Muscat Half-Day Tour

This half-day tour shows the cultural and architectural highlights of the Omani capital. Indeed, it is arranged to fit the time your ship spends in port. Moreover, we collect you directly at the entrance to Muscat Port.

Grand Mosque, Palace and Souk

The first stop is the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, one of the largest and finest in the region, its prayer hall holding an enormous hand-woven carpet. Afterwards, the route follows the coast to the old harbour, where the forts of Al Mirani and Al Jalali flank the Al Alam palace. Finally, the Mutrah souk offers frankincense, silver and textiles in a warren of covered lanes.

Tour Highlights

The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
The Al Alam palace and its forts
The historic Mutrah souk
The Corniche along the old harbour

Oman Is Not the Emirates

Muscat feels quite different from the cities of the Gulf a few hundred kilometres north. Indeed, building regulations keep almost everything low and white, and there are no skyscrapers at all. Traditional Omani architecture is required by law for new construction, with arched windows and carved wooden doors. Moreover, the city stretches along the coast in a series of separate districts rather than clustering around one centre, hemmed in by the Hajar mountains behind. Above all, the old souk at Mutrah has been trading continuously for centuries and still smells of frankincense, which Oman has exported since antiquity.