8 days in UAE/North Oman recommendations + car rental

Hi Ampulcab,

I've hiked in Musandam and travelled the east coast of the UAE. Lovely places. Getting to the wilder parts of Musandam isn't difficult but it can be pricey, as the only way is by a local boat (ie haggling with the captain; I think we paid something like 70 OR for our boat). I used Google Earth to find a suitable drop-off point, downloaded it to my GPS, and then simply told the captain where to go. He was skeptical at first, thinking we couldn't possibly know the area, but he soon realised we knew what we were doing. He dropped us off and we simply said ''See you here in 2 days'' (pay on the return - I once paid someone in mainland Oman to take me to a wild peninsula a few hundred KMs south of Musqat and he never returned!)

We hiked in the direction of Kumzar but didn't make it there as there were so many beautiful sights - wadis, lovely coral-ringed beaches, wildlife - along the way. In addition to some wonderful birdlife, we had foxes come right up to the tent at night, and heard (and we think we saw) - a leopard or at least a wild mountain cat (defo no fox). We were there in mid-summer, so it was a hellish temperature and the humidity was dreadful. Water supplies were a headache but we found a wild beach with a recently filled watertank (we were so dry by then there was no way we weren't having our fill). In the whole time we didn't see another person.

I can think of 2 other options: 1. Maybe you could pay for one of those tours that go in the bays not far from Khasab (the only town on Musandam), and simply not come back with them, but then you'd have to arrange a return anyway. 2. If you're really keen, it looks possible to hike the whole way from Khasab along the thin spine of land leading out to the peninsula itself (about 8 KMs east of Khasab). But beware that the terrain, although not high in absolute terms, is still tricky/steep in places, with lots of vertical drops into the sea and hardgoing wadis, especially in mid-summer temps.

Heading south from Khasab towards Diba takes you through some beautiful scenery, but you'll have to check re cossing the border into the UAE there.

Lots of cheap car rentals in Dubai but you'll have to check re taking them into and out of Oman (we had our own car coming from Saudi), as there are specific regulations. 4WD not needed if you're prepared to do a lot of it the hard way - on foot. Cars passed us heading along the track from Khasab to Dibba (but again, it was mid-summer, so check re the weather and flashfloods). And camping out in the high mountains south of Khasab and in Oman proper can get cold at night through April.

Liwa desert is wonderful (you can hike across the massive dunes for a few KMs from the Morab Dune - where they do the camel racing racing - but you soon near the well-policed border with Saudi. But if you get time the Wahhabi desert in the south of Oman is much wilder and more remote and it's easy to arrange 4WD trips out quite far (4WD hire is possible in Musqat but expensive - sthg like 200 dollars per day).

I can send you fotos and GPS coordinates if you like.

hi samakhval,
i have just read your post and would be nice if you could give more infos on the treck you did along the coast as i am planning to spend 2-3 days in Musandam. Where did you start from? which place was the beach wich the watertank? Any people (houses) on the way? special snorkelling places? Hope to hear from you.
Remi

Hi yvandybon,

I can send GPS coordinates from Google Earth for the place we had our ''captain'' drop us off and pick us up. I also use Basecamp and Birdseye Satellite Imagery too (downloaded to my GPS), but the images are not that much use for fine detail.

I think there are only 2 hotels in Khasab (the ''capital'' of Musandam), and they can find a boat for you. But we went down to the harbour one morning and negotiated a price for the next day. It was sthg like 70 OR (100 US dollars?) I just told him the approximate distance and followed the GPS to the waypoint at the dropoff (26 20 01.26, 56 21 58.50). The dropoff was approx 18 KMs as the crow flies from Khasab, on a little beach by a cemetery and a very small village. The village is only 5 straight KMs from Kumzar, although of course from sea level through the steep and rocky wadis and over the hills (they reach about 500 mtrs on Musandam) in mid-summer, it feels a lot tougher than 5 KMs. We swam in lovely cove (good snorkelling and a watertank) at 26 21 40.76, 56 23 02.86 and camped on the hill above the cove (where big-eared foxes were sniffing around the tent in the early hours).

We followed our noses along some lovely wadis making our way south from the cove and camped at the highest point we could find and which we could manage before nightfall - 26 19 37.70, 56 23 46.37. The hiking is lot tougher than the height of the hills suggests and I was surprised by how little distance we covered (I often do 25-KM midsummer hikes in wadis/mountains in Saudi and don't drink as much or feel as drained as I did on Musandam), and it's imperative to take enough water as there is little chance of getting any if the watertanks are empty, unless you head for Kumzar itself (from where it's possible to take a boat back to Khasab).

