Salalah, Oman

[TxnAquarian]

Hi everyone,

 

 

This is just a general request for comments from anyone who has been to Salalah. We just booked a Dubai to Athens cruise, which has a day-long visit in Salalah. Having never been to the Middle East before, I am wondering how safe or easy it is to explore independently. Is this an area where a ship's excursion is recommended? Is there much to see? A couple of people on Cruise Critic have said that Salalah doesn't offer much and is nothing more than a stop to break-up sea days. Thanks for any help you all can give me.

 

 

 

 

Michael

[roscoe39]

Hi everyone,

 

 

This is just a general request for comments from anyone who has been to Salalah. We just booked a Dubai to Athens cruise, which has a day-long visit in Salalah. Having never been to the Middle East before, I am wondering how safe or easy it is to explore independently. Is this an area where a ship's excursion is recommended? Is there much to see? A couple of people on Cruise Critic have said that Salalah doesn't offer much and is nothing more than a stop to break-up sea days. Thanks for any help you all can give me.

 

hey michael....im interested in Salalah too...Ill be there in April 2008...so keen on keeping this thread live in case soemone has some information!:)

 

Ive started with the Lonely Planet guide but it would be great to hear from someone who has been there off a cruise ship...roscoe

[Keith1010]

Michael, hopefully you'll get some posts from others.

 

If you do a tour here I would highly recommend either doing it through the cruise line or if you want to do a private tour still booking it through the cruise line when you are on the ship as the use reputable tour operators and you don't want to take a chance of missing the ship. I looked up the tours being offered on our cruise which includes this port, once again, in April and five tours are being offered, of which one of them is new for 2008.

 

There will be a complimentary shuttle to the nearby town.

 

There were some taxis at the port and a few people took them. Very important to negotiate the rates up front and arrange for a R/T ride. Personally, I wouldn't do this but some did.

 

You may have done this already but you can read the tours that are being offered in April on our cruise line which likely will be the same ones offered on your cruise.

 

Keith

[roscoe39]

Michael, hopefully you'll get some posts from others.

 

If you do a tour here I would highly recommend either doing it through the cruise line or if you want to do a private tour still booking it through the cruise line when you are on the ship as the use reputable tour operators and you don't want to take a chance of missing the ship. I looked up the tours being offered on our cruise which includes this port, once again, in April and five tours are being offered, of which one of them is new for 2008.

 

There will be a complimentary shuttle to the nearby town.

 

There were some taxis at the port and a few people took them. Very important to negotiate the rates up front and arrange for a R/T ride. Personally, I wouldn't do this but some did.

 

You may have done this already but you can read the tours that are being offered in April on our cruise line which likely will be the same ones offered on your cruise.

 

Keith

 

ey keith thanks for your advice.....anything that is a must see there...? not sure about following the trail to see the frankensence tree or the prophets burial site.....what would you recommend as a good representation of what oman has to offer...????

[Keith1010]

roscoe, when we were there we did not go on one of the tours. Some folks went on the tours while others stayed on the ship. I will be back there in a few months and will try to get a sense as to a tour that might provide an overview of the area.

 

Keith

[dd@sea]

Michael,

We just returned from an Alexandria to Dubai trip and did the Frankinsence

tour in Salala. Of the tour choices this is the one that seemed best. It started with the bus journey to the tree, along with interesting information about Frankinsence and all the supposedly cures for various ailments. Then we went out to the beach to see the cave and the geyser. Backtracking we went into town and then up in the hills to Job's tomb. A visit to the souk followed for shopping time. Most of the trip was on the bus. The scenery was interesting, especially up in the hills, seeing all the camels afoot was interesting too. Our group enjoyed the trip as we had a wonderful guide that explained so many things to us throughout the four hours. We learned more about the country, life style, goals etc. than we ever expected. Two other busloads on the same tour commented it was boring and their guide certainly was not as good as ours. If you choose this one, I hope you get a great guide and along with tour highlights it is a good worthwhile experience. Hope this info helps.

[roscoe39]

thanks thats helpful....and keith that would be great, I would appreciate your advice.....roscoe

[NCCruzQueen]

Two other busloads on the same tour commented it was boring and their guide certainly was not as good as ours.

 

dd, Thanks for posting. That excursion will be offered on my Navigator cruise next fall. Too bad that the other two busses didn't enjoy the day. You are so right that a guide can make or break an excursion.

[lahore]

Have a look at our posting and photos of Salalah from a few weeks ago. Maybe I'm weird or something, but Salalah was one of our favourite ports.

Check it out at:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=687569

[commonsense2]

Have a look at our posting and photos of Salalah from a few weeks ago. Maybe I'm weird or something, but Salalah was one of our favourite ports.

 

Check it out at:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=687569

 

wonderful photos! thanks. the tips were nice, too. i'm going to try and contact the drivers you had. was the $40 per person or total?

