In short
Muscat bans towers: regulation requires low white architecture, which gives a Gulf capital with no skyline. The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque and the Mutrah souk are its landmarks.
The country has mountains at three thousand metres, wadis, a dune desert and eight hundred kilometres of coast. That variety is what sets Oman apart from its neighbours.
What it really costs
Oman is dearer than Jordan and Egypt, cheaper than the Emirates. The dominant item is the car: without one the country is unreachable, and a four-wheel drive is needed for the wadis and the desert.
Public transport exists between the main cities but serves none of what you come to see.
What nobody tells you
The visa exemption only covers fourteen days. Beyond that, an e-visa is applied for before departure — many people discover this while planning a month.
Dress is regulated in public places: shoulders and knees covered for everyone, and a headscarf for women in mosques. It is enforced.
From June to September the heat passes forty-five degrees on the coast. Dhofar, in the south, by contrast has a monsoon that turns Salalah green — a phenomenon unique in the peninsula.