Dubai and Oman: 14 days, and why most of it is in Oman
This is the fortnight we build more often than any other on this desk, and the ratio is the whole argument. Three nights in Dubai, eleven in Oman. Not seven and seven.
- Duration
- 14 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 6
- Best months
- Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar
- From
- $4,620 per person
Dubai is excellent for three nights. It is a short, comfortable, extremely well connected stretch of travel with the best food in the region and an old quarter almost nobody visits. Past four or five nights it starts to repeat itself. Oman does the opposite: it opens up the longer you stay, and eleven nights is enough to reach the mountains, the desert, the interior and the coast without moving every day.
We are aware that recommending eleven Omani nights over a two-week Dubai booking costs us money. We think it is the right advice and we would rather give it.
Who it suits: anyone with a fortnight in the Gulf, first visits to Oman, couples, walkers, and families with children of ten and up.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Dubai. Met and driven to a hotel in Bur Dubai or on the beach depending on what you want from the three nights. Evening on the creek: the abra crossing and the Deira souks, then dinner in the neighbourhood.
Day 2: Old Dubai and Al Quoz. Al Fahidi at opening with a guide, then indoors for the heat: the Museum of the Future, or the Etihad Museum. Late afternoon at Alserkal Avenue for the galleries. Dinner across the city’s food cultures rather than in the hotel.
Day 3: Abu Dhabi, or the beach. Either the day trip south for the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and Louvre Abu Dhabi, or a day doing nothing at all before the driving starts. We will tell you which we think fits your group.
Day 4: Dubai to Muscat. Either the ninety-minute flight, which is what we recommend, or the drive of about 270 miles (435 km) with the border crossing, which takes most of a day and is only worth it if you want the coast road. Afternoon in Muscat: Mutrah souq and the corniche as the light goes.
Day 5: Muscat. The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in the morning, which is quieter and in our view finer than its Abu Dhabi counterpart. The old walled town at Muscat proper, Bait Al Zubair, and the Royal Opera House. Afternoon free. Muscat is a low white city strung along a coast between black mountains and it deserves two nights rather than one.
Day 6: Muscat to Jebel Akhdar. Inland and up. The road climbs to around 6,500 feet (2,000 m) onto a plateau of terraced villages that grow roses and pomegranates. Afternoon walk along the old falaj irrigation channels between the abandoned villages on the canyon rim. It is cold at night up here in winter, which surprises everyone.
Day 7: Jebel Akhdar and Jebel Shams. A full day in the mountains. The Balcony Walk on Jebel Shams runs along the wall of Wadi Ghul, which is the deepest canyon in the region and reaches about 9,900 feet (3,009 m) at the summit. Three to four hours of walking with a lot of exposure and no shade. For those who would rather not, a shorter route on the plateau.
Day 8: The mountains to Nizwa. Down to Nizwa, the old interior capital: the fort with its round tower, the souk, and the silver. If your dates cover a Friday morning, the livestock market is one of the more genuinely unstaged things in the country. Bahla fort and Jabreen castle in the afternoon, then a night in Misfat al Abriyeen or Nizwa.
Day 9: Nizwa to the Wahiba Sands. East and south into the desert. The Wahiba is a proper sand sea, orange dunes running for over a hundred miles north to south. A camp in the dunes, a walk at sunset, and a night that is genuinely dark. This is the best night of the fortnight for most people.
Day 10: The sands to Wadi Bani Khalid and the coast. Out of the dunes in the morning, then to Wadi Bani Khalid, a chain of deep green pools in a limestone gorge that you can swim in. On to the coast at Sur, past the Bimmah sinkhole. In nesting season, the evening turtle visit at Ras al Jinz, which is controlled, respectful and worth the late night.
Day 11: The coast back to Muscat. The coast road north, stopping at the wadis and the fishing towns. Afternoon in Muscat.
Day 12: Muscat, free. A slow day. Diving or snorkelling at the Daymaniyat Islands, which is the best water in the country, or a day doing nothing on a beach, or the museums you did not reach on day five.
Day 13: Muscat. A second free day, or the drive up to Wadi Shab, an hour and a half south, where a walk and a swim through a narrow gorge reaches a waterfall inside a cave. It is the single best half day in Oman and we would rather put it here, with time, than squeeze it into the coast day.
Day 14: Fly home from Muscat. Or back to Dubai for a connection, which we build only if your flight requires it.
What is included
Thirteen nights, three in Dubai and ten in Oman, across the hotels and camps we recommend with the reasoning written out, the Dubai to Muscat flight, a private four-wheel-drive vehicle with an English-speaking driver-guide throughout Oman, guided walking on Jebel Shams with a local mountain guide, the desert camp with dinner, all entries and permits, the turtle reserve booking where the season allows, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant here and our partners in Dubai and Muscat.
Why this split and not seven and seven
Three nights is the point at which Dubai has given you what it has: the creek, the old town, one museum, one good district, and the food. A fourth night is pleasant and a fifth is padding.
Oman is the reverse. Six days gets you Muscat, the mountains and the desert at a pace that feels like a march. Eleven nights lets you put two nights in Muscat at the start, two in the mountains, and two at the end doing nothing, which is what turns a driving route into a holiday.
If you want the reverse split, we will build it. We will also tell you what we think.
Honest notes
There are six hotel changes in fourteen days, which is at the upper limit of what we think is comfortable. Two of the moves are into a mountain camp and a desert camp, which are part of the appeal rather than a chore, but if you want fewer we take a night out of the coast and add it in Muscat.
Omani roads are excellent and the distances are long. Most driving days are two to four hours. The mountain roads to Jebel Akhdar and Jebel Shams require four-wheel drive and are checked at the bottom.
November to March is the season. April and October are warm but workable in the mountains. From June to September the interior is genuinely dangerous in the middle of the day, and the only sensible Omani destination in that window is Salalah in the far south, which has its own monsoon season and is a different trip.
Entry rules for Oman and the UAE are separate and both have changed in recent years. We confirm the current position for your specific passports and dates before quoting.
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