[GeminiA]

Have a look at our posting and photos of Salalah from a few weeks ago. Maybe I'm weird or something, but Salalah was one of our favourite ports.

 

Check it out at:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=687569

Very nice photos, thanks for sharing.:)

 

I agree Oman looks to be a beautiful place to visit, the Mosque looks stunning, & the Fort & the rest looks like interesting places to visit to me.

 

We'll stop by in May, my only concern is that it doesn't get too hot ...

[lahore]

Hi folks, thanks for the compliments on the photos. I think it would have been difficult to take a bad photo in Oman. Yes the mosque was stunning, really we didn't see anything boring or that we didn't like in Oman.

 

I think it is vastly preferable to get a local driver in Oman. Firstly their cars are immaculate (there's a law against having a dirty car in Oman, seriously!); secondly they all sit in their taxis outside the port gates waiting for this great income source to their country, and all they see are tour buses driving past. When we were waiting for Mohammed in Salalah (he was ten minutes late - time isn't the same all over the world though huh?), another taxi driver asked me to sit in his car and turned the aircon on so i didn't get hot. He was saying how it's frustrating that none of the ship money goes to the local people. It seemed true to me. Also, if you are with a local, they know other locals. Like Mohammed in Salalah seemed to just know everyone. So we were talking to a fishing boat owner (a very classy guy) at Mirbat, coffeeshop guy, people in the souq (and I am sure we got much better prices in the Souq - I know we did). Just vastly preferable to my way of thinking. You could contact Moahammed or Mahmoud, but also from my experience with the taxi driver while I was waiting, any of them would have been great (excellent English too). Yes when you walk out the gates they all pounce on you, but just wander along and then wait a while then pick someone and negotiate. Yes we paid about USD $50 (don't recall exactly because of exchange rates - we're Aussie and we were paying in Rials) so let's say $50 to be safe. Yes it was for both of us for the whole day. Obviously we tipped as well. I am sure that anyone with an ounce of adventure will enjoy Oman.

[gerena]

Hi folks, thanks for the compliments on the photos. I think it would have been difficult to take a bad photo in Oman. Yes the mosque was stunning, really we didn't see anything boring or that we didn't like in Oman.

 

I think it is vastly preferable to get a local driver in Oman. Firstly their cars are immaculate (there's a law against having a dirty car in Oman, seriously!); secondly they all sit in their taxis outside the port gates waiting for this great income source to their country, and all they see are tour buses driving past. When we were waiting for Mohammed in Salalah (he was ten minutes late - time isn't the same all over the world though huh?), another taxi driver asked me to sit in his car and turned the aircon on so i didn't get hot. He was saying how it's frustrating that none of the ship money goes to the local people. It seemed true to me. Also, if you are with a local, they know other locals. Like Mohammed in Salalah seemed to just know everyone. So we were talking to a fishing boat owner (a very classy guy) at Mirbat, coffeeshop guy, people in the souq (and I am sure we got much better prices in the Souq - I know we did). Just vastly preferable to my way of thinking. You could contact Moahammed or Mahmoud, but also from my experience with the taxi driver while I was waiting, any of them would have been great (excellent English too). Yes when you walk out the gates they all pounce on you, but just wander along and then wait a while then pick someone and negotiate. Yes we paid about USD $50 (don't recall exactly because of exchange rates - we're Aussie and we were paying in Rials) so let's say $50 to be safe. Yes it was for both of us for the whole day. Obviously we tipped as well. I am sure that anyone with an ounce of adventure will enjoy Oman.

I have finally reached Mohammed in Salalah. When you contracted with him, what did you say you wanted to see. Have been reading the area, but info is sparse, I know you went to the souq and out to the hills and Mirbat---anything else. Was he waiting with a sign for you. We will be there in May. I assume you have been there recently---can't locate an exact date for you, but I may have just missed. Your info on this site has been excellent. Our ship does not dock in Muscat. Prinsendam. Did you pay in local currency or could we use US

[lahore]

Hi, that's great to know you contacted Mohammed. He's a very friendly laid back kind of guy, and I didn't really contract anything much, just said show us around and we would like to go to Mirbat. He took us to the souk (you need to be careful about getting to see the souq, it's closed in the middle of the day I think, and also on Fridays), then along the beach to see King's palace, to the hills that are in my photos and then to Mirbat. He was late - as I said, very laid back, but only by about half an hour. I expect time to be managed differently in different countries so that didn't phase me too much. I had his phone number and another taxi driver was good enough to ring him for me, he had to get a different car apparently as there was some trouble with the first one. We were there in early December. Doing those things that we did took up most of the day, wandering around, looking, soaking in the atmosphere. Depends how long you have in port, it wasn't our longest day in port and so by the time we got to Mirbat and had a look around it was about time to meander back. Yes we did pay in local currency, we changed money into all the country's denominations at Singapore on the way to Rome, but I expect USD would be OK. Have fun, and asky anything else you like. :)