Since I moved to Salalah, the road trip from Salalah to Muscat and Muscat to Salalah was in my mind. But since its a thousand kilometer trip one way and takes around 10 to 12 hours, I didn’t plan journey from Muscat to Salalah by car until September 2019.
This post will hopefully guide all those who want to travel to Salalah from Muscat by car with family and friends.
Although I traveled first from Salalah to Muscat as I am residing in Salalah, I am writing this post from the prospect of a traveler who is visiting Salalah from Muscat, so I am going to share the experience of the return journey first. In another post, I have covered the experience of Salalah to Muscat journey.
Read: Salalah to Muscat Road Trip
Experience of Muscat to Salalah road trip was different than that of driving from Salalah to Muscat as the later one was done in a single stretch, while the former one was with an over night stay.
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There are although two highways that connect Salalah with Muscat, Haima will come on the inland highway. The other highway, which is also known as the coastal highway, goes through Duqm. The trip on the coastal highway is my bucket-list, which I will plan soon and cover on my blog.
Whether you are traveling to Salalah from Muscat, or any other part of Northern side of Oman like Jabal Akhdar, Jebel Shams, Nizwa, Seeb, Sohar, most probably you will pass through Haima as it’s the shortest route. This post covers drive through Haima Highway.
When you are traveling from Dubai or other parts of United Arab Emirates (like Sharjah, Ajman, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, Ummal Quwain, and Fujairah), you will also pass through Haima after around 10 hours of road trip.
At this point, Salalah will still be 4 to 5 hours drive away and particularly in Khareef, the drive through Dhofar Mountains will need extra attention due to fog and mist. So its a good idea to have a stop over at Haima and break your 15 hours journey to Salalah either for the night stay or for grabbing a quick snack or just for stretching your leg.
Haima is ideally the middle point of Journey from Muscat to Salalah.
My road trip from Muscat to Salalah was in Nissan Sentra, 1600 cc, saloon / sedan vehicle. Most people recommend to drive in 4×4 car as this will be more comfortable and have a better road grip.
On various places on the road, there are signs that desert dunes are located and can cross the road if windy. So with a 4×4 vehicle there wouldn’t be a problem. Luckily we didn’t have any sand storm that day and there wasn’t any hindrance.
You can book 4×4 vehicle online, if you want to travel in it.
Road is entirely marked and have proper sign boards throughout the journey. Some of the uncommon signs will be for the sand dunes and diversions. The diversions were due to road construction at the time of traveling (at some part building the dual carriageway).
From Muscat to Haima, the road is dual carriageway, except for a few kilometers, where the construction is ongoing for the overhead bridges or making of dual carriageway for the remaining patches. While from Haima to Thumrait, the road is single carriageway. From Thumrait to Salalah, again the road is dual carriageway.
There is a lay bay every 10 kilometers on the single carriageway.
The road is mostly used by private cars, trucks, trailers and bus services like bus service from Dubai to Salalah by GTC, and within Oman bus services by Mwasalat, Gulf Transport Company, Gulf Line Transport, Salalah Line Transport, Desert King and Al Ghazal). On the single carriageways, beware of the long vehicles and drive with caution. Overtake only wherever permitted.
In the day time, there is hardly any difficulty in driving from Muscat to Haima as it’s a dual carriageway. The drive from Haima to Thamrait requires more caution and attention due to single carriageway.
Don’t drive at night unless necessary. Everyone I consulted with before driving to Muscat / Salalah forbade me to drive at night. This is mainly as the highway is not lit and in single carriageway it will be quite difficult.
I am breaking Muscat Salalah Road Trip into 5 parts – Muscat to Nizwa, Nizwa to Haima, Night Stay in Haima, Haima to Thumrait, and Thamrait to Salalah. Each section will cover in details what I did in that part of the journey and I hope this information will be helpful for you to plan your journey.
After applying for my passport renewal at Pakistan Embassy in Muscat (Read: How to renew your Pakistani Passport in Oman?), we started our return journey to Salalah.
Pakistan Embassy is located in Madinat As Sultan Qaboos. Embassy is at walking distance from Al Madina Plaza on Al Bashair Street. We fueled our car from Al Maha Gas Station (Google map location) and headed towards Muscat Expressway. I used Google Map for navigation.
Since we started in the afternoon, we wanted to break the journey at Haima, the midpoint of Muscat – Salalah route, for a night stopover. Our goal was to reach Haima before sunset so that the drive is done in the day light.
While passing through Rusayl, Fanja, Bidbid, Samial, Izki and Birkat Al Mouz via Highway 15, we reached Nizwa.
Our first stop was the splendid Mosque at Nizwa, known as Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque Nizwa. We prayed Zuhr and Asr (Qasr) in Jama Sultan Qaboos Nizwa.
Read: Guide of Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque Nizwa
We headed towards Nizwa Grand Mall, which is the largest mall in Nizwa for Lunch in the food court.
From Nizwa, the journey was non-stop to Haima. During the drive from Nizwa to Haima, we passed through Manah and Adam via Highway 31.
From Adam to Haima, the journey is around 300 kilometers and it will take approximately 3 hours. During this time, you will not find toilets, restaurants or houses. There is literally nothing (just barren land – its mostly desert) from Adam to Haima. So if you want to pray or have something to eat or drink or have toilet breaks or fuel your car, you must get all these done at Adam.
This part of journey will take you from Muscat Governorate to Al Wusta Governorate via Ad Dakhiliyah Governorate, so these will be 3 out of the 11 governorates (muhafazah) of Oman, while another governorate, Dhofar will be accessed in the third part of this journey.
We reached Haima around sunset time.
