If you ever want to experience desert wilderness travel, from vast sand dunes to wadis and coastlines, then this is a journey you should consider. You will be privately guided and chauffeured in a robust 4 wheel drive across possibly the most politically stable and beautiful of Arabian countries, starting in the Omani City of Muscat and ending in the surprisingly green and lush coastal city of Salalah (or vice versa).

In between, we will take you on a desert safari across the Wahiba Sands and Empty Quarter Deserts; along remote wadis leading into the Hajar Mountains; across pink salt flats; and along some simply stunning Indian Ocean desert coastlines isolated fishing communities live beside beaches back by mountains, dramatic cliffs and sand dunes. Traditional coastal and inland Bedouin culture is very much alive in parts of Oman, where you will share crystal clear starlit skies in permanent and temporary coastal and desert camps.

Deserts

The two desert areas you will visit have some stark contrasts. The Empty Quarter Desert, or Rub Al Khali, is the largest sandy desert on our planet, occupying an area larger than France. Its major portions are in Oman and Saudi Area, but it also touches Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. Here we find a vast sea of sand dunes and isolated Bedouin (or Bedu) whose living customs are a combination of Island and tribal tradition. You will spend two nights glamping in this area, giving you time to truly appreciate this vast desert wilderness. One of our fondest desert experiences is to walk alone over a sand dune, out of sight of your vehicle or any sign of humanity and just imagine what it would be like to be left alone here.

The greatest drama of the Wahiba Sands is arguably where it meets the coast, with 100 metre high sand dunes colliding with the Indian Ocean. You will drive amongst these dunes as well as some huge pink salt flats you will pass to reach there from Muscat.

Coastlines, Wadis & Mountains

From the dramatic coast of the Wahiba Sands, you will drive along a coastline where beautiful Wadis run to the sea from the high rocky Hajar Mountains. You will visit some isolated coastal fishing villages and enjoy fish from markets that bear witness to the rich waters of this part of the Indian Oceans. Oman's coast is full of white sand beaches populated by thousands of shore birds and sometimes steep cliffs lapped by warm turquoise seas.