Welcome to Enchanting Journeys

Mystical Oman - yours to discover….

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller” - Ibn Battuta

The Middle East is a grand epic, a cradle of civilisations & a beautiful, complicated land that is home to some of the planet's most hospitable people. Quite simply extraordinary, one of the world's most fascinating & rewarding ancient travel destination. Left behind is an astonishing open-air Museum of ancient cities & historic buildings, the stones of which still resonate with the sounds of the faithful.  

“Beauty has an address” – as Omani people are fond of saying. Once there, one can see it is not unfounded. With an abundance of natural beauty, from spectacular mountains, wind-blown deserts & a pristine coastline, Oman is the obvious choice for those seeking out the modern face of Arabia while wanting still to sense its ancient soul.

Come, let us take you off the beaten track & we are sure you would come back with exciting memories. Challenge yourself & you may develop an appreciation for this desert Sultanate.  As every hospitable Omani you will meet on your travels will tell you, there is only one answer: ‘Ahlan wa salan! Welcome!’

In the Middle East, history is not something you read about in books. Here, it is a story written on the stones that litter the region, from the flagstones of old Roman roads to the building blocks of ancient Egypt, & the delicately carved tombs & temples from Petra to Persepolis. This is where humankind first built cities & learned to write, and it was from here that Judaism, Christianity & Islam all arose. Wherever you find yourself, the past is always present because here, perhaps more than anywhere else on earth, history is the heart & soul of the land.

Vast Landscapes |Glimpse of the Future | History Writ Large | Cities & Wilderness

The Middle East’s cities read like a roll-call of historical heavyweights, some of the world's most significant cities - Jerusalem, Beirut, Cairo, İstanbul, Damascus, Teheran, Baghdad & Esfahan... Aside from ranking among the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, these ancient-modern metropolises are places to take the pulse of a region.

The ruins of the once similarly epic cities of history - Petra, Persepolis, Ephesus, Palmyra, Baalbek, Leptis Magna & the bounty of ancient Egypt, also mark the passage of centuries in a region where the ancient world lives & breathes. The landscapes of the region are equally spellbinding, from the unrivalled seas of sand dunes & palm-fringed lakes in Libya’s Sahara desert to the stunning mountains of the north and the underwater world of the Red Sea.

It is in the Middle East's cities, too, that you find the stirring, aspirational architecture that so distinguishes the three great monotheistic faiths. There they sit alongside the more secular charms of bazaars & coffee shops that seem to embody all the mystery & storytelling magic of a land that gave us “The Thousand & One Nights”.

Beyond city limits, the Middle East is a land of mighty rivers (the Nile, Euphrates), even mightier deserts (the Sahara, the Empty Quarter and peerless Wadi Rum) & green landscapes of exceptional beauty. Exploring these wilderness areas - from snow-capped summits in Turkey, Iran & Lebanon to the kaleidoscopic waters of the Red Sea - lies at the heart of the region's appeal. The message is simple: forget the cliches that masquerade as Middle Eastern truth - a visit here is one of the most varied & soulful travel experiences on earth.

Above all else, however, your most enduring memory of the Middle East is likely to be its people. Their gracious welcome, many kindnesses and boundless hospitality speak of an altogether more civilised age. At some point on your visit to the Middle East, you will be sitting in a coffeehouse or looking lost in a labyrinth of narrow lanes when someone will strike up a conversation and, within minutes, invite you home to meet their family & share a meal. Or someone will simply approach and say with unmistakable warmth, ‘Welcome’. These spontaneous, disarming & utterly genuine words of welcome can occur anywhere across the region. And when they do, they can suddenly (& forever) change the way you see the Middle East (or as the western Media will have you believe).

From the gravitas of the Sahara to the blue tiles of Esfahan, this is a region for discerning travellers, for those looking for the story behind the headline, and where the bridges between ancient & modern civilisations are everywhere evident. If you believe what the media tells you and decide not to visit, you would be missing out on the journey of a lifetime.

And now, let us talk about the magic of Sultanate of Oman that will cast a spell on many who visit this charming yet to be discovered Emirate.

The oldest independent state in the Arab world, Oman is one of the more traditional countries in the Gulf region, strategically placed at the south-east corner of the Arabian Peninsula bordering United Arab Emirates on the northwest, Saudi Arabia on the west & Yemen on the southwest. Oman lies on a coastline of 1,700km & a land mass of over 300,000 square km of major strategic & historical importance in between the Persian Gulf & Indian Ocean.

