{"id":225,"date":"2013-08-06T08:07:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T08:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelcake.site\/?p=225"},"modified":"2025-04-09T22:07:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T22:07:03","slug":"road-tripping-oman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/road-tripping-oman\/","title":{"rendered":"Road tripping Oman"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only one way to truly explore Oman: by car or motorcycle. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter whether you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re cruising in a rental, hitching a ride, or relying on a friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wheels\u00e2\u20ac\u201djust make sure you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got an engine to take you where the roads lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is it cheap? No. But here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the catch: public transport won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get you anywhere beyond the basics. The buses between towns are fine for a quick hop, but you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll miss out on the magic in between\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe winding roads, hidden wadis, and endless desert landscapes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The real cost? The car rental fee. Gas? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cheaper than water. At the time, I was paying just \u00e2\u201a\u00ac0.23 per litre. Yes, you read that right.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gas\"<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Lucky for me, I met Zeina, a spirited Omani woman with a car called Boxy. We hit the road from Muscat to Sur, wind whipping through the windows, ready for whatever came next.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what came next? Rain. Pouring rain. In Oman. Yes, you heard that right. The desert is supposed to be dry,\u00c2\u00a0 t<\/span>he average rainfall is 110mm per year… But on that day, the skies decided to break.
\nWe laughed at the absurdity of it all. Zeina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s windshield wipers had never even been used,<\/span> which explained the state they were in: practically nonexistent. So, we parked, waited it out, and soaked in the rare moment. When the rain eased, the sun came out\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand with it, the beauty of the desert revealed itself.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"desert<\/a>
desert rain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our first stop: a sinkhole. Not particularly picturesque in the rain, but I jumped in anyway. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gonna let a little rain scare me off!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It was just perfect. We had the whole place to ourselves, and after a short while the clouds parted as if on cue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"swimming<\/a>
swimming in in the rain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"sunshine<\/a>
sunshine after the rain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a long swim, we resumed our journey to Sur, where we spent the afternoon strolling the corniche.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"kids<\/a>
kids at play<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"lost<\/a>
lost in translation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"men,<\/a>
men hanging out on the corniche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"traditional<\/a>
traditional dhow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once the sun had set, we tried to find the campsite we had heard about. Quite the challenge, considering the road signs were either missing or not lit. The villagers tried to point us in the right direction, but our poor Boxy wasn’t powerful enough to handle the off-road terrain on the way there. So, we were guided to a “better” camping spot, quite literally in the middle of nowhere. We lit a fire with driftwood from the beach, the sea air cool against our skin.<\/span> Suddenly, <\/span>a fisherman in a pick-up truck popped up<\/b> and drove us to a specific part of the beach to show us something “special”…<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"turtles<\/a>
turtles nesting on the beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"up<\/a>
up close and personal with the sea turtles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rest of the night? Well, that’s a story for another time. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just say it was eventful. And perhaps better shared over a drink than written down.<\/span>
\nThe next morning, we ate breakfast with the fisherman in a nearby village. Then, it was back on the road\u00e2\u20ac\u201ddriving, laughing, eating, soaking in the freedom of it all.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ghost<\/a>
ghost towns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sur,<\/a>
Sur<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"hot<\/a>
hot pink pick-up truck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"city<\/a>
city by the sea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
trying to figure out the mystery of the dead desert cows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"wadi,<\/a>
wadi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"wadi\"<\/a>
wadi perfect for a dip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oman\u00e2\u20ac\u201dits people, its landscapes, its relaxed vibe, its culture\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhas captured my heart. The spirit of the place is contagious, and I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be back.<\/p>\n

Shukran, Oman. And thank you, Zeina, for an unforgettable road trip<\/span>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Would you consider vacationing in Oman?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

The post “Road tripping Oman<\/a>” first appeared on Travel Cake.<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only one way to truly explore Oman: by car or motorcycle. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter whether you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re cruising in a rental, hitching a ride, or relying on a friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wheels\u00e2\u20ac\u201djust make sure you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got an engine to take you where the roads lead. Is it cheap? No. But here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the catch: public transport won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,116],"tags":[111,29,30],"country":[184],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east","category-oman","tag-middle-east","tag-oman","tag-road-trip","post_format-post-format-image","country-oman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4319,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/4319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}