I'll go again some time - pay one-way to be dropped off on Musandam, spend 3 days hiking around, and then take a fishing boat from Kumzar. Great place. I love hot weather and hot seas, so I'm a mid or late summer hiker/swimmer. Maybe the peninsula itself is more beautiful and there's more wildlife (certainly flora)around in spring and autumn or even winter, but I need to feel the sun.

No people at all apart from some youngsters in the village at the dropoff point. But it was the end of Ramadan celebration, and apparently all the people from outer Musandam (which basically means Kumzar) were in Khasab. We saw 1 inhabited village and a few photogenic old stone huts. At other times you may well meet farmers/shepherds on the hills or fishermen in the coves.

Thanks a lot Samakhval, will go this WE, but for just 1 day and a half, so no time for a big expedition..... will see where i can camp on a nice place.

Original topic starter here. We did the journey and changed plans just before the trip. We heard good stories about Oman and decided to head mainly there.

Car rental was ok, used Hertz, everything settled out fine. We had 2WD in the end, but that was ok in the end. We headed to east coast of UAE and drove down to do diving in Oman at Daymaniyat island, which was quite expensive and not very special, lots of good fish though, but quite dull corals and quite poor visibility. Saw some turtles, which was nice. We were supposed to sleep with a tent on a beach but ended up leaving, because some locals came to say that "grazy people will come and hit you, they drink whiskey" :) Ended up sleeping in a beach hotel which was, again, expensive. After the dives we headed along the coast torwards to Muscat and slept on the quiet beach at Finns, no one there, no locals, just us. Very good, beautiful and peaceful. Then we headed to Wadi Shab, which was beautiful, spend a day there trekking and swimming. Very nice place. We saw just couple other people, mostly we trekked just by ourselves. After the Wadi we headed to Wahabi Sands desert, got some rough selling habits, some cars practically stopped us and tried to sell "the best place at the desert for camping". It was quite irritating and they had strong pushing selling manouvers, they told bad stories about beduins etc. We decided to go on by ourselves and found a sweet spot right by the desert road and slept there, beatiful place, just by ourselves, no problems and very peaceful, only bunch of camels waking us up in the middle on the night. Saw couple of beduins next morning and they were smiling and very friendly, so the previous selling manouvers were obviously total bullshit. Then we headed to Jebel Shams mountain and valley, did the summit there and slept two nights in a tent. Again, practically alone. Didn't see anyone on our trek to summit and back. Quite perfect. After that we headed back to UAE and Liwa desert. Again, found a sweet spot by the desert road and spent the most peaceful night the world could have. Again no-one, no sounds, no wind, no animals, no nothing. Just moon and the emptiness. Quite perfect. Then we headed to Dubai for two days and did a small city holiday there.

4WD wasn't necessary fot the places we went. I didn't have balls to drive in the sands of desert anyway and we stayed on the harder surface by the desert road. That was absolutely enough. We had nissan x-trail and it came handy at the mountains when the road to "camping site" was quite disaster, big rocks etc, but nissan did it fine without 4WD.

No problems withg crossing the border. I drove during the night in Oman, it was weekend and the driving was graaaaaazy. I'm quite experienced driver, so it was ok, but not recommended for the sensitive drivers!

Trip was a success and if someone wants to know more, feel free to contact through private message. We didn't nknow anything about oman and it turned out to be quite a hidden gem. Only wish was to have more time and time to catch the local vibe. It seemed very different from UAE and interesting, more original and very versatile.

Edited by: ampulcab

Edited by: ampulcab

hie can you send me the gps route and any other info on this route

Hi seanjdjames!

Sorry for late reply and I'm sorry, I don't have a gps route, but we drove with a navigator and found everything (except Jebel Shams free "camp ground") quite easily. Our route was basically (road numbers included):

• Dubai
• Fujairah (E102/E84)
• a quick route to north up to sandy beach (snoopy island) (E99)
• down south across the UAE-Oman border (E99)
• along the coastline to Suwadi al Batha (E99/1)
• Muscat (1)
• Fins (17)
• Wadi Shab (17)
• Al Kamil Wal Wafi (17/23)
• Bidiyah (or Al Wasil (can't remember)) (and from here we went down to Wahiba Sands along some smaller sand roads) (23)
• I really can't remember our route to Jebel Shams from there but it included Nizwa. There's some info on internet to reach Jebel Shams around that area. Camping spot with parking possibility (no facilities, just flat ground - with bad rocky small road (more like a path)) at Jebel Shams in the beginning of hiking route was hard to find and we drove up to Jebel Shams Resort to ask the way and they helped us.
• after that up north to Al Ain across the border (21)
• towards Abu Dhabi (E30)
• west (along E11)
• south to Giffen Town (E45)
• in Liwa desert we drove south to Moreeb Hil (there's a good road)
• back to Dubai

Feel free to ask any specific info if you need and I will try to help :)