Desert Nights: A Guide to Stargazing from Your Terrace
Moon phase, season and twenty minutes of patience: how to plan a desert stay around the night sky and get the most from a dark terrace.
22.90° N · 58.00° E · Oman
Oman
Couples and active travellers who want mountains, desert and coast in one calm, uncrowded trip.
Local time
Oman is the Gulf at its most understated: few high-rises, but a country of rugged mountains, deep wadis, old forts, frankincense and long empty beaches. In a week you can stay high on the terraced slopes of Jabal Akhdar, sleep among the red dunes of the Wahiba Sands and end on the coast near Muscat or among the fjord-like inlets of Musandam. Omanis are courteous and reserved, and the pace is unhurried.
The three landscapes make very different stays. In the mountains, resorts perch on the edge of gorges at around 2,000 metres, cool enough for a fire on winter evenings. In the desert, tented camps offer camel rides, dune drives and starry skies, and on the coast you find beaches, coves for snorkelling and boat trips to watch dolphins. Distances are manageable and the roads are good.
When to go
The year in Oman
November to March is the season, with warm, sunny days on the coast and in the desert and cool to cold nights in the mountains. April and October are good but hot in the lowlands. May and September are very hot. From June to August, heat above 40 °C makes the desert and the coast hard going and only the mountain plateaus stay pleasant, which is why Jabal Akhdar draws visitors from across the Gulf in summer.
Typical long term values, indicative. Weather in any single year can differ.
Where to stay
Resort styles here
On Jabal Akhdar, resorts sit on the Saiq Plateau above terraced villages, with views over deep gorges. In the Wahiba Sands, about two and a half hours from Muscat, desert camps range from simple tents to spacious tented suites. Muscat’s resorts lie along the coast and in the rocky coves south of the city, with beaches, pools and spas. Musandam, Oman’s northern exclave on the Strait of Hormuz, has a few secluded resorts on remote bays below the mountains.
Getting there
There are nonstop flights to Muscat from a few European cities, around six and a half hours, and many more connections through the Gulf. From Muscat it is about two hours by car to Jabal Akhdar and two and a half to three hours to the Wahiba Sands, while Musandam is usually reached by a short domestic flight to Khasab.
Guides that mention Oman
Read before you go
Tented Camp or Desert Villa: Choosing Your Kind of Desert
Canvas or stone, dune view or walled garden: how tented camps, permanent camps and desert villas compare on comfort, noise, sand and privacy.
Desert Resorts: Silence, Dunes and the Best Months to Go
Sand sea, stony plateau, canyon or mountain: how to choose a desert, when to go, and what the big temperature swing means for your stay.
