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Traveling in Oman for Oman Holidays

Few trips offer the exotic excitment of Oman holidays. This land on the southeastern-most tip of the Arabian peninsula was formerly one of the obscurest and least developed of all the world’s countries, indeed if you’d said ‘Oman travel’ to someone even a few years back, they’d probably never even have heard of the place! (By the way, no-one quite knows where the name comes from – various theories have been put forward but we won’t go into them here.) Luxury Oman family holidays really only became possible post-1970, when Sutan Qabus bin Said became the country’s ruler and started to develop the national economy while opening Oman up to tourists.  

Any Oman travel guide naturally begins by describing the the country’s capital, Muscat. It is the site of walled royal palaces. Al- Jalali and al- Mirani forts, constructed in the late sixteenth century as prisons in a strategic place in the rocky crags, have been converted into museums. It is hard for tourists to enter, but after they have succeeded in doing so, they will be met by interiors of breathtaking beauty: wooden doors made in the style of the sixteenth century; rug making, ceramics, metalwork, and other exceptional delights; and a spiral staircase in al- Mirani (although you will also find a fully functional elevator inside the building also).

If you are not allowed inside, you can still take photographs from the outside. Then there is also Bait az- Zubair Museum, which has only been open to visitors since 1998. It is relatively new: Its main building, the Bait al- Bagh (House of the Garden), was designed in 1914 by a sheik who advised the Sultan. The sultanate’s elite would congregate here; and the museum now holds weapons, jewelery, clothes, and other items on show. A garden on the first floor has houses of stone and a palm frond hut.  

Leaving the capital city, we find even more forts, a lot of which have been named UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Included in these are Bahla, dating from the 1200s. There is more to Oman than simply forts, though. The desert landscape, such as the dunes at Wahiba Sands, are a highlight for the holidaymaker. Equally Masirah Island is well known for its uncommon wildlife, such as the huge loggerhead turtles; here you may camp, or stay in a hotel instead.   Oman travel and Oman holidays are safe despite the current politicial situation in this region. No conflict has been heard of in Muscat, making luxury Oman family holidays fully safe.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Oman Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.