Although parts of the country are strangely Western — there’s a Dairy Queen in the Muscat airport — this is still very much a Middle Eastern country, one that perfectly blends old and new.
Away from the hotels, many women still cover themselves in long black robes. And men still wear the long, flowing tunics known as dishdashas, as well as the intricately embroidered skull cap called a kumma.
Besides Oman’s vast desert and plush hotels, why would one make the seven-hour plane ride from London — or much longer journey from New York? One major draw is the largely untouched 1,600km of coastline. In Oman, you can still find wide stretches of gorgeous sand, overrun with shells but with not a single sunbather.
Another attraction is Muscat itself, with its mosques, palaces, and historic harbor district dominated by a pair of 16th-century fortresses, Mirani and Jalali. One afternoon we visited the city’s colorful Muttrah souk and enjoyed getting lost in the winding alleyways that pass stalls hawking spices, crafts, scarves, silverware, and other souvenirs, all under a canopied roof of palm fronds.
From our Shangri-La hotel just outside Muscat, we also were able to arrange half-day snorkeling journeys on which the children were able to swim alongside huge sea turtles. There are more than 100 dive sites around Muscat alone, and even non-divers can enjoy close encounters with fish, turtles, dolphins and whale sharks.
But even better were the beaches around Salalah, a 90-minute plane ride from Muscat. Here we stayed at the lovely Crowne Plaza Hotel surrounded by some of the most pristine coastline in the world, a coastline that is especially alluring during the months of October through April.
What we liked best about Oman was that there are no glass skyscrapers of 21st-century commerce to mar the skyline as there are in Dubai, Oman’s flashy tourist-filled neighbor. There are simply jagged bluffs, old-fashioned food markets, hospitable people, and camels and goats grazing by the sides of roads.
We left the country armed with Christmas presents for friends, as well as hopes that Oman will retain its traditional, low-key flavor. We also arrived home with sand still in our suitcases.
But after such a great vacation, who cares?
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