a week in Dubai & Oman

Hi there!
Is a good plan to spend your extra time (but how long exactly?? 5 days?) to visit Oman.
In fact there is no need to fly. You can go bu bus in a few hours from Dubai to Muscat Oman, I did it and advice you to do the same.
Muscat oman is an interesting place, the Murtah souk is fabulus. You may spend a day visiting the souk and around. Another day you can visit the adjacent city of Muscat with the forts, palaces and museum. Dont expect to enter any palace and fort though. If you like the beach there is a very nice place some (20?) kilometers south, very nice but dont remember the name, i think is next to bustan hotel. Make your base at mutrah.
You must day trip to vist one day the area around rustaq north (that must be by taxi).
Another day the area aroung Nizwa in the mountains inland, that you can do by bus byt you can also spend a night there.
If you have more time go south to the city of Sur and watch the turtle nesting, this is quite far, an overnight trip.
Of course there are more places.
The whole country is safe and the locals are friendly, no way to be in a society like in dubai (which is very artificial and the locals are rare and pretentious)
Again my advice is to go! By Bus!
Anastas

I'm going to disagree quite a lot with the previous response:

1. Definitely pick Oman, there's no where else in range of Dubai with the same massive choice of things to do / see.
2. Definitely dont go by bus. Its a minimum 5 hour journey, and a shitty way to start a trip with a young child.
3. If it were me, I would probably not bother with any time in Dubai, and just fly direct from Dubai airport on to Muscat. If you dont want to / cant arrange an all in one flight ticket, there are a couple of budget airlines that do the route - AirArabia from Sharjah, or FlyDubai (from Terminal 2).
4. With a week to play with, rent a car (its worth every penny) and aim to have 2 (or maybe 3) bases - a couple of nights in Muscat to see the souk, and the corniche area, go snorkeling at the ODC, maybe visit the grand mosque which is elegantly stunning and worth the trip even for people who've spent a chunk of time in the ME already. Maybe also a day trip to one of the wadis on the Quriyat - Sur road - wadi Shab or Wadi Tiwi.

Then use somewhere in the Nizwa / Bahla area as your second base and spend the rest of your time playing with the forts (especially Bahla and Jabreen & Nizwa) and old villages and the Hajar mountains. You could easily spend a week based in Nizwa and never run out of things to do.

If you wanted to, you could also add in a trip to the Wahiba sands, which can be totally magical especially later in the year when sitting round a fire is a desirable state of affairs.

I wouldnt prioritise the Rustaq area, the other side of the mountains is far more worthwhile if you have the choice.

Your advice is clearly welcome.
But personally I dont think the 5 (?) hours by bus was a shitty travel.
In fact if you travel between dubai and Oman by air arabia you need at least four hours from town to town centre including transfers from dubai city to sharja airport and then waiting time.
On the other hand we both agree that Oman is a rewarding destinastion.
I have to remind you that OP Has to spend a couple of days in Dubai.
greetigs from Anas

Thank you both- i appreciate the responses.

To clarify- I am being given a ticket to Dubai- I will have to arrange for my own transport to Oman. I am hesitant to book a connecting flight on the same day (avoiding Dubai altogether) but if anything happens and i miss my connection I'm shafted. So probably I will spend a day in Dubai on each end of the trip. Also, with a child, 2 nights in a Dubai hotel with pool is not a bad option to start the trip...

I hear both opinions about bus travel- Indeed, my concern is that it's les fun with a child. If i were by myself I'd take the bus any time as i know the door-to-door travel time will likely only make 2-3 hours difference.

Tell me more about the bus connections- any specific bus companies? AC buses with recliners? How are the roads (Good, I presume)

The there's the visa issue- my limited research seems to indicate that Visa On Arrival is available at land borders. It also appears that with my Dubai visa i can get entry to Oman but I am not 100% clear whether this is approved for land borders. we're travelling on European and US passports.

Thanks Genghis. I'd seen that post but it's 4 years old so wasn't sure if all the info is still up to date. I also noticed the bus ride may take up to 6 hours including immigration/customs etc...

cheers

Fair point with giving yourself plenty of connection space.

There are a couple of buses a day, they all run from the same location near DNATA, but the official provider is ONTC.

All the additional details you could possibly want here:

With Euro / US passports you'll get a VOA at all Oman entry point, land and air, so thats not an issue, and you can cross back and forth between UAE and Oman an infinite number of times. Visas for Oman will either be 5 OR each, or free depending on who deals with you and what kind of mood they're in.

Edited by: genghis_caterpillar to fix the broky linky

Its a pleasure - coincidentally we seem to be crossing over each other's territory - I keep running into posts from you while I'm looking up good hotels & districts for a couple of days in Paris.