Wadi Al Arabeieen - the wadi with many faces

April 18, 2021

Wadi Al Arabeieen - the wadi with many faces

We have been saving Wadi Arabeieen for warmer months since it has water all year around. We also have been putting off Wadi Al Arabeineen cause I have read reviews saying it is a difficult wadi. As it turned out, it is a truly amazing place and it has quickly taken the number one spot on our favorite wadi list! I honestly do not understand why this place is not more popular - for us it beats both Wadi Shab and Wadi Tiwi. And it is so much less busy - we only met an other group and we visited it on a weekend!!

So why do we think that this wadi is the real deal? Here are our arguments - scroll down for all the details!

1. Easy access - you need a 4WD but it is an easy drive
2. Close to Muscat, you can make a daytrip out of it if you leave early enough
3. There is a guesthouse inside the wadi! As far as we know, this is the only wadi with a guesthouse.
4. Fantastic hiking and there is something for everyone from easy falaj walk to more advanced wadi scrambling and swimming. You can have a short stroll with a toddler or go for a full day hike.
5. The village and the plantation are super nice, just these alone make worthwhile to visit
6. It is an all year destination - the pools make the hike bearable even in warmer weather.

7. If you bring your own kayak or SUP you can have great fun

8. The drive through the wadi is just amazing - the vertical cliff walls are super special.

The wadi is relatively easy to access, although you will need 4WD - no asphalt roads into the wadi, but the dirt roads are well maintained and easy to drive (as usual we saw salon cars in the wadi, so probably it is possible to drive them in - I would not do it with my own car though). There are 2 access points from the Sur highway: (23.1081,58.9827) and (23.0786,59.0474). Both roads are beautiful and very different - you should drive both of them.

It is one of the rare wadis with a guesthouse inside the wadi - the Wadi Al Arabieen guesthouse opened in 2020 and has everything what you need: clean rooms, nice views, attentive owner and staff. As there are no shops or restaurants in the wadi it is important to come prepared: the guesthouse offers breakfast and provide everything you need for a great BBQ (grill, plates, cutlery etc) and they clean up once you are done cooking but you need to bring food to put on that grill! The location is also superb: they are just next to one of the pools overlooking an impressive cliff wall and there is even a nicer and more private pool just in a few minutes walk. You can easily spend 2-3 nights here relaxing and hiking.

The hiking options are just fantastic. You need to drive to the village at the deep end of the wadi to start - As Suwayh (23.0328,58.9914). When you drive into the village (do not forget to roam around, there are plenty of lovely details on the buildings), the main wadi will be continuing on your left hand side, while on the right hand side there is side stream. Both wadis offer hiking option but they are very different although both start off with a pleasant and easy falaj walk:

1. Hike into the main arm of Wadi Al Arabieen, a dry hike, overlooking the lush wadi. Easy hike, toddler friendly. You can park in the village and start your hike on the falaj around (23.0320,58.9920).

2. Hike into the side stream, enjoy the crystal clear pools, swim across narrow gorges and have fun finding your way through huge boulders. The final destination is a beautiful waterfall (23.0148,58.9635) which should take 2.5 hours to reach if you know your way - longer if not. The waterfall is around 4 km from the parking, it is certainly a more difficult hike and requires swimming. Best to park around (23.0325,58.9895), climb up to the gardens on your left, walk through the plantations and find the falaj.

UPDATE: we came back to try to finish the hike and reach the waterfall as we run out of time first time we came. We did not manage second time either. We made it to the very end, where you have to pull yourself through some nasty boulders - there is a rope fixed but it did not look solid and we were afraid it would snap. I did manage to go up (we did not want to risk that Finn would prove to be too heavy for the rope and certainly did not think it was safe enough for Alma) but did not want to continue alone as the path looked nasty. If you want to see the waterfall, I would recommend you take a guide unless you can bring your own ropes etc. It is certainly a longer hike - locals say 4 hours, I would say more like 6 for the total round. For a guided tour (recommended), you can contact Khalfan from the village; count 20-25 OMR per person or 50 OMR if you are 4 or less. Khalfan has 7 kids, lives locally and lost his job due to a traffic accident, so you are supporting him and family directly in this way.

