11 Big Mistakes to Avoid in Oman

Oman is one of the most underrated travel destinations we’ve been to. Tell someone you’re going and it’s invariably met with a ‘why Oman?’, yet show them a few photos and suddenly they understand. It’s a stunning country, with great food, friendly locals and a wealth of adventures on offer.

Though it’s generally an easy country to travel around, there are a few things worth bearing in mind both on the ground and as you plan your trip.

Here are the top mistakes to avoid in Oman.

Mistakes to avoid in Oman

1. Not understanding the reality of the ‘cool season’

Read any online resource about the best time to visit Oman and you’ll be told ‘October to April’ because it’s ‘the cool season’. And whilst that’s true, cool in Oman might not exactly fit your idea of an ideal temperature for your holiday.

We first arrived in Oman in October and the temperatures were regularly above 38C and didn’t drop much at night - it was absolutely scorching. The mountains are cooler at this time, but if you want to explore Muscat and the coastal areas, then you have to be prepared to face some pretty steamy temperatures.

November was much more comfortable, but if you’re not a fan of extreme heat, then stick to the winter months of December to February.

Although air conditioning is present everywhere, if you’re going to see the best of Oman you’re going to spend the majority of your time outside and the heat can be really relentless during the shoulder months of the cool season.

2. Believing that hiring a 4WD is essential

Whilst it’s true that hiring a 4WD is going to get you into every nook and cranny of the country, it isn’t essential. The price of a 4WD is often three times the cost of a smaller car and many people hire one for their entire trip and only really need it for one or two excursions.

There are many places where you can use a local service to transport you over the 4WD road, which is almost always more economical than hiring a 4WD. For example at Wahiba Sands your camp host can pick you up on the edge of the desert and transport you the short distance into the dunes in their 4WD, which is generally a fraction of the price of hiring your own for your whole trip.

In addition to this, the vast majority of places that tourists visit are on sealed 2WD roads, so if you are on a budget you really want to look ahead of time at the places you want to visit and decide whether a 4WD truly is necessary.

Of course, if you want to get off the beaten track and wild camp with a roof top tent etc then you’ll want a 4WD, but this will not apply to everyone.

3. Visiting popular places on a Friday or Saturday

The Omani weekend is on a Friday and Saturday and this is generally the busiest time to visit most sites in the country. If you’re planning on heading out to the popular wadis, such as Wadi Bani Khalid or Wadi Shab, then avoid weekends altogether, or come very early in the morning.

We did end up having to visit Wadi Bani Khalid on a Saturday and went very early and it was fine. However, as we were walking out, around a hundred people were walking in, which would have been a whole different experience.

On a slightly different note, we saw that many sources said that a lot of attractions close on Fridays, including popular places such as Nizwa Fort and Souq, but we did not find this to be the case. In our experience everything was open and busy.

Jabal Akhdar

4. Thinking that it’s the desert, so it never rains….

So it turns out that despite being a generally hot and dry country, it does actually rain quite a bit in Oman and that can cause some issues for your itinerary.

During our stay in Oman (5 weeks) several of the famous wadis flooded three times. And when I say flooded, I mean that beautiful clear blue water you see in all the photos turned completely brown.

That’s not to say that it always happens this frequently - I am sure it doesn’t - but if the wadis are top of your Oman bucket list, then visit them as early as possible in your trip if you have dry weather, just incase.

If you have heard about recent rain, ask a local before making a potentially long journey out somewhere. We got up at 5.30am to visit Wadi Bani Khalid only to be met with a raging torrent of brown flood water.

It takes several days for clarity to return to the rivers and again locals can you help you out with current conditions.

5. Spending too much time in Muscat

We really liked Muscat and it’s got a few great sites to see (as well as fabulous food and coffee) however, we met so many people who were only on a short trip to Oman and regretted how long they spent in Muscat (but had prebooked hotels and couldn’t cancel).

Unless you are really into cities you could get away with spending a day at either end of your trip in Muscat and spend the rest of your time at the mountains, desert and coast.

This is where Oman really shines and you’ll likely regret it if you base yourself for too long in Muscat at the expense of the more rural areas.

6. Not spending the night in at least one mountain village

The mountain villages of Oman are gorgeous and many people only visit them on a day trip. This misses the best part: the chance to experience the villages when day trippers have gone home, not to mention the opportunity to stay in traditional mud houses.

We spent the night in five different villages and each one was unique. Pick the right accommodation and it really does feel like stepping back in time. Oftentimes the hosts will cook your dinner and it was usually the best food of our trip.

It’s hard to pick a favourite village as we loved them all, but I have to say I have never stayed anywhere like The Suwgra in Jebel Akhdar, the hotel is perched on the edge of a cliff in a 500 year old village. You can read our unsponsored review here, and trust me this is an experience you don’t want to miss.

7. Skipping Wadi Tiwi because you’ve heard bad things

Do a little research into Wadi Tiwi and you will undoubtedly come across some rather unsavoury reviews. Now we’re not saying that there is no truth to any of them, or that scams don’t happen, but Wadi Tiwi was a highlight of our five weeks in Oman. It is staggeringly beautiful. A true Garden of Eden and a wadi you do not want to miss.

