Wahiba Sands And Wadi Bani Khalid

We visited Muscat when our cruise ship called here for a day and overnight. We were a party of four friends who wanted to take a tour away from the city and we chose the Wahiba Sands and Wadi Bani Khalid tour with Oman Day Tours. We were very pleased with our decision - we were met at the port gate by a lovely gentleman, Hamood, who spoke good English and had a great sense of humour. He was also, importantly, a very good driver and looked after us very well. There is a lot of driving involved but this is part of the experience for us and Hamood gave us lots of information on the way. We loved the dune bashing - great fun - and we enjoyed our visit to a Bedouin house where we had coffee and dates. Hamood gave us the choice of eating lunch at a restaurant or taking a picnic to Wadi Bani Khalid and we chose the latter. Unfortunately it started to rain a little so we ended up eating it under a shelter anyway but it was very nice and plenty of it! Despite the few minutes of light rain, we loved our swim in the pool, with warm water and little fish nibbling our feet! We were advised that we had to wear over the knee shorts and a t shirt for swimming but we did see someone in a swimsuit so the dress code did not seem to be enforced. (Beware, the rocks are very slippery when you get into the water). Then we headed back to the port, a very slow drive with many delays due to the wadi flooding the road in several places. All good fun but we were glad the ship was staying in port overnight or we would have ‘missed the boat’! We have realised there is a lot more to see of this beautiful country and if we are lucky enough to return for a land tour, we will use Oman Day Tours again, with hopefully Hamood as our guide!

When I was going to Oman, I really wanted to do something else than just be on the beach. I looked at different websites and tour providers and eventually decided for Oman Day Tours. We booked both the sunset cruise and the desert tours. First of all, the contact with the team was extremely easy. After writing a message on the website, I got reply within the next hour (even though it was late!). Sarah and Nehal were very helpful to organise the best experience and suggested a different trip to better cater our time constraints. Also, there was no need to give credit card details or pay anything in advance - we paid all on spot (hardly imaginable in Western Europe or other Arab countries). Cruise: The driver came on time (actually probably a few minutes earlier), so it was the first pleasantly surprising aspect of the trip. The boat itself was a tab old, but very clean. The staff was knowledgeable and explained what we saw as we were cruising along the coast. Unlimited dates and soft drinks were also a nice gesture. On the boat, there were max 10 people, but there was space for many more. Therefore, one could indeed enjoy the setting. Desert trip: As with the cruise, the driver was punctual and greeted us with a big smile. Even though the trip to oasis is c. 3hours - we did not get bored. We talked with Abdullah a lot about Oman and what we saw from the windows. Oasis itself was extremely beautiful. Even though we visited it on the weekend, there was still not many people. Later we ate lunch with an ordinary Omani restaurant (which we would probably never walked into on our own), but it turned out to be delicious. We had a lot of food and again, unlimited water. Later we went to the desert to drive on the dunes. I was a very pleasant experience and we were able to see how difficult it is. On the way back we slept throughout and safely arrived to Muscat. I cannot recommend enough the hospitality and generosity of Omani people, and Oman Tours is a great example of this. We will be definitely back.

We really enjoyed this tour. Abdullah was an excellent guide and very informative about Omani culture and society. The high point was going to the wadi. It was a very warm day (by our standards) so having a cool swim was fantastic. The restaurant where we had lunch was also excellent- the fish, especially, was very good. I would definitely recommend your company to friends travelling to Oman.