Unfortunately, Haima doesn’t have many hotels and the accommodation options are not so great. Staying at Haima is just an option to avoid driving at night and sleep.
Below are the options for Night Stay in Haima:
Arabian Oryx Hotel is one of the limited options for accommodation in Haima. This is the hotel where we stayed and it costed us 15 Omani rials for one night stay without breakfast. Check The Google map location of Arabian Oryx Hotel
We simply stayed in this hotel as this is the first one to come on Muscat to Salalah way. Technically, this hotel is before the start of the town and is somewhat little away from the restaurants in Haima.
The hotel has two floors – ground and first – and has a compound in the rectangular block of rooms.
Overall experience of staying at this hotel was okay, as the core purpose was to break Muscat to Salalah journey and not to enjoy luxuries at the hotel.
Further Reading: Review of Arabian Oryx Hotel, Haima Oman in Details
Arabia Gulf Hotel is another option to stay in Haima Oman. I didn’t stay in this hotel, nor I saw it from inside so I don’t have any knowledge about how the hotel is from inside. Check out the Google Map Location of Arabian Gulf Hotel Haima
There are some other furnished apartments and hotels in the town itself, available for 15 to 25 rials, based on the number of bed room and seemingly it was a better option. The above two hotels (Arabian Oryx and Arabian Gulf) are on the other side of the highway, while the town is on the other side.
So the other hotels and apartments we found in Haima are a lot more surrounded by the shops, restaurants and most importantly were in the town itself. So if I pass through Haima again and have to stay, will prefer to stay in the town itself.
Arabian Sands Hotel is the most popular one in the town. Check out the Google Map Location and Reviews for the Arabian Sands Hotel.
I checked one of the apartment buildings as well and it was Al Masa Furnished Apartments, check the Google Map Location and Reviews.
The journey from Haima to Thumrait is the third part of the road trip from Muscat to Salalah. As of 2019, this part of the highway is single carriageway. For safety purposes, I choose to drive on this path in the morning after a night stay in Haima.
We started our journey from Haima after Fajr prayers around 6 am.
Since Haima is the capital in Al Wusta Governorate and Thamrait is in Dhofar, this part of excursion will take you to the forth governorate in Oman from the third one. As mentioned above, Muscat and Ad Dakhiliyah are the other ones in the first part of the trip.
After driving for around 4 hours, we reached Thamrait, the third largest wilayat (province) in Dhofar Governorate after Salalah and Mirbat, via Muqshin, another province in Dhofar.
During this part of the journey we just had one stop for the tea and that too was like a drive though. The restaurant (Maqha) is besides Qitbit Motel (Check Google Map Location of Qitbit Motel)
After reaching Thumrait, we had our breakfast, also a take away, and we ate in car. There was just a couple of restaurants open that time of the morning. The option for the breakfast was Paratha Anda Roll (locally known as Egg Sandwich in Paratha).
From Thumrait, we started the last part of this journey, which is around an hour drive on the dual carriageway.
This the best part of the entire road trip from Muscat, as before reaching Salalah, the journey is through the famous Dhofar Mountains, which are around 3000 feet in altitude. These mountains are green and have fog in Khareef season (July to September each year).
We saw dense clouds covering the mountain from Thumrait and it was indeed worthy sight. Subhan Allah!
When descending from Al Qara mountains (one of the three series of mountains that form Dhofar Mountains), the view of Salalah city from this elevation is extraordinary.
I would highly recommend that you focus on the last part of the journey and this would make all the effort worth doing.
For a memorable and comfortable family vacation, there is no better options than to stay in the best hotels and resorts in Salalah, some of which are at the coastline. The white sandy beaches, palm trees, tropical and Khareef weather and the hospitality of the Salalah 5 star hotels is incomparable to any place in the world.
There are Over 100 Hotels and Resorts on Booking.com for Salalah, which you can consider for your comfortable and memorable stay. Below are my recommendations:
1. Al Baleed Resort Salalah by Anantara The finest and premium resort in Salalah with private pool villas, is a great place to have a fun filled family vacation.
2. Crowne Plaza Resort Salalah This 5 star resort in Salalah which is near Al Baleed Park and Coconut huts and is located central to the Salalah City.
3. Fanar Hotel & Residence This 5 Star resort located on Hawana Salalah Marina and is nearest to Wadi Darbat and East Salalah.
4. Hilton Resort Salalah This 5 star resort is located on the Mwasalat Public Bus Network and is near to Mughsail, Fazayah and Raysut Beaches and other places on the West Salalah.
There are many places to visit in Salalah and for a memorable vacation with your family, I would recommend you to visit the following places:
Sultan Qaboos Masjid, Wadi Darbat, Mughsayl Beach and Blowholes, Al Fazayah Beaches (including Masood Hidden Beach on the way), Taqa Castle, Al Baleed Archaeological Park and Frankincense Land Museum, Tawi Attair Sink Hole, Jabal Samhan, Sumharam Archeological site and Coconut Huts in the city.
The above places can be visited in any part of the year, and you will be fascinated to visit these places.
If you are visiting in Khareef season, you must visit the waterfalls in Salalah, specially Ayn Athum, Ayn Khor and Wadi Darbat Waterfalls.
If you are visiting this lovely city from September to May, you must do Dolphin watching and Sunset trip to Rub Al Khali Desert.
Read More:
Sightseeing tours to all these can be arranged by Beautiful Salalah Tours, they are Number 1 tour provider in Salalah as per TripAdvisor. Read All Reviews of Beautiful Salalah Tours on TripAdvisor
To contact Beautiful Salalah, Call / whatsapp +968 9120 6678 or email info@beautifulsalalah.com
Tell us about your experience of Muscat Salalah road trip in the comments section below. Have a safe journey.
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