Discover the Jewel that is Muscat on our Gray Line organized city tour and take advantage of our commentary in more than 5 languages.
Posted By : Thiti_A
This is ok tour. However the guide’s driving cause my power bank dropped out of car and disappear. Guide said his boss will call me but not contact me until now. Worse experience
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Posted On : 2024-05-09 19:04:01 
Posted By : Elizabeth_M
I enjoyed this half day city tour - my favorite stop was the stunning Sultan Qaboos mosque. Do make sure to dress appropriately on your mosque.
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Posted On : 2024-04-29 04:16:40
Posted By : wanderlust152015
It was easy to spot the minibus when it arrived at our hotel, as it was marked with the tour company's logo. The driver was friendly and professional, and also made sure to check that everyone was dressed appropriately for the mosque visit before we left the pick-up hotel.
We had plenty of time to explore the stunning mosque, the souk, the fish market (there's also a large fruit section, if you're not too keen on fish!) and the museum. The latter was a nice way to learn a little bit more about Omani life, and was also home to an interesting stamp and coin collection.
The tour also included short photo stops and plenty of views of the city.
"Shukran" for the lovely introduction to Muscat! :)
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Posted On : 2024-04-26 09:06:15 
Posted By : Jacqueline_W
Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, the palace and the Museum were great. The Souk was interesting with everything to buy that you could ever want.
A great excursion. Thank you.
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Posted On : 2024-04-22 17:05:24
Posted By : Benoit_C
Gand Mosque Sultan Qaboos, Sultan palace grounds, Mutrah Souk...
Aircon bus with headset guidances for city main sights.
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Posted On : 2024-03-25 14:47:59
Posted By : MarcusHurley
I'd booked a City tour through Viator and at 8:30 Naseeb picked us up. The tours were very expensive in Oman - I'd say double the price of most European cities so this first tour was a group tour just to save some cash. Naseeb picked us up right on time and it was only 4 of us in the group so that made things easier. Although he spoke English the tour was actually an audio commentary and he dropped us at various points to go and see the attractions.
First stop was the Sultan Qaboos Mosque which we'd driven past last night and it looked very impressive lit up. It is the only mosque non Muslims can visit in the country and is, naturally, magnificent. The Sultan ruled from 1970 until 2020 and transformed Oman into a modern country that still adheres to its traditional values. There is a lot of pride about customs, dress and behaviour and it seems that the country is successfuly juggling western influences with Islamic ones. I'm not sure if there are any democratic institutions or if the Sultan rules everything or if there is even a demand for democracy here.
The mosque was amazing but looked like a newer version of the ones we'd seen in Uzbekistan a few months before that were 600 years old. There is certainly a universality to Islamic architecture that Christianity lacks but there also seems to be a stagnation with no obvious developments in the last 500 years. Anyway, it was wonderfully peaceful to walk around and had lovely gardens too and the 30 minutes we had there went far to quickly.
The next stop was the fish market but we really should have got there around sunrise as it was quiet by the time we arrived. It's not everyone's type of thing but the fish they had were impressive and were obviously freshly caught. I left Deb to wander round and crossed to the harbour to look across to Al Jalali Fort, one of the two originally built by the Portugese to defend the harbour. The city itself occupies a narrow stretch of land between the mountains and the sea and the mountains are incredibly jagged and rugged.
We then got back on the minibus and drove to the Bait al Zubair Museum. This was a twentieth century Omani house, owned by a long standing government minister that was then converted to a museum to showcase Omani culture - clothes, weapons, architecture, trade and music and the differences between the regions that make up the country. Again, the 45 minutes we had here weren't enough but we did get an overview of the country and its people and left with a greater understanding than we had before we went inside.
Next we had two photostops, one either side of the Al Alam Palace, the old palace of the Sultan that he has recently vacated for a larger one. The gardens were beautifully manicured although we couldn't go inside to see the interior we did see more of the harbour, the two Portugese forts and the mountains that both protect and stifle the city. It was actually rather warm by now and even 5 minutes outside resulted in a sweaty head!
Our final stop was the Mutrah Souk, apparently the oldest in Arabia but not really our sort of thing so were back in the minibus early for a change! Probably of interest if you actually wanted to buy anything but we either didn't need it or already had it and we'd seen plenty of souks before.
All in all the tour was an excellent introduction to the city and good value. There were places I'd have wanted to spend longer but by seeing a bit of everything it gave us a good idea of where to revisit on our free days.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-03-18 03:27:31
Posted By : Katarina_V
Great experience & very helpful guide . Picked me up from my hotel & showed us ( sharing tour) beauty of Muscat. Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque so beautiful.
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Posted On : 2024-03-17 12:56:26
Posted By : Marcus_H
I'd booked a City tour through Viator and the tours were very expensive in Oman - I'd say double the price of most European cities so this first tour was a group tour just to save some cash. Naseeb picked us up right on time and it was only 4 of us in the group so that made things easier. Although he spoke English the tour was actually an audio commentary and he dropped us at various points to go and see the attractions.
First stop was the Sultan Qaboos Mosque which we'd driven past last night and it looked very impressive lit up. It is the only mosque non Muslims can visit in the country and is, naturally, magnificent. The Sultan ruled from 1970 until 2020 and transformed Oman into a modern country that still adheres to its traditional values. There is a lot of pride about customs, dress and behaviour and it seems that the country is successfully juggling western influences with Islamic ones. The mosque was wonderfully peaceful to walk around and had lovely gardens too and the 30 minutes we had there went far to quickly.
The next stop was the fish market but we really should have got there around sunrise as it was quiet by the time we arrived. It's not everyone's type of thing but the fish they had were impressive and were obviously freshly caught. I left Deb to wander round and crossed to the harbour to look across to Al Jalali Fort, one of the two originally built by the Portugese to defend the harbour. The city itself occupies a narrow stretch of land between the mountains and the sea and the mountains are incredibly jagged and rugged.
We then got back on the minibus and drove to the Bait al Zubair Museum. This was a twentieth century Omani house, owned by a long standing government minister that was then converted to a museum to showcase Omani culture - clothes, weapons, architecture, trade and music and the differences between the regions that make up the country. Again, the 45 minutes we had here weren't enough but we did get an overview of the country and its people and left with a greater understanding than we had before we went inside.
Next we had two photostops, one either side of the Al Alam Palace, the old palace of the Sultan that he has recently vacated for a larger one. The gardens were beautifully manicured although we couldn't go inside to see the interior we did see more of the harbour, the two Portugese forts and the mountains that both protect and stifle the city. It was actually rather warm by now and even 5 minutes outside resulted in a sweaty head!
Our final stop was the Mutrah Souk, apparently the oldest in Arabia but not really our sort of thing so were back in the minibus early for a change! Probably of interest if you actually wanted to buy anything but we either didn't need it or already had it and we'd seen plenty of souks before.
All in all the tour was an excellent introduction to the city and good value. There were places I'd have wanted to spend longer but by seeing a bit of everything it gave us a good idea of where to revisit on our free days.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-03-16 14:35:03
Posted By : Farinaz_M
This was a nice short and basic tour of Muscat. It would have been better if the driver was able to tell us more about the places we saw. There was audio on the mini bus with headphones to listen to as we went to each location.
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Posted On : 2024-03-14 11:13:57
Posted By : Vinay_P
Excellent experience. Went around the city with the guide, who was super informative. Van was comfortable, and the timing of the tour was well planned. RECOMMEND!
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Posted On : 2024-03-04 00:56:29
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