Oman only opened to tourism after Sultan Qaboos bin Said overthrew his father in a coup in 1970. Before that time, visits to Oman were very limited due to Sultan Said’s policy of not permitting tourism so as to help retain Oman’s traditional way of life. We first visited Oman in 1994 and the consequences of that policy were still evident. Oman’s still dressed in traditional clothing (including the curved dagger or khanjar that men wore in their belt) and lived their lives in much the way that their ancestors had.​

While Oman has some oil and gas, it has never had the large production of its neighbours like Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Unlike those countries, Oman’s oil revenues appear to have been wisely spent in improving infrastructure and education rather than giving citizens excessive entitlements to social welfare. In most other Middle Eastern countries, the work is done by “guest workers” from the Sub-continent but in Oman it is mostly done by Omanis.

Oman has a wealth of ancient sites that befit its status as the oldest continuously independent country in the Arab world. There are hundreds of fortresses, ranging from large buildings to individual watch towers, across much of the northern part of the country. The landscape is an extreme contrast between mountains and desert.​