Oh man, I must get back to Muscat

[Mattg]

I recently had an opportunity to spend a few days in Muscat, Oman. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by Oman and had a really interesting, enjoyable time. Muscat may not be the world's most tourist-friendly city, but it has its own charm. February is an ideal time to visit too as it is currently winter, so the temperatures were quite pleasant (around 25 degrees) and the rainy season hasn't yet begun.

On this trip I flew from Amsterdam to Dubai, where I stopped over for around 24 hours before continuing to Muscat. I then had two full days in Oman before flying back to Amsterdam. So, it was a short but sweet long weekend.

I flew with Lufthansa, Swiss Air and Turkish Airlines on this trip in a mixture of Business, Premium Economy and Economy. Here was the routing:




Flight 1: Lufthansa LH987
Amsterdam 08:45 - Frankfurt 09:55
Airbus A321
Business Class

This trip began on a freezing Thursday morning in Amsterdam.



There was a late aircraft change to a larger plane and the flight wasn't full, so there were a lot of seat changes at the gate. For reasons I don't quite understand, Lufthansa was running 11 rows of Business class for 6 passengers on this flight. I was assigned 11F, while the other 5 passengers were in the first couple of rows. This was the (bizarre) seat map:



I've written about Lufthansa's short-haul Business class before. It's basically a Euro-Business setup where you're given a slimline Economy seat at the front of the plane, and the middle seat is blocked. There is a curtain separating Business from Economy, but the hard product is the same. Here's a quick legroom shot:



It was snowing in Amsterdam so many flights were delayed, including ours. Around half an hour after the scheduled departure time, the captain came out from the coughpit and stood at the front of the cabin to make an announcement directly to the passengers. "Unfortunately I have time to make this announcement in front of you because we will be waiting here from another 30 minutes. There is some light snowfall in Frankfurt and that has led to a complete breakdown of that airport." He then went on to explain exactly what would happen and at what time… "We're not allowed to land in Frankfurt earlier than 10:30, and the flight will take 40 minutes. So I plan to push back at 09:43 and be at the runway ready to become airborne at precisely 09:50. First we will need to de-ice and that takes around 15 minutes, so we will start that process at 09:25."

The captain's plan was executed exactly as described, to the minute, and we landed in Frankfurt at 10:30 on the dot.

De-icing:



After we finally took off, a superb cold breakfast was served to Business class passengers along with tea and coffee.



The crew were friendly and it was a pleasant short flight.



Arriving in Frankfurt:

 

[Mattg]

Flight 2: Lufthansa LH630
Frankfurt 13:35 - Dubai 22:45
Boeing 747-400
Premium Economy

The onward leg was quite a pleasant medium-haul flight at around 6 hours. This was our aircraft at the gate in Frankfurt:



I didn't get any photos of the Premium Economy seats, but here's one I found on Lufthansa's website to give you an idea:



I've written about Lufthansa Premium Economy before, and I don't really have much to add from that experience. The hard product is perfectly fine for a day flight - it's not lie-flat, but a wide, comfortable seat with decent legroom. I was in the front row of Premium Economy so had a bulkhead in front of me.



The soft product is alright, but that part of the product is much closer to Economy than Business. The meals are identical to those served in Economy - just on real crockery and with metal cutlery, and you get a printed menu. That said, the Economy catering is pretty good anyway so the food certainly isn't bad. I did also receive an amenity kit.

The in-flight entertainment system is good. My only complaint is that the headphones they handed out didn't actually fit in the headphone jack provided!

This was the menu for this flight:




The welcome drink, a delicious mango-passionfruit juice, was served before departure. There was then a hot towel and drinks service after take-off, and crackers were handed out.



This was followed by lunch and another drinks run. I chose the lemon chicken:



An hour before landing, a substantial wrap was served, with a choice of a pastrami or cheese & salad.

We landed a little late, and it took over an hour to clear immigration and customs so it was well after midnight by the time I left the airport. But otherwise it was a nice flight.

Just one more thing - Lufthansa does offer in-flight internet. I was able to log on for free using the Boingo account that comes with the 28 Degrees MasterCard. But the connection was pretty slow, and it stopped working half way through the flight.

