Al Khoud - heritage and hiking

We visited Al Khoud before, shortly after we moved here, but honestly I was not too impressed. And it turned out I was wrong! You can spend a really enjoyable half day/day here exploring the oasis and the wadi.

Start at the the old fort - you will get a bird's-eye view of the oasis. For the fort you can park here.

From here you will also notice a nice old house in the distance - Al Bait Al Aud, which can be your next destination. This is the ancient family home of one the prominent tribes and it is private property, so be respectful. (If you are interested in these houses, there is a really nice renovated one in Wadi Al Maawil, the Al Ghasham house - this is fully renovated and open to visitors).

Next stop is the wadi - there is a nice and easy marked trail. Parking is here. If you start walking towards the wadi, you will notice a picnic area where the markers (the usual tricolor ones) start. From here just follow them. We did not go to the end, so do not really know where the marker starts - roughly after an hour we took a right turn and returned to the main wadi bed through a side wadi and walked back.

It is a super enjoyable little track - unfortunately the wadi is very popular and it means trash.. In the main wadi bed it is everywhere, but on the marked trail we did not see much. If you are interested in a longer hike, you can walk from here to Fanja - read about it here. 

Time: with all the things described above, we were done in 4 hours, we drove in between stops.

Car: salon car is ok

Difficulty: Easy hike

Other: toddler friendly

The old fort

Al Bait Al Aud

The wadi trek - we had a chaperone for the day :)

You can skip the ladder if you want, there is a path to the left