Ahmed our driver & guide

Yes there are camels roaming freely (once you get out of the capital Muscat) and frankincense smouldering away at the local souks. The food is delicious (think a combination of Turkish dips and kebabs, Indian breads and curries) and you’ll be sober unless you bring duty free or are staying in hotels where alcohol is allowed to be served.

If you’re planning a trip, whether as a stopover to Europe or your final destination, here are my 5 must-sees:

Muscat:

Spend a couple of nights in the capital city. The Grand Mosque is breathtaking for its architecture, Italian marble, 21-tonne hand woven rug and swarovski crystal chandelier that eight people can walk inside (although not you). Women will need to wear long sleeves, trousers to the ankles, and a head scarf. Men should wear long sleeves and trousers.

Muttrah Souk is the city’s favourite market. It is on the corniche along the seafront and is famous for quality Arabian wares from silver to incense, authentic rugs, pashminas, artifacts and spices. Store holders will urge you to come and buy and haggling is expected.

Can you read what we spelt?

Do a Desert Crossing

Like the famous English explorer Wilfred Thesiger, the first European to cross the desert in 1948, I followed in his camel prints for two days across the Wahiba Sands. Only I was in a four-wheel-drive. From rolling sand dunes to the vast flatness of the Empty Quarter, this is harsh but picturesque country.

Stay at luxurious Desert Nights Camp. If you’re planning an exotic honeymoon, this is the spot. There are 24 permanent five-star tents, each with bathrooms and handmade furnishings and a restaurant with live music under the stars and a visit from local Bedouin to paint henna on the ladies. A sunset drink at the top of the surrounding sand dunes is magic. Try to arrive an hour beforehand as the colours are incredible across the golden rippling sand. They also offer camel rides and quad bikes for some noisy dune bashing.

Nizwa

There are 500 forts in Oman and the 400-year old Nizwa fort is the biggest in the Arabian peninsula. It has been restored back to its original and murderous splendor. Climb the narrow staircase and look up at the murder holes where boiling oil or burning date juice could be poured over marauding enemies trying to enter.

Nizwa Souk is not to be missed, particularly on a Friday. Thursday and Friday is the weekend in Oman and Friday is also the holy day so you will hear calls to prayer from the many mosques and see people shutting shops and dashing off to pray. On Friday the livestock market is the place to be until 11am to watch fervent bidding on camels, cattle and goats. You’ll also find stalls selling furniture, frankincense, sandalwood, pottery, incense burners and more.

Wadi Bani Awf

A wadi is a dry gorge which can fill very rapidly during the rains – and you don’t want to be in one when that happens. Several have dirt roads through them which are kept well graded and mostly free of pot holes. Wadi Bani Awf is one of the most popular four-wheel drive routes. But hold on to your lunch, this is two hours off serious off-roading and while it is open to tourists in their own hired vehicles, I’d not recommend it. Besides, taking a local guide means you get much more out of the trip than the scenery.

Visit the Al Hoota caves to view the stalactites and ‘mites then stay at Nahakl camp in motel accommodation, permanent tents with mattresses, or bring your own. The dining hall offers a simple dinner of curries, dips, salads and breads followed by juice, instant coffee or tea (unless you brought your own wine, which manners would dictate should be consumed in your room).

Salalah

In the 50C+  summer heat, Oman’s southern city of Salalah is a welcome respite. Ironically this is where everyone flocks for the monsoon season as it’s cool, wet and they love the fog that hangs over the mountains between June and September. From here you can make a day trip to the lost city of Ubar, which disappeared from maps and was thought to only exist in legend from 3000BC. But in 1992 using remote satellite sensing, Ubar was found, a developed desert settlement with an octagonal fortress and eight towers, plus numerous pots and artifacts dating back thousands of years. Today it is still being excavated and you can only make out a vague semblance of a city, but for archaeological boffins, this is a gem.

Here is a link to my Oman series for more information on my 8-days and 2200km trek through the Sultanate.

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat

Through the wrought iron gates you will walk through incredibly photogenic archways to be met by the dazzling white marble courtyard which when completely full can hold 20,000 worshippers.