 

[Mattg]

I stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn Express at Dubai Airport. This was a perfectly good hotel with a free shuttle service to/from DXB terminals 1 & 3. You can also walk from Emirates metro station.




The included buffet breakfast in the morning was really very good and the staff were great. I would stay here again.

I also paid a little extra to get a room with an airport view, and wasn't disappointed.

 

[Mattg]

Dubai

I spent the afternoon doing some sightseeing around Dubai. I first visited the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall.






I didn't have enough time to go to the top of the world's tallest building, so will have to save that for next time. In the evening I joined a walking tour of the old part of Dubai, which was quite interesting and included a visit to Dubai Museum, the textile and spice souqs, and a boat ride across Dubai Creek. We finished at the gold souq.






After the tour, I headed back to the airport for my flight to Muscat with Swiss Air (of all airlines).

 

[Mattg]

Flight 3: Swiss LX242
Dubai 22:10 - Muscat 23:10
Airbus A330-300
Economy Class

The check-in area at Dubai Airport was totally chaotic, but thankfully everyone else was queuing to check in for different flights. There was no queue at the Swiss counter, and I was soon headed up to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge. This was of course no match for the Emirates lounges in Dubai, but perfectly fine for an out-station lounge. It wasn't huge, but there was a good range of food and drinks, reading material in various languages and the wifi worked well.

Only ~30 people joined this flight in Dubai. This was partly because the passengers flying through from Zurich had remained on board during the stop in Dubai. But in total there were only 68 passengers on board for the DXB-MCT leg, so it was a very light load.

I must say, I was really impressed with how nice the Swiss A330 was. The Business seats looked very comfortable, and even Economy wasn't too cramped. The Economy layout is the standard 2-4-2 and the legroom was decent. I noticed that there are two armrests for passengers in the middle of the middle section. For those in bulkhead Economy seats by the windows, there is also a large cubby hole to place your feet - so those seemed like very good seats. Here's a legroom shot from my regular Y seat:




Shortly after I boarded, all the lights/power on board went out and the captain made an announcement that we'd lost electricity to the plane (or something to this effect). There was a delay while they tried to fix that and we left 40 minutes late.

On this short flight we were served a bag of crackers and a drink. Before long we were landing in Muscat.

 

[Mattg]

Muscat

Honestly, I much preferred Muscat to Dubai. Sure, Muscat is not as glamorous or modern. But it's extremely clean, the people are friendly and I found it generally a lot more authentic.

Muscat is a very beautiful city, but its unique geography does also hold disadvantages. The city is long and narrow as it has beaches & the Indian Ocean on one side, and mountains on the other side. It's rather spread out, with limited public transport and it's not all that pedestrian-friendly outside of the various city centres.

With that in mind, you should plan the location of your accommodation strategically. If you want to be able to walk to places, I would stay next time either at/near the Crowne Plaza near Qurum Beach, or near the Sultan Qaboos Port and souqs. These locations are convenient, but as a result the hotels there are expensive. If you're planning to hire a car and/or don't mind getting around in taxis, you might as well save some money and choose a cheaper location.

Don't be fooled by the currency - Oman is a little bit expensive (but not dissimilar to Australian standards). One Omani Rial is worth around AUD3.70. And it could be quite hard for a solo traveller as there aren't really many group tours that you can just join. I got lucky though - I asked at my hotel and they put me in touch with a company that happened to be running two shared tours that I could join on both the days I was there. On Saturday I joined a Muscat city tour, and on Sunday I visited Nizwa and Jebel Shams. These were two excellent tours and I got to see some really interesting places during the two days I was there.

On the Muscat city tour we visited the Grand Mosque, which unfortunately wasn't open to non-Muslims at the time we arrived (you would need to go early in the morning). Everyone I spoke to that had been inside said that it was amazing.




We also saw the opera house, the Sultan's palace, the port and Muttrah Souq. Here are some pictures from around Muscat...

 

[Mattg]

The opera house



Muttrah Souq




The Sultan’s palace



Apparently, Muscat has been built pretty much from scratch since 1970 by Sultan Qaboos. Before then, it did not even have electricity.

