Guides and advice

Plan your stay like a local

Honest answers to the questions we are asked most often.

Two women sit close together on a dune crest, seen from behind, watching a low orange sun set over ridge after ridge of sand under a pink and gold sky

The best time to visit Oman: October to April, and the summer told honestly

The hottest month is not July, April and October are twins on paper but not in practice, and in 2027 Ramadan falls in the middle of the best weather. The numbers behind the season, and what each of them changes about a booking.

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A green turtle hovers in turquoise water facing the camera while a snorkeller films it with an action camera on a pole

Snorkelling the Daymaniyat Islands: turtles, season and the six months you cannot go ashore

Green turtles, nine protected islands and one date that changes the whole trip: from May to October landing is prohibited. What that means for your booking, the reserve permit and which boat to pick.

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Dusk over the Wahiba dunes: a white 4x4 on a dune crest in the foreground casting tyre tracks across the orange sand, a scattering of low white camp buildings in the hollow below, and a pale gold horizon

A night in the Sands: four trips are sold as a desert camp, and only two of them include a bed

The word camp does a lot of work on these booking pages. What an overnight in the Wahiba actually costs, why the cheapest overnight option does not include the accommodation, and the two questions to ask before you pay.

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A wooden dhow with a white awning lies at anchor in calm water at dusk, the ornamental incense-burner monument on a rocky headland behind it and orange sky over dark mountains

Sunset on a dhow in Muscat: two hours, two forts you cannot enter, and a departure time that moves

The evening cruise past Al Alam Palace and the Portuguese forts is the easiest thing to book in Muscat and the easiest to get slightly wrong. Where it leaves from, why the start time changes, and what is on board.

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A spinner dolphin leaps clear of calm water in low morning light, body arched and spray trailing behind its tail, the sea pale gold and blue around it

Dolphin watching off Muscat: take the early boat, and know what you are unlikely to see

Spinner dolphins are here all year, which makes the time of day matter more than the month. Why the 8 am departure is the one to book, what the two-hour trips actually include, and the truth about the whales.

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The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque at dawn, its tall main minaret and tiled dome pale against a cloud-streaked sky, with a gravel path between banks of pink and red bougainvillea leading towards it

A morning in Muscat: the mosque closes at eleven, the souq shuts at one, and Friday closes both

The Grand Mosque, the Royal Opera House, the Corniche and Mutrah Souq are the standard city tour, and they run on three different clocks. What opens when, what the dress code actually requires, and why the evening tour costs the same for a lot less.

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Two riders on horseback walk along a wide, wet beach at sunset, the low sun a bright disc in an orange sky behind them, tyre tracks in the sand

Muscat with children: the minimum ages nobody tells you, and what to do with the middle of the day

The headline trips out of Muscat exclude children under six or seven. What is left, why the day splits in two around the heat, and which two hours on the water work with small people.

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Stacked clay pots and rows of woven baskets outside the arched shopfronts of a sand-coloured souq building, palm tree and shoppers under a cloudless blue sky

Nizwa and Jebel Akhdar: the fort ticket, the Friday market and the checkpoint that turns cars back

A day trip inland from Muscat with three separate catches: the fort costs extra, the goat market is over by late morning, and the mountain road is closed to anything that is not a 4x4.

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View from water level along a narrow gorge: pale limestone walls rising on both sides, sunlit orange rock at the far end, still green water in the foreground

Wadi Shab and Bimmah Sinkhole: the swim nobody warns you about

The most-booked day trip out of Muscat ends with a swim through a rock crack into a cave. Who the operators turn away, what the boat and the water shoes cost, and whether the drive is worth doing yourself.

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A woman sits alone on a sand dune at sunset, looking towards the low sun; ripples and footprints run across the orange sand around her

Wahiba Sands and Wadi Bani Khalid in one day: doable, but count the hours in the car

The classic desert-and-oasis day trip from Muscat spends more than five hours driving for about two hours on the ground. What that buys you, who the operators exclude, and when the overnight version is the better booking.

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Wadi day trips from €27.75 · available today

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