Wahiba sands - where to stay?

Wahiba Sands - or Al Sharqiyah - is a fascinating destination. You probably either love it and cannot get enough of it or hate it. We are not super fans, too much sand I guess.. But our visitors always want to see it and we had a friend you came back just to spend more time in the desert. As I said, you either love it or hate it :).

A daytrip to the desert is not really worth it - it really makes sense to stay over, experience both the sunset and the sunrise, go for a walk, a camel ride, drive a buggy. You can even bike!

There are many options for accommodation:

1. Wild camping
2. Staying with a bedu family
3. Staying in simple desert camp
4. Staying in a luxury camp

Below you can read about our experience with most of them (we did not wild camp). And what do we prefer? I would say still our favorite is the Nomadic Desert Camp, a simple camp with minimal services but great hospitality, stellar star gazing and decent food.

If you want to read more about our trips to Wahiba sands, click here , or if you need ideas what to see on the way from Muscat, check this and this posts.

1. Wild camping

The cheapest option is to take your tent and off you go. We did not try it - you should go with more cars etc. and in general I guess we prefer camping in the mountains. But many do and certainly it is an option!

2. Staying with a bedu family

This was our first stay in the desert and a local company helped to organize it, Bediyah Safari Tours. They also have their own camps and they guided us to cross the desert the day after - you can read about this adventure here.

It was a nice experience, the family cooked, we played with the kids, checked on the goats and the head of the family made flat bread for us after dinner on the fire. They were a bedu family, but settled and the camp we stayed in was indeed their family camp but they only used it as a summer house basically - they had their house in town and had jobs etc. So they were not really nomads anymore, also their camp was pretty close to the city. But overall it was a nice experience, their daughter spoke good English, so we learnt a lot!

The only negative I can mention is the price - you certainly get charged premium for this experience, plus both the tour guide and the family needs to make money. 

3. Staying in simple desert camp

There are many camps to choose from and every time we go there, we see new ones opened or being built. They are usually on booking.com and you can pick from wild range of price level. We found the Nomadic Desert Camp (the location is not correctly marked, but contact details are correct) by coincidence but we really like them and have been bringing guests there regularly. It is run by  a local family and the camp used to be their family compound - the father saw the business opportunity decades ago and was one of the first one to open a camp for tourists and visitors. It is a simple camp, there is limited electricity, there is no aircon and the tents only have beds - toilet and showers are in a separate communal buildings. But everything is clean, the food is nice and after dinner everyone gathers around the fire, the flat bread is baked, stories are shared. As there is not much electricity, star gazing is superb. 

They offer pick up and can take you to dune bashing which was great fun.

Considering the facilities, it is definitely not a cheap camp though. In 2022 their rate is around 70-80 OMR.

PS: Although we did not stay here, our guide for the desert crossing (Bediyah Safari Tours) also operates a secluded simple camp, which looked well maintained.

4. Staying in a luxury camp

There are few high end camps, where tents have their own bathroom and they come with air-condition. The Thousand Nights camp is one of them and we did try it with a visitor. This camp comes with a pool and the tents are really nicely decorated - the whole camp has a nice design actually. Food was surprisingly good - the reviews complained about it, but we really liked it. Dinner had fresh bbq and there were live stations for breakfast as well, offering omelet and pancake.  

We booked a  Delux Sheikh tent - this was one up from their cheapest offer. We loved the glass front, we had great views. We paid 125 OMR for a tent with 2 adults including breakfast and dinner.

What we did not like was the noise . The camp is almost 40km deep into the desert but is next to one of the  "highways" and there were loads of speeding cars, whole night. Like 2am. And there was loud music. Also the star gazing is not that great since the whole camp is lit.

Desert sunrise for lazy people -  straight from the bed :)