Why Oman
The sultanate is the quietest country on the Arabian peninsula and the most varied. Muscat is low and white, wedged between mountain and sea. Jebel Akhdar and Jebel Shams rise to three thousand metres and hold terraced villages and the "Grand Canyon of Arabia". The Wahiba Sands is an erg of orange dunes. Musandam, a separate exclave to the north, is a maze of fjords.
Dhofar, in the south around Salalah, catches the Indian monsoon from June to September — the khareef — and turns green while the rest of the country bakes. It is a climatic anomaly unique on the peninsula.
October to April for the north. June to September for Salalah, the opposite of everywhere else.
Entry and stay
Requirements depend on nationality. Check yours with the local authorities before booking.
No duration is quoted here, for want of an official source verified at the time of writing — 22 September 2026.
Getting around
A car is the realistic mode. The road network is excellent, recent and well signed in Arabic and English. Wadis and mountain villages require a four-wheel drive, and some roads formally demand one — rental companies say so.
Intercity public transport exists but is scarce and slow.
Musandam is reached by road only by crossing the United Arab Emirates: that means their own entry and exit formalities.
Money
The Omani rial, one of the strongest currencies in the world — the order of magnitude surprises at the first withdrawal.
Cards work in Muscat and in large chains; souks, isolated petrol stations and small restaurants stay in cash.
Health
No vaccination required from Europe. Malaria is absent.
Muscat's facilities are good. The real risk is elsewhere: wadis fill within minutes when it rains, and flash floods kill every year. Never camp in a wadi bed and never cross a flooded road.
Before you go
Oman is more conservative than Dubai and less so than Saudi Arabia. Covered shoulders and knees are expected away from hotel beaches, for men as for women.
Alcohol is sold only in licensed outlets and in hotels; drinking in public is prohibited.
Wild camping is legal and widely practised, including on beaches and in the desert. It is one of the country's particularities, and it changes the economics of a trip entirely.