Salalah or not?

A friend and I are going to Oman for a week in mid February and are torn between a few days in Muscat with a side trip to Salalah or renting a car and driving in and around Muscat only. Any suggestions? Is Salalah worth the flight and a few days. I'd like to get in a day of diving (two dives?) and we'd both like a day hike or two and some relaxing on the beach along with the obligatory shopping at the souqs.

A week (7 days) is borderline for Salalah. The flight is quite expensive, so most people drive. However if you arrive on day 1 and leave on day 8 that means that you have 6 days to play with. Deduct 2 for the drive down and back and you have 4 days in Salalah. That's okay, but you won't see much else.
Otherwise you could easily spend a week in the north, with a trip to the mountains, and a couple of days relaxing at the beach.

Salalah is not worth it outside of the monsoon season. There's plenty to occupy your time with a Muscat to Sur to Nizwa loop (or something similar.

I think Salalah is worth it at any time of the year, but if I only had a week, I wouldnt include Salalah in your plans.
I agree with fluffy_bunny and would stick to the Muscat - Nizwa - Wahiba - Sur loop.

I agree with everyone...

Salalah is best in the rainy season when it greens in a way that is breathtaking, but that having been said we found lots of other things to do there (in a rental car) which were a lot of fun.

We drove from Muscat to SALALAH and it was amazing, but we're the very adventerous types. We drove back through the dunes and almost got ourselves stuck in sand forever.

Diving there is excellent and the dive shops in Muscat are Top of the Line so definitely include that.
We drove to SUR which is much closer than Salalah and it was pretty interesting. If you do go down there look up the turtle sanctury which doubles as a hotel you can stay at (damn nice hotel).

If you do drive to SUR get the latest from a LOCAL as to the state of the highway that their building to connect the two cities. It's been in construction for years.

-Kevin

The highway is done. There are toll booths set up, but they are not operational yet. There is a new bus service that takes the new Island causeway. It's nearly 2 hours faster and costs less.

The flight isn't that expensive, comes to ~60RO roundtrip.

I personally think it is worth it, but I'm biased (live here...). Salalah is a view of Oman that you won't get anywhere else. The biggest problem is that the diving is a decent drive from Salalah (in Mirbat, which is about 45 minutes away). I would suggest checking out deals at the Crowne Plaza (or Hilton) and see if you can make it work.

I am a former Salalah resident also. Wonder if we know each other greasy4?

Assuming this is a first time trip to Oman and knowing you only have a week I would focus on Muscat, Nizwa and surrounds. Salalah has some great stuff to offer but I think the north would be better for a first time trip.

Thanks everyone. I'm sure we'll get back to Oman again so we've decided to stick to the north for this trip.