Best of Khareef in 4 days in Dhofar (video)

October 20, 2021

Best of Khareef in 4 days in Dhofar (video) - for hiking enthusiasts!

Did you know that autumn comes during summer in Oman?

Khareef (means autumn in Arabic) is the famous monsoon season in the south of Oman, a unique climate in the Middle East. The autumn season during summer months with regular rain and temperature being well below 30 degrees when the rest of the region has soaring heat easily over 40 degrees - no wonder that it gets crowded there in July-August! The season starts in June and lasts till September and with the abundance of rain everything turns green and waterfalls pop up all over the place - magical!

Many people would tell you that the only time to visit Dhofar and its main city Salalah is during Khareef - we do not think think it is correct, winter has it charm as well, you can read about our trip during December here. So when is it best to visit Dhofar? It depends what you prefer:

- Beach, sunshine, pleasant, Caribbean like weather - come during winter months!
- Waterfalls, greenery, rain and mystical fog - come during Khareef. But be aware that the sea is stormy and it is generally not allowed to swim as the currents get strong. Also most likely you will have a gloomy and cloudy weather with daily rain with zero visibility.

In our opinion the best time to experience Khareef is September - once school starts, the crowd disappears, it rains less but the greenery and the waterfalls are still there.

Here is our 4 days program to experience the best of Khareef in Dhofar:

Day 0 - since we had limited time we decided to fly in - we flew Thursday evening after work/school. It is a short domestic flight. Since we knew we were going to spend most of the day travelling / hiking we booked Salalah Beach Resort, a simple hotel right on the beach with beautiful views. The room was ok, mostly clean and the breakfast was fine.

Day 1 - Chasing the water falls

There are plenty of beautiful waterfalls to discover - they are called Ayn, which means spring. There are easily accessible ones where you just have to basically drive up them and more remote ones. We choose three of them: Ayn Khor and Ayn Gogab (Gogab Waterfall in Google Maps) both require a bit of hiking, while Ayn Athum is an easy drive-through waterfall.

Ayn Khor is the longest trek - you either drive into the wadi and walk less or park at the end of asphalt road and walk more. The walk is not marked but straightforward - you follow the wadi bed.

Easy stroll, salon car is ok, toddler friendly.

Ayn Gogab is a short trek, not marked - you can walk to the bottom or the top of the waterfall, we did bottom. Unfortunately most of the waterfall is gone by the time we visited, we still loved it - everything is green, birds chirping. It gets super muddy so when there is more water guess best is to come bare feet - we saw so many shoes and slippers left behind, including rubber boots!

It is a bit of try and error but worth it! Salon car is ok, not for toddlers.

Ayn Athum is the queen of the waterfalls - easy to access. Start from the highest point, the spring, than stop at the top of the waterfall and finish at the bottom (all marked on Google maps)!

Easy, salon car OK, toddler friendly.

Location: enter the names into google maps.

Day 2 - Ghaith Spring trek

An absolutely stunning hike to a hidden waterfall with a pool to swim in - the hike is not difficult, takes a couple of hours only and marked. Up until the very end where all of a sudden the marks are not there anymore but if you follow the water at that point and the black pipes you will reach the pool. Here we met two camel herders who invited us for tea and dates and showed us the last part of the trek.

Location for parking: 16.9953,53.8459. Total hike back and forth is around 8 km, easy hike, you need 4WD to drive to starting point.

Before starting the hike we visited Mughsail Beach to see the the blowholes which were so much fun!

Day 3 - The secret waterfall of Shaat

The Shaat viewpoint is very famous and instagrammable - when you can see something. We did not visit during our previous trips and now everything was covered in thick clouds and fog. If you are lucky, you have a sunny day with the clouds being below you. Below the viewpoint there is a huge waterfall - the biggest we had seen here. It looks like a fairy-tale scene and the hike is great fun as well - little bit like being in a Tim Burton movie. It is not a difficult hike but first you walk downhill and on the way back you walk uphill which makes it more challenging. The grass is tall so you need to be aware of snakes and best to have a stick with you and beat the grass while walk. The trail is not marked but you basically follow an old dirt track - we asked Salalah Adventure Tours to organize the trip. They are absolutely fantastic and made us a great mishkak lunch at the waterfall!

Location for parking (rough): 16.7623,53.5994. Offroad driving, you drive until you see a gate basically. Trek starts after the gate. Need 4wd to drive to parking, medium hike.

Waterfall: 16.7661,53.6083

Day 4 - Wadi Darbat and Al Baleed Archeological site

We were flying back to Muscat in the evening so just had some easy trips planned for the last day. We visited Wadi Darbat before, one of the most famous of wadis and waterfalls but wanted to see it during Khareef as well - it was much greener but the water was not that much more.

The Al Baleed site is a UNESCO World Heritage site, part of the Land of Frankincense sites. The little exhibitions are worth to see but honestly the site itself was a bit of let down for us.

Location: they are marked in google maps. Salon car OK, toddler friendly.

On the way to the airport we let ourselves get lost in the gardens of Salalah - honestly, this was the highlight of the day!