Oman

[Oweena]

Anyone been?

I'm looking at getaways that are 4 hours (or less) direct flights from me in S. India. It would be for a long weekend--a 3 or 4 night trip.
Will be going to Sri Lanka in a few months so that location is taken care of.

Would be interested in hearing from any of you who have visited Oman.

[Oweena]

Guess I struck out on the Oman question.
Off to the interwebs to do research.

[tucano]

I've been to Muscat on a stopover. The souk is quite interesting in the evening (closes at 9).

We hired a taxi driver to take us along the corniche road and to the Sultan's Palace.

If you want to visit the grand mosque, cover your head and long sleeves/trousers as a minimum.

[viv]

Mum visited friends out there - they lived in a posh place near the embassies.

They went up into the mountains, the fish market in Muscat, a wadi trip, the souks in Muscat, and the malls at night time. Mum loved it, especially the heat. Shes not got much more to advise, as they were very much guided by their friends throughout.

Oh, and make sure you have a snake coffee. ?

[Oweena]

All of your mom's list sounds good minus the malls.

Not sure I'm going to Google snake coffee.

[viv]

It's lovely - very sweet, alcohol in it, and a theatrical performance to boot!

[Oweena]

Update: in case anyone cares, Oman is an awesome place to travel.
Spent 10 days and could have stayed 10 more.
We rented a 4WD and drove ourselves around. The road system is well laid out, infrastructure is amazing (we had cell coverage in all but the most remote places so had Google maps to point us in the right direction), the people were wonderful, the food (mezze, mezze, and more mezze) is yum, beaches with hardly a soul around, the hiking in the interior is good, the desert camping and the dunes is great, and there are some castles/forts that just cry out to be explored.
As a western female I never got any vibe about feeling unsafe. There is a large expat population in Muscat and the government is pushing tourism so they're spooling up services to make travel as easy as possible.

Highly recommended.

[leela]

Thanks Oweena. My plan to go to Iran at Easter is fast unravelling, so I'm looking for somewhere else to go to. I might research Oman, now. I don't suppose you know anything about public transport round the country?

[Oweena]

There was very little public transport leela.
Even in Muscat we only saw a few buses, and they were only in the most heavily trafficked areas.
Inland I don't think we saw any.

[whothingie]

It's about 12 years since I went as a longish stopover when Emirates started to be a realistic option from this neck of the woods. Loved it, but it was super hot. I finished up hiring a driver through the Emirates airlines associated company. It worked.