Muscat, the Sharqiyah sands and the Musandam cliffs

Oman is a desert with turquoise running through it.

Half the country is sand and the other half is water you can see the bottom of. These are the days out that reach both — what each one costs, how long it takes, and which are worth the early start.

The island boats Every tour in Oman →

685tours reviewed

$8the cheapest day out

42come in under $50

Reef to fjord

Four days that between them cover most of Oman.

An offshore reef, a canyon swim, a night in the dunes and a morning in the fjords. What each costs, and what the people who went say about it.

Out past the reef

Three ways to spend a day on the Gulf of Oman.

The boats leave early because the sea flattens overnight and the wind gets up by noon. An hour offshore there is a marine reserve; closer in the spinner dolphins turn up most mornings; after dark the dhows run down the coast with dinner on deck.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · Daymaniat Islands Snorkeling Trip with Brunch

Islands and reefNine islands, protected water, turtles under the boat. from $59

Dolphin morningsSpinner pods a few miles off the capital, before breakfast is over. from $28

Dhow eveningsA wooden hull out of Muttrah for the run down the corniche. from $37 Every boat day in Oman →

Into the sand

The Wahiba Sands are two hours from Muscat and a different country.

The Sharqiyah dunes run three hundred kilometres south of the coast road. Most trips make the same three stops: a camp run by the family that owns the ridge, a dune drive at the hour the light turns orange, and the pools of Wadi Bani Khalid on the way home.

Every desert trip

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 820 reviewsWahiba Desert and Wadi Bani Khalid Guided Group Tour

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 313 reviewsDesert Safari Sharing Tours

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 91 reviewsSunset Desert Safari Salalah Tour in Rub Al Khali – Empty Quarter

Best ofWahiba SandsBest ofEmpty QuarterBest ofDesert CampsBest ofDhofar SandsBest ofOff-Road Days

Between the mountains

Every wadi in Oman is a dry road with a swimming pool at the end of it.

Shab is the famous one: a boat across the inlet, a scramble over boulders, then a swim into a chamber with a waterfall in it. Bani Khalid is the easy one, with pools you can reach in sandals. Bimmah is a collapsed sinkhole beside the coast road, and it costs nothing to look at.

1Wadi Shab & Bimmah Sinkhole Full-Day Tourfrom $40
2Wahiba Desert and Wadi Bani Khalid Guided Group Tourfrom $130
3Wadi Bani Khalid Oasis & Oman Desert Tourfrom $130

Wadi Shab Wadi Bani Khalid Bimmah Sinkhole Jebel Shams Jebel Akhdar Mountain walks

Every wadi day out →

What Oman charges

What a day out in Oman actually costs.

Oman is not a cheap country and the tour prices show it. Most good days sit between ninety and two hundred dollars a head — here is what each band buys you.

Under $90

City mornings, dolphin boats, the sinkhole run and the short trips up the coast road.

1Daymaniat Islands Snorkeling Trip with Brunchfrom $86
2Wadi Shab & Bimmah Sinkhole Full-Day Tourfrom $40
3Half-Day Sightseeing Essentials Tour and Audio Guidefrom $48

$90–190

The full days: Wadi Shab, the Daymaniyat boats, Nizwa and the shared desert tours.

1Wahiba Desert and Wadi Bani Khalid Guided Group Tourfrom $130
2Wadi Bani Khalid Oasis & Oman Desert Tourfrom $130
3Nizwa and Oman’s Historical Gems Tourfrom $100

$190 and up

A private 4WD and driver, an overnight camp in the dunes, Jebel Shams or the Empty Quarter.

The season decides

From June to September, Salalah is the only green place in Arabia.

The southwest monsoon catches Dhofar and nowhere else. The hills behind Salalah turn green, the waterfalls run at Wadi Darbat, and it sits in the mid-twenties while Muscat is pushing forty-five. The rest of the year the logic reverses: the north is at its best from November, and Salalah goes back to being a beach town with frankincense trees.

Salalah Salalah city days Dhofar safaris Beaches Turtle beaches Frankincense sites

The other Oman

Musandam is cut off from the rest of the country, and it is all cliff and water.

The peninsula sits the far side of the UAE border, reached by the road through Dubai or a short flight into Khasab. The dhows go out into inlets a thousand feet deep with the cliffs closing overhead, the dolphins come to the bow, and the snorkelling stops have nothing else in the water.