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

Nine low, pale islands sit about an hour off the coast north-west of Muscat, and they are the reason most visitors end up on a boat here at all. The Daymaniyat Islands have been a nature reserve since 1996, and the water around them is the clearest you will find within a morning’s reach of the capital. Our inventory currently lists 54 snorkelling trips from €37.34, and the great majority of them go to exactly these islands.

Before you compare prices, though, there is one date that matters more than any of them.

From May to October you cannot set foot on the islands

Oman’s Environment Authority states it plainly in its own permit catalogue for the reserve: “Entering or camping is prohibited from May to October.” The islands are nesting grounds, and for six months of the year the beaches belong to the turtles and the seabirds, not to visitors.

Operators say the same thing in their own words. The booking page for the most-reviewed trip out there notes that visitors may step ashore and relax on the beaches from 1 November to 30 April, and that from 1 May to 31 October beach access is restricted. One other listing in our inventory puts it even more bluntly in its summary: beach access November to April only.

What this does not mean is that the trips stop. The boats keep running through the summer, and the snorkelling itself happens in the water, not on the sand. The restriction is on going ashore. But it changes what you are buying:

• In winter (November to April) a four-hour trip can include a stretch on a beach — shade, a towel, somewhere to stand between two snorkelling stops.
• In summer (May to October) the same four hours are spent on the boat and in the water. There is no getting out to cool off on land, and the deck of a boat in an Omani August is a hot place to sit.

If you saw a photo of somebody lying on a white beach with the islands behind them, that photo was taken between November and April. Book the same trip in July and you will have a fine day snorkelling, but you will not stand on that beach.

The reserve permit is real, and it is small

The Daymaniyat Islands are a protected area, and entry runs on permits issued by the Environment Authority. The published day rates are OMR 1 for Omani nationals and OMR 3 for foreigners for a one-day visit; a visit that includes diving costs OMR 3 and OMR 6 respectively. Permits are valid for anything from a single day up to a year.

In practice most visitors never handle this themselves — the operator is licensed and arranges it. What differs is whether the fee sits inside the price you paid or is collected separately on the day. That is not something we can answer for every boat, and it is worth checking on the booking page before you go, because it is the kind of small cash amount that is easier to settle with rials in your pocket than with a card at sea.

What you actually see down there

Green turtles are the headline, and they are the reason the snorkelling here has a reputation beyond Oman. They are used to people, they are not in a hurry, and they are frequently in water shallow enough that you can watch them from the surface without diving down.

Beyond the turtles it gets less predictable. Hard and soft corals, reef fish in large numbers, rays. One operator in our inventory advertises blacktip reef sharks on roughly 70 per cent of its trips and puts the current chance of a whale shark at about 50 per cent — that is the operator’s own claim about its own season, not a guarantee, and no one can promise you a whale shark. Treat any animal in a listing as a possibility rather than an item on a packing list, and the day will be better.

One rule is worth knowing before you get in: touching marine life is not allowed, and the operators say so explicitly. Nor is fishing. This is a reserve, and the reason the turtles stay put is that nobody grabs them.

Which trip to pick

The most-reviewed option by a wide margin is Muscat: Daymaniat Islands Snorkeling Trip with Brunch — €60.61, 4.7 stars from 2,582 reviews, about four and a half hours. The listing includes the boat trip, a local guide, snorkelling equipment, towels, sandwiches, snacks and soft drinks. For most people that combination is the whole decision: you are out for half a morning, you are fed, and you do not need to bring gear.

Three things separate the options that otherwise look identical:

The food. Brunch, a barbecue-style lunch, or sandwiches and snacks. It sounds trivial until you are four hours into a boat trip.

A camera. Several boats include an action camera and hand you the footage afterwards. If you want pictures of a turtle, this is far cheaper than buying a housing for your phone.

Where you leave from. Departure harbours differ between operators, and the trips run from more than one point along this coast. Your voucher names yours — read it the evening before rather than the morning of, because the drive across Muscat is longer than the map suggests.

A note on spelling, because it will cost you search results otherwise: you will see Daymaniyat, Daymaniat and Dimaniyat used for the same nine islands, sometimes within a single booking platform. The official Environment Authority spelling is Dimaniyat. They are all the same place.

When it is not the right trip

Operators list these trips as not suitable for pregnant women, for people with pre-existing medical conditions, and for wheelchair users. That is the operator’s own assessment on its own booking page, and if any of it applies to you, ask before you book rather than after.

The crossing is open water. On a calm winter morning it is nothing; on a windy day it is an hour of being bounced about before you see a turtle, and the boats that cancel do so because of the swell, not the rain. Morning departures are the calmer ones, here as almost everywhere.

And if what you actually want is to be under the surface rather than on it, snorkelling is the wrong product. Diving trips — 16 in our inventory, from €48.33 — go to the same reserve, with the same permit system and the same seasonal rule about the beaches.

Otherwise: go in the morning, go between November and April if you have the choice, and do not touch the turtle.