 

[Mattg]

The next day I joined three others for a day trip to Nizwa and the "Grand Canyon of Oman". The drive to Nizwa took around 2 hours and there was plenty of nice scenery along the way.






The first stop was Nizwa Souq. This souq was so immaculately clean that I'm convinced it's a fake souq set up for tourists.







Nonetheless, I was willing to part with half a rial for a bag of delicious, juicy Omani dates.



While I was at the souq, a lady who seemed to have an Australian accent told me that this was the third time she'd seen me over the past few days (I didn't recognise her). She had been on my DXB-MCT flight and apparently also seen me the day before at the opera house in Muscat. It's a small world!

 

[Mattg]

Nizwa is the old capital of Oman. It was once protected by Nizwa fort, which nowadays is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Oman.








After exploring the fort, we stopped for an Omani version of a crepe.

 

[Mattg]

The roads in Oman were generally excellent, although we had to take some bumpy back roads to get to our next stop - Wadi Ghul, the so-called "Grand Canyon of Oman". Once off the main roads, we had to stop regularly for donkeys and camels.




Speaking of driving, apparently Oman is very strict on punishing drivers that run red traffic lights. I'm told that people are let off with a fine after the first time being caught, but apparently subsequent offences are punishable with jail time. Based on the force at which our driver slammed on the brakes at an orange traffic light, I could believe this to be true.

Anyway, back to the tour...





It was totally worth the drive up to Wadi Ghul. This was the view:





Final thoughts on Oman? It's definitely worth spending a few days (or longer) there! Of the destinations on the Arabian Peninsula, Muscat and Oman tend to get overlooked in favour of the likes of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha (due to these being hubs for the big 3 Middle Eastern airlines). But Muscat was a refreshing change and something a bit different. And very safe.

The process of getting an eVisa was relatively easy. You apply online up to a month before arrival and the fee isn't too high.

 

[Mattg]

Flight 4: Turkish Airlines TK775
Muscat 02:25 - Istanbul 07:10
Boeing 737-800
Business Class

I took a similarly-timed Turkish Airlines 737 flight last month, but in Economy. That wasn't a great experience, so I was keen to see whether the redeye would be much better in Business class.

I checked in around midnight via the dedicated First/Business check-in area at Muscat Airport. This setup is great if you're in a premium cabin as there were no queues, and you get access to a dedicated immigration and security checkpoint.

I must say, I was very impressed with Muscat International Airport. It was large, clean and very modern. It was perhaps a little crowded around midnight with all the redeyes departing to India and Pakistan, but still a very pleasant airport to pass through.



Turkish Airlines Business passengers receive an invitation to the Primeclass Lounge in Muscat. This lounge greatly exceeded my expectations. The lounge was large, with a wide variety of buffet food available and a well-stocked bar. The wifi worked well, there were good apron views, the staff were friendly and there was no queue to have a shower. I have absolutely no complaints about this lounge!




So, to the flight. Business class wasn't full and I had two seats to myself in row 4. The seats in Business were standard recliners in a 2-2 configuration. The seat was comfortable and the legroom was very decent, but a lie-flat bed would of course have been welcome on this overnight flight!




This was my legroom from row 4. If you want to stretch your legs out, I would avoid row 1 which had limited legroom due to the bulkhead.

Pillows, blankets, newspapers and noise-cancelling headphones were provided. A pre-departure water or juice was offered, along with a bag of hazelnuts and an amenity kit.



Despite the 2.25am departure time, breakfast was served on this flight. Here is the menu:



The crew were friendly and attentive. After take-off I was asked whether I would like breakfast now or before landing. I opted to eat at the start of the flight and was the only one - all the other passengers went straight to sleep. I was very promptly served a delicious meal, accompanied by a choice of warm breads. This was the cheese plate starter:



And the omelette main course:



By the time I finished eating the cabin lights had been switched off and I slept around 3 hours, waking up as breakfast was being served to the rest of the cabin.

