Muscat

Muscat is located along the coast of the Gulf of Oman on the distance of some 30 kilometers. The city’s skyline is not as impressive as the skyline of Doha or Dubai and the exploration of the city requires some planning skills.

We decided to take the hotel closer to the old town in Mutrah and Al-Qurm, which offered easy access to the beach. Every day we were using the hotel shuttle bus to have dinner in Mutrah and to shop a bit in the souq, which is huge and offers a lot of traditional handicraft contrary to the cheap Chinese stuff seen elsewhere in the region. Local jewelry, textiles and perfumes can be found here at reasonable prices.

Within 30 minutes of walking distance from the souq (along the cost, to the East) you can reach the governmental district with Al Alam Sultan’s Palace. Lazy tourists can take taxi from the souq and ask thendriver to wait for some 15-20 minutes till you visit the entire district. Catching taxi in the middle of governmental district is difficult as the area is quite deserted.