Original Travel tipped Oman for the big time as far back as 2003 and the country continues to be a firm luxury holiday favourite. Members of the team have repeatedly visited the top-class beach hotels in the vicinity of the capital,Muscat, and in the Musandam Peninsula (an exclave at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, both of which make for ideal honeymoon and/or winter sun destinations.

The hotels in Oman offer spa treatments, excellent restaurants, and activities aplenty so you’ll never want for luxury on your holiday. We can also arrange snorkelling, and peaceful dhow trips along the coast. For something a little more active there are other watersports including excellent diving, while an exclusive private guided safari through the dramatic Hajar Mountains and into the desert takes in some of the best scenery that the country has to offer.

While enjoying a luxury Oman holiday, be sure to visit oasis villages where traditional rural life continues largely unchanged beneath dense clusters of date palms, see the second largest canyon in the world, and travel on up to the scenic Jebel Akhdar (‘Green Mountain’) for panoramic views towards the Arabian Sea and the desert of the Empty Quarter. Visit medieval forts that look just how castles should, and spend the night under the stars at a Bedouin camp amid the huge, rolling dunes of the Wahiba Sands. After washing off the desert dust with a swim in one of the natural swimming pools that form in the wadis, head for the coast, where you can sail on a traditional wooden dhow accompanied by dolphins and watch rare giant turtles coming ashore at night to lay their eggs.

In the south of the country, the coastal oasis town of Salalah is the perfect base for exploration of a region made rich by the fabled frankincense route. The south is also home to the enormous and mysterious Empty Quarter, the largest sand sea in the world and the site of Wilfred Thesiger’s epic journeys with the nomadic Bedouin.