The main prayer hall (for men only) can hold 6000 who stand in rows on a handmade 4200 sq m Persian carpet that weighs 21 tonnes. They know this because it was woven by 600 Iranian women over 4 years and brought here in 85 pieces to be stitched together. A gold painted mihrab (niche) that faces Mecca is the focus of the hall.

Swarovski chandalier

A Swarovski crystal chandalier hangs in here that 8 people can walk in (!) Only not me. I guess that’s in case the 1100 bulbs blow at once. It has 600,000 crystals and hangs 14 metres. This pic doesn’t do it justice, but it’s 8 metres in diametre.

The stained glass windows come from France and the interior walls are panelled in grey and white marble with ceramic flowers adorning them. The ceilings are inspired by Omani forts (there are 500 in the country) and Quran scriptures are written on the walls.

The women’s prayer room is smaller, it holds 750 at a time. The reason is most women pray at home while it is necessary for men to pray at the mosque. Not that it matters which mosque (and you will hear the 5x daily calls to prayer starting from sunrise) as there are many of all sizes dotted throughout Oman.

Friday is holy day in Oman. In fact Thursday and Friday is their weekend, so keep that in mind if you’re wanting to visit places other than souks. On Friday there is a sermon preached by the Imam in every mosque in the country and each on the same topic. These are decided in advance by a council of leaders, and of course, some Imams are better speakers than others. The speech from the Grand Mosque is broadcast live on TV. I didn’t hear it so can’t give you a rating.

There is quite a cleansing ritual before prayer, so the Ablution room is where you wash your hands, face and feet first.

Dazzling marble courtyard

Opening hours for non-Muslims are 8am-11am excluding Fridays.

Men and women should cover arms and legs, women should also cover their heads. Shoes are removed before entering the prayer hall. There is a cafe on site and a walk in the landscaped gardens before you leave is recommended.

Dune bashing at Desert Nights Camp

We drove from Muscat, the capital city in the north, to Salalah the cooler city in the south, zooming across sand dunes and wadis, staying in posh 5-star hotels and tented resorts and even camping by the sea in igloo tents without toilets  (to test my character). We ate fancy pants food as well as cheap offerings from hole in the wall restaurants. And I now adore Arabian food – think Turkish with a twist of Indian. We visited mosques and forts, souks and Bedouin families and I couldn’t stop taking photos.

Oman is a gem just waiting to be discovered.

You might think Oman is off the beaten track but it’s only an hour’s flight from Dubai or Abu Dhabi and couldn’t be more different to its glitzy, high-rise sisters in the Persian Gulf. Oman sits to the east of the UAE on the Gulf of Oman but its main coastline is the Indian Ocean. It is nearly the size of New Zealand or the UK (212,000 sq km) and sprawls down the eastern border of Saudi Arabia until it bumps into Yemen in the south.

Here’s a little background on this quite stunning and unspoilt country…

Sultan Qaboos bin Said

The current Sultan, Qaboos bin Said, is 69 years old with a perfectly clipped white beard. I know this because his painting is everywhere. He was trained at Sandhurst in the UK and has been running the country for nigh on 40 years after running his father out of town in 1970 (to London actually). Under his leadership he has turned the country around, invested oil money into infrastructure and helping the poor (instead of it going into royal pockets), built schools and added the buses to pick up kids in the far flung corners of the desert and generally raised the living standards of his people. They love him and have every reason to.

I find their political history quite fascinating and with a little encouragement (read, comments from you) I could go on about all that he has done. Suffice to say, Oman is now very well positioned for tourists with new hotels, excellent roads and cool architecture, yet keeping the tradition and culture still amazingly intact. And there are sand dunes and camels. Ok, I added the latter because let’s face it, you can get good roads in a lot of countries, but good roads where camels have the right of way? Now that’s just quaint.

This blog series will uncover many of Oman’s hidden gems, so stay tuned in, bookmark this page, subscribe to Blogger at Large even (!) and plan to go. It might well be the holiday of a lifetime.

If you’re already convinced,  get your travel agent to book you a trip that starts in Muscat for a good look around (including the stunning mosque), take a couple of day trips to see traditional markets and ancient forts, overnight in the ancient fort town of Nizwa and in a desert camp in Wahiba Sands, visit wadis and castles, and end back in Muscat. Marvellous.