1

It’s possible to do the Dubai - Salalah drive in one day. I've done it a couple of times, but (and this is a big but), its not a fun or relaxing thing to do. You need to behave like a military dictator to do the drive in one go - leave at 6:00 in the morning, have a minimum of 2 drivers, keep your foot on the gas all the way and absolutely no stopping for anything other than to change drivers and for toilet breaks. Between Dubai and Nizwa the speed cameras mean you have to keep it to 140, but once past Nizwa, you need to be doing 160kph. And it will still take you around 14 hours.

If you plan to stop even briefly for food en route, or to stretch your legs for 10 minutes or so every time you fuel up or take a toilet break, or you take your foot off the gas then your realistic journey time is 15 hours plus. The fastest I've ever done it is just under 15 hours, and that was with two of us who both had flights to make so we were behaving like the biggest journey nazis in the world. If you stick to legal speed limits, and take a couple of 30 minute food stops, then you need to accept that you’ll be arriving around midnight.

It’s up to you, but I wouldn’t do that (twice) for the sake of 2 days in Salalah.
With 4 days in June, I’d either fly to Salalah and rent a car there, or I’d go camping up on the tops of either Jebel Akhdar or Jebel Shams. Its cool enough to enjoy yourself up there, even in June.

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...and between Nizwa and Salalah, nothing to look at as you go, making it extremely boring for many hours! Fly there instead, it's way too far for just two days. And on your two days there you are probably going to be too tired of driving to drive around and see the sights.

3

We attempted to drive from Dubai to Salalah in one day last summer (trying to escape Dubai's heat) and were already late into the night when our tyre exploded due to the heat and had to be rescued by the police in the middle of nowhere. Ended up spending the night in a cockroach infested trucker's stop in Haima, aka, Middle of Nowhere. If we would have made it though, it would have been late and we would be too tired to enjoy anything the folllowing day, at least during the morning. And it was 3 of us sharing the driving...

Salalah is very pretty though and we enjoyed it a lot:

http://bkpk.me/is-this-the-middle-east-o/

http://bkpk.me/camels-near-salalah/

The drive there is interesting in the sense that you might feel like you are driving in another planet. Around Haima there is NOTHING for miles and miles. NOTHING at all. But it does get monotonous after a while...

4

Thanks a lot for the inputs peeps!

We've decided to keep the Salalah trip for sometime when we can take atleast 7-8 days off. Will research Jebel Akhdar & Jebel Sham as options for these 4 days.

In the meantime, if there are any other suggestions, send it! :)

Cheers & thanks again!

5

salalah is tooo far you could either fly or just go as mentioned above to the (jabel shams)"the mountain of the sun" or ( jabel al-akdhar) "the green mountain" if you'r adventurous you could definitely go Apsailing in (jabal al shams) Note: the weather is not warm there during summer its rather pleasant i could say gets chilly sometimes but worth the view!! Or you could drop all that and go snake canyon or (mejlis el jen) cave the second largest cave in the world ! but you certainley cant do this on your own there are expert cavers who arrange a 2 night camp in the area a 2 day visit to the cave its not easy to navigate but if you'r adventurous enough its a once in a life time opportunity ! :)
skip salalah i'd say it's certainely nice just not worth the drive or just fly there.

6

Thanks MH738!

The Cave option sounds really interesting! Will surely check it out for the next break...!

For this time have decided to slack out at a resort in Fujairah. Hoping to get some diving done - its been way too long! :)

Thanks again!