but for some reason the Arabian Peninsula has very high mobile internet rates, so we decided to get a local operator’s sim card.
Right at the airport there are counters of several operators with special travel tariffs. We chose Ooredoo, they have a tariff plan for 10 days for 5 OMR, which includes 4 GB, 50 minutes and some sms. We used mobile internet with two of us, we turned on modem mode on our phone. We had enough for a week of fairly economical use.
Expenses
We did not try to save much money, except to look for cheaper cars. Carry some cash with you. You can pay with a card in many places, but small cafes and markets can only accept cash. We changed 200 $, it was enough for us.
What’s the bottom line
Oman is a wonderful country for those who are tired of cities, want to see beautiful nature, sunbathe and swim on deserted beaches. They have only recently started to develop tourism, so there are no crowds of tourists here.
It is one of the safest countries in the world. Even at night in the province you should not be afraid of anything. People are very religious and the crime rate in the country is extremely low.
I loved the very atmosphere of the country, the natural landscapes, the friendly people and the peace I felt throughout the trip. I had never been to a Muslim country before. It was a shock to me when on the first night I woke up at five o’clock in the morning to the loud screams of a man. Only after a couple minutes did it dawn on me that the sound was coming from the minarets and it was just a call to pre-dawn prayer. In the city, it can be heard five times a day – at least that many times a day in Islam.
Here’s what I advise other travelers to do:
- You definitely need a car to see the country.
- Rent apartments, in Oman they are often cheaper and more comfortable than hotels.
- To save money on food, eat at local small cafes, eat breakfast in the apartments.
- Always bring water with you.