Approaching Istanbul:



After 5 hours and 10 minutes in the air, we landed on time at Istanbul Ataturk Airport and disembarked onto buses. Turkish Airlines provided a separate bus just for Business passengers, which was welcome. A few Economy passengers also snuck on and weren't questioned.

Ataturk Airport was crowded as usual. The sooner the new Istanbul airport opens, the better!

I had a short and uneventful visit to the Turkish Airlines lounge during my layover. I wasn't hungry so didn't partake in the excellent food offerings on this occasion. Honestly, the lounge was very busy at this time of the morning and it was a struggle to find a seat. After barely 20 minutes in the lounge, my flight was listed as "boarding" (with still 70 minutes before the departure time!) so I headed over to the gate.

 

[Mattg]

Flight 5: Turkish Airlines TK1951
Istanbul 08:50 - Amsterdam 10:40
Airbus A330-300
Business Class



The seats on this flight were pretty much the same recliner seats as on my last flight but in a 2-2-2 layout. (I must admit, I was a little disappointed not to get a lie-flat bed - some of TK's A330s do have these but Turkish also has a sub-fleet of more densely-configured A330s for short-haul operations.) The legroom was once again fine though. Here's the standard seat & legroom shot:




Considering that other airlines flying this route run a Euro-Business cabin and don't even offer proper Business class seats, Turkish Airlines has a very good product for this market.

The service was almost identical to the previous flight, except that I didn't receive a second amenity kit (this being a ~3 hour day flight). The menu was almost identical to the previous flight, with breakfast again being served. I once again had the omelette, but this time and was in the traditional Turkish style and even tastier:





After breakfast, the crew came around with a trolley offering tea, Turkish coffee and liqueurs. The only way they could have possibly improved the catering would be to offer Turkish Delight with the coffee! It was really very well done.

I settled in and watched some live TV (BBC News and various other channels were offered) for the rest of the flight. Wifi was also available and is free for Business class passengers.

We got a good glimpse of the new Istanbul Airport after takeoff. Later in the flight we were treated to views of the European continent covered in snow.





We landed early in Amsterdam, but then waited half an hour for a gate to become available and lost all the time we'd made up during the flight! After disembarking I cleared immigration and customs, then headed down to the airport train station. I only then realised that I'd checked a bag in! After a bit of a panic, I found out that there is a counter you can go to if you need to re-enter the baggage claim area. They did eventually let me back in, and by the time I got to the carousel the bags still hadn't started coming out!

 

[henleybeach]

Great stuff matt, your certainly getting around ! Bringing back great memories from feb 2017 when we went , agree Oman is miles ahead Dubai , Doha etc, a lot more authentic. We stayed at the shrangri-la and it was awesome. A bit out of town but they do a free shuttle in several times a day.

 

[pagingjoan]

Adding my "Thanks for the memories", Mattg.

We had a week or so in Oman, way back in 2015. In that time, we covered a good deal of country, all by road, and spent time in Muscat, Nizwa, out in the desert, and at Turtle Beach, among many other places.

It was a great experience.

We have also done a heap of flights over the years with TK, all in Business, as far as I can recall, and they have been uniformly excellent.
I'm not so enthusiastic about IST, other than the entertainment of the Lounge. It must be one of the most frenzied airports in the world, no matter the time of day or night.

 

[Pushka]

Last time I went to Oman was in the ‘80s. Our plane was surrounded by armed guards and we only stopped for refuelling and weren’t allowed to disembark. How times change!

 

[LadyC]

A great little TR. Oman looks interesting a worth a visit - thanks for posting!

 

[JohnM]

Nice TR, @Mattg. You packed a lot in. Interior of the Grand Mosque is indeed splendid: post #88: A North Africa and Middle East ramble

 

[kermatu]

Nice TR!

 

[trooper]

Thanks for that! I visited Muscat a long time ago....and have very fond memories of it. Several reasons for that starting with the fact we had just sailed across the Indian Ocean and it was my first day/night off since leaving Australia. (HMAS SYDNEY on the way to the Persian Gulf in October 1990...) The ships officers were invited to stay at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel at a very generously reduced rate...lol... and it was a blissful nights sleep.... I will hopefully get back there one day.....and like you will give Dubai a miss....once there was enough.