Journal · Destinations
Oman: the Gulf destination nobody is going to yet
The Gulf has a reputation problem for Indian leisure travellers: Dubai is associated with shopping, Abu Dhabi with Formula One, and the Gulf broadly with transit — the place you wait between India and somewhere else. Oman sits at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula and has, through deliberate policy, remained apart from this template. The result is the most genuinely interesting leisure destination in the Middle East and one of the most undervisited relative to its quality.
What it is
Oman is a country of dramatic and varied landscape: the Hajar Mountains, which run to 3,000 metres and are accessible by road from Muscat; the Wahiba Sands, a red-orange desert two hours from the capital that makes the Sahara look crowded; the fjords of the Musandam Peninsula (technically an enclave, reachable by road from Dubai); and a coastline that ranges from the relatively developed Muscat beaches to the empty stretches of the Dhofar region in the south, where the summer monsoon produces a temperate green landscape entirely unlike the Gulf.
Why it’s different
Oman has been deliberately low-volume in its tourism development. The current Sultan has maintained a cap on the number of hotel rooms in certain districts; mass-market tourism infrastructure is not the objective. The consequence: the Al Bustan Palace and The Chedi Muscat operate at a quality level consistent with the world’s best urban resort hotels, in a city where the streets are empty at night and the souq is still primarily a marketplace rather than a visitor attraction.
“The souq is still primarily a marketplace rather than a visitor attraction.”
The logistics
Muscat is two hours from Mumbai and 2.5 from Delhi. Air India, IndiGo and Oman Air operate direct services. Visa on arrival for Indian passport holders (verify current terms). The country is small enough to cover significant ground in seven nights: Muscat for two (the city, the old town, the coast), the Hajar Mountains for two (Jabal Akhdar specifically, where roses and pomegranates grow at altitude in a landscape that looks nothing like the Gulf), the desert for two, and a final night back in Muscat.
The hotels
The Chedi Muscat is the property we recommend most — a long, low resort that runs from the road to the beach, with a series of pools in the garden that make the walk to the sea an experience in its own right. It lacks a preferred-partner program affiliation at the level of our main programs, which means the booking doesn’t carry the standard benefit set; we compensate through our direct relationship with the property. Alila Jabal Akhdar, on the edge of the canyon at 2,000 metres, is the mountain answer: the setting is extraordinary and the room terrace faces a drop that requires a moment to adjust to.
Oman is the Gulf without the version of the Gulf you were avoiding — two hours from home, empty, and quietly extraordinary. Go before everyone else works it out. They will.