From my albeit limited understanding of what’s happened, it seems that some locals don’t like tourists coming to the wadi without bringing any money into the area (eg hiring a guide etc) and this has led to some people saying they were hassled at the wadi. Now we saw plenty of people at the wadi without a guide and never saw the locals be anything other than delightfully kind and helpful, but again I am not saying that the hassle never takes place.

Even though we generally do not hire a guide unless it’s mandatory as we prefer to do everything independently, we did hire one for Wadi Tiwi. Primarily this was because at this point in our trip we didn’t have a 4WD so we needed transport anyway.

In the end, our guide turned out to be a legend and helped me down the ropes with such grace when I was embarrassingly bad at getting down.

After the short rope section, it’s an easy wadi, so knowing we like to do things independently he then carried all our camera gear and other things round to the other side of the wadi and let us do the middle bit alone.

It was truly one of our favourite hikes in the Middle East and all I can say is don’t be put off by reviews. If you are worried then hire a local guide (which is very inexpensive) and you won’t have any trouble.

8. Not going native when driving in Muscat

The roads in Oman are generally excellent and outside the capital driving is pretty cruisy. However, driving in Muscat is a different beast.

The speed limits are high and the driving is fast and aggressive. Expect to be tailgated, cut up and honked at if you dare drive even a fraction below the max speed limit.

You’ll quickly realise you need to go a little native in order to ever actually change lanes, come out of a side road, or park.

We’re not saying to speed or anything - there are approximately one million speed cameras that will catch you if you do - but you can’t be a nicey nicey driver and actually get anywhere in Muscat.

9. Thinking you need a big budget

I was guilty of this one before arriving. Having visited nearby countries like Jordan, Israel and the UAE, I assumed Oman was going to be expensive. In a rare turn of events, it was actually far cheaper than I’d been anticipating.

We hired a cheap car (albeit we rarely used a 4WD), stayed in reasonably priced midrange accommodation and ate great food for cheap. Almost all activities were free and we ended up coming in well under our predicted spend.

If you stayed in budget accommodation and stuck predominantly to basic local restaurants, you can get by very cheaply indeed.

As with all countries, there are also ways you can spend a fortune, but overall we found Oman to be a great value destination.

It’s worth noting we weren’t there in peak season though (December to February) so we may have been getting better deals on hotels than we would have done a month or so later.

10. Visiting Wadi Shab at 8am

Wadi Shab is 10/10 incredible…. when it’s quiet. However, Wadi Shab is 10/10 Disneyland vibes if you come when everybody else does. And I mean everybody else, because we didn’t meet a soul that wasn’t planning a visit to Wadi Shab whilst in Oman. And everybody tells you to go at 8am. Yikes.

We knew this would spoil it for us, so we decided to visit much earlier. This was contrary to what online sources said was possible as everyone categorically states that the boats over to the wadi begin at 8am.

Well we turned up at 6.50am (yes, it’s hideous, but we are very crowd averse) and we were the only ones there, for a little while at least. As we were leaving, the wadi at around 11am, hundreds - and I do genuinely mean hundreds - of people were coming in. It was chaos.

We did sacrifice beautiful light in the canyon for lack of crowds (because the sun has not yet risen above the wadi walls if you go very early), but for us it was worth it for the actual experience and atmosphere. An alternative would be to try going later in the day.

If you happen to be visiting in the hotter months, such as summer time, then you can disregard this advice because it will be much quieter anyway.

11. Visiting Ras al Jinz without doing your homework

We’re big wildlife lovers and one of the first things I ever knew about Oman was that it was a brilliant place to see turtles on the beach. Along with the wadis, it was the thing I was looking forward to most in the country.

I knew we were outside peak turtle season (May to September), so to manage my expectations about how many we might see I decided to look at recent reviews of the turtle reserve tour (the only legal beach turtle tour in Oman).

As I was reading the reviews I saw a number of different accounts of unethical behaviour on the tours from a series of different reviewers. Not the behaviour of any staff at the reserve, but of tourists.

The thing is, reviewers claimed that the staff had such large numbers in their tour groups that they couldn’t control the tourists and things such as shining white light (instead of red which doesn’t disturb turtles) on the mothers when laying eggs and then picking the babies up and hindering their progress out to sea was allowed to take place.

Now I didn’t witness any of this and I am sure that this isn’t a common occurrence, but it worried me enough that I no longer wanted to go.

To be fair to the reserve, I did meet several people that took a tour and said that though the numbers were high, everyone behaved, but I still didn’t want to chance it given how bad some of the reviews were (you can see them for yourself on Google).

When we made up our minds not to go, I decided to look and see if there was any other way of seeing turtles in the area - which thankfully there was. And as we don’t generally like tours and only take them when we absolutely have to, it ended up working out much better for us. You can read about that experience here.

I hope this helps you planning the trip of a lifetime in Oman, please feel free to leave a comment if you have any specific questions.