The Omani landscape offers indeed a spectacular variety of attributes: mountain ranges reaching an altitude of 3000m (Jabal al Akhdar), fertile plains, rocky wadis, sea sceneries & arid deserts, oases, palm groves, frankincense trees, wildlife & water pools.

The oldest known human settlement in Oman dates to the Stone Age. Sumerian tablets refer to a country called Magan, a name thought to refer to Oman’s ancient copper mines. The present-day name of the country is believed to originate from the Arab tribes who migrated to its territory from the Uman region of Yemen. Many tribes settled in Oman making a living by fishing, herding or stock breeding. Some present day Omani families are able to trace their ancestral roots to other parts of Arabia.

Contact with Europe was established in 1508, when the Portuguese conquered parts of Oman's coastal region & their influence predominated for more than a century. Fortifications built during the Portuguese occupation can still be seen at Muscat.

Except for a brief period when Persia conquered parts of Oman, it has been an independent nation. After the Portuguese were expelled in 1650 & while resisting Persian attempts to establish hegemony, the Sultan of Oman extended his conquests to Zanzibar, other parts of the eastern coast of Africa & portions of the southern Arabian Peninsula.

In years gone by, Oman was rich with copper & frankincense, and enjoyed an extensive East African empire. Then, in the early 20^th century, a deeply conservative ruler, Sultan Said, chose deliberately to isolate the country from the modern world.

Until Sultan Qaboos bin Said exiled his deeply conservative father in a coup, in 1970, it was an under-developed nation & almost completely closed to visitors. Since that time following the discovery of oil in the interior, education, public works & tourism have taken off throughout the country.

What makes Oman's renaissance somewhat unique in the region is that the transformation has been conducted with great sensitivity towards traditional values - there are few high-rise buildings in the capital, Muscat; the country's heritage of forts (numbering over 2,000) are meticulously restored; ancient crafts like weaving are actively supported. Moreover, traditional Arabian values, such as hospitality & practical piety, are still in evidence making Oman somewhere to experience Islamic culture at its best.

Sea trading ports, home to traditional fishing & boat-building, as well as anchorage to Sinbad the Sailor, Marco Polo & giant sea turtles, are harmoniously combined with inland traditional oasis villages &  modern cities, such as Salalah & Muscat, traditional souks & a sequence of well-preserved medieval castles, forts & some important religious artifacts (Job's Tomb).

Mountain villages clutched against canyon walls, clusters of dates weighing heavy in the plantation oases, a ribbon of sand blown across the dunes, a lone camel padding across the limitless interior - these are the kinds of images you will see in the beautiful & enigmatic country.

It is only relatively recently that a network of roads & graded tracks, such as the coast road from Filim to Shwaymiyah, or the adventurous mountain track to the ancient tombs at Gaylah, has made it possible to penetrate Oman’s pristine landscapes, as well as its more visited ones. Muscat has been a port hub for many years, and today is the arrival point for everything from goods to cruise ships. In the Sharqiya region, you will discover some of Oman's main attractions, like the beautiful beaches of Sur, turtle nesting sites in Ras Al Jinz and the desert dunes of Sharqiya (Wahiba) Sands.

It is a curious observation about travelling in Oman that the moment you tuck behind a sand dune & begin erecting your tent, however discreetly, someone will park alongside and start camping too. Never mind that it is the only car you have seen all day; never mind that there are lots of beautiful, empty sandy beaches; never mind that the mountains are so lonesome in parts that only wolves & hedgehogs meander into the night; and never mind that memories of Thesiger are the only evocations of the living to issue from the dunes of the Empty Quarter - the one car per day will find yours & camp alongside.

Those who are sufficiently intrepid to get off the beaten track will find that they can have the desert to themselves quite easily without mounting a major expedition. Now that the secret of Oman’s great untouched beauty is out, however, it surely can’t be long before groups of visitors are a common sight & it will no longer be necessary to seek the company of strangers at the end of a day’s exploration. In the meantime, what should you say to the happy camper who parks in ‘your space’?

A land rooted in ancient cultures, authentic soul, where past learning informs contemporary vision. Progressive spirit ignites new futures. A land offering enlightenment, invigoration & inspiration through its warmth of soul & spirit of vision. Take the plunge now & yep….. a unique experience is just the beginning……. a warm welcome, historical secrets awaits you and The Journeys is ready to take you on well, a journey (or journeys) of discovery.

Come…be inspired & discover the World 

We are in the process of updating our Offerings of experiential journeys to Sultanate of Oman. Please contact us in the interim if you want to explore options & we will be happy to offer suggestions based on your personal preferences…