I've just come back from Oman and it's a gem. The place is pretty empty due to the troubles in other countries so it's a great place to go right now. We found a great hotel/guest house called Nomad in Muscat. http://nomadtours.com/guesthouse.html I wanted to mingle with other travellers over breakfast or dinner rather than just stay in an anonymous big hotel. The owners are so friendly that they even invited us to one of their birthday parties and really helpful (we left a laptop in the hire car boot and they got it back and sent it to us). The hotel is great with good breakfasts, clean and large rooms, and a BBQ on the roof. The location is about 5 miles from the airport and not a hard place to find. We appreciated its convenient location when driving around. One thing to know about Muscat is that it is a collection of vilages rahter than a contiguous city. So you drive around a lot. Hence the need to be able to find your way back to your hotel easily,
Oman is very much a get out and go to places destination although you could sit on the beach. Even Starbucks by the beach has a roof terrace! Petrol is dirt cheap but most car hire agencies only give you 200km per day included. And you can easily exceed that. The extra mileage isn't too expensive but it gives you a feeling of being ripped off. I guess the alternative would be a higher car hire cost but they are out of industry standard in not giving unlimited. Worrying about how many miles you have covered if just another unnecessary hassle you don't need on a holiday. We drove into the mountains and saw castles and gorges, wadis and pools, deserts and coast. Speaking of the sea, one of the great deals with Nomad is that the hotel offers a boat trip to people who stay more than a certain number of days. We certainly enjoyed it. They also offer tours but we did everything ourselves so can't tell you if they are good or excellent.