Khalfan Al Rawahi

+968 9110 3185

Here are the more detailed descriptions of these hikes:

1. The main wadi has no pools to swim in (surprisingly) but has lush plantations: terraces to your right, an old donkey path to your left and a swamp in the middle. It is pretty and it is worth taking at least the falaj part of the hike - it is an easy option if you are with small kids. We walked roughly 45 min into the wadi thinking we were walking towards the pools when we met young goat herders who were super nice - offered shade, coffee and dates. With their limited English and our even more limited Arabic, we established that there is no swimming there, so we turned back. To our surprise, another man was waiting for us on the falaj just before the village who did speak English and explained that the pools are on the other side and offered to show the way which we gladly accepted. Talk about Omani hospitality!

2. So we took off with him to the other side of the wadi, which is marked as a much smaller stream on google maps. Well, it turned out this is the real deal! Our guide led us through the plantations crisscrossed with falaj in a way we have not seen elsewhere - just alone this is worth a visit. Once you are out of the jungle you will see the wadi which has falaj on both sides - you need to stick to the left side, so do not cross. For some time it is an easy and fascinating walk on the falaj into the wadi up till the point the falaj disappears into the rocks - from there on you need to look out for the small pile of rocks placed on bigger rocks for an indication where to go. Occasionally there are white arrows painted on rocks as well - it is a bit of try and error, but this is what makes it fun, and you can always find a way! Soon enough you will see the first pool - one of many. The water is this perfect turquoise and clean with fish swimming in between your legs. Pristine. After the first pool, you will need to find your way through the HUGE boulders - you might think there is no way, but there is. The arrows and the rock piles continue, just keep watching. Once you cross, there will be more pools to dip in and you will reach an amazing section with long narrow pools squeezed in between high wadi walls - you will be walking on the right side of the wadi, and at some point, when it will be impossible to continue you need to cross to the other side if you want to continue without swimming. Well, the path on the other side seems impossible to walk although we did see a local guy casually strolling on what seemed vertical cliff walls... We did not attempt, left our bags, and swam instead - it is quite a bit of swimming in deep water, so either have a life vest or you have to be a confident swimmer. When we crossed and somehow pulled ourselves up on the other side on the extremely slippery rocks, we saw this wonderful place with natural steps and water running on them - like a beautiful fountain made by nature. At this point we have been walking for over 2 hours and as per google maps we were still 1.6km away straight line from the waterfall - yep, there is a waterfall at the end of this hike! Since it took us more than 40 minutes to make the last 600m we decided to turn back. The coordinate for the waterfall is 23.0148,58.9635 or you can type Wadi Al Arbeieen waterfalls in google maps. Although we did not make it to the waterfall, we had so much fun that at some point I just forgot to take pictures - we just could not believe what we saw, it was so beautiful. It is not a marked trail but we love to find our way and we had a little competition going who can spot the next rock pile fastest. Time just flew buy! We will come back for sure as we must see that waterfall and we want to have this fun again. Anyway, we turned back and it was much faster to walk back as we knew the way - and our impromptu guide was waiting for us in the village, as he wanted to make sure we were back safe and sound!

This is a very good video of the whole track - we turned back around 2.44. And here is a wikiloc trek.

We thought that the day was over, and we would just drive home - we were really tired at this point. As we were driving through the wadi, our jaws just kept dropping - the scenery kept changing from good to better to great. It is totally amazing and the most surprising part was the end, just before we reached the highway - the perfectly vertical cliff reflecting in the pool with this amazing green patch that turned out to be some kind of flower. And hardly any trash. It was just surreal.

All in all, Wadi Al Arabieen is an AMAZING place. Come and spend the weekend here, you will not regret it! It is also a great place for daytrip from Muscat as you can reach As Suwayh from Muscat just below 2 hours.

Bird-eye view of the first village and guest house (the white dot on the left side)