Oman Interior Loop

Arrival, and where you collect the 4x4. Low-rise and white against the Hajar foothills - Mutrah's corniche and souq, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, and the forts above the old harbour. Two nights lets you clear the jet lag before you drive mountain roads.

Eat: Omani-Zanzibari cooking is the thing to look for here; shuwa (pit-roasted spiced meat) is a celebration dish, not everyday street food, so treat a place that advertises it with mild suspicion.

Skip / overrated: The Grand Mosque admits non-Muslim visitors mornings only and closes to visitors on Fridays - build the day around that window rather than assuming you can drop in.

The interior's old capital and the hinge of this loop. The fort's vast round tower is the set piece, the souq still sells silver and dates to locals, and Bahla (UNESCO-listed) and Jabreen Castle are both easy half-days out. Base here and everything inland is within reach.

Eat: Buy dates at the souq rather than at the fort gate, and taste before you commit to a kilo.

Skip / overrated: The Friday goat market is the famous set piece and it is genuinely worth it - but it is an early-morning affair that winds down by mid-morning, so a lie-in means arriving to an empty lot.

The 'Green Mountain' - terraced villages stacked on the plateau above 2,000m, linked by falaj irrigation channels and old walking paths between hamlets. It is markedly cooler than the plain and the one stop on this loop where you'd genuinely want a jacket.

Eat: Pomegranates and rose water are the local products; in season they're sold at the village roadsides.

Skip / overrated: There is a police checkpoint at the foot of the Saiq road and it turns 2WD cars back - a 4x4 here is a legal requirement, not a recommendation. Do not plan on talking your way up in a saloon.

Proper orange dunes running for miles, and the reason the 4x4 has been earning its keep all week. Desert camps range from mattress-on-sand to air-conditioned; the draw is the same either way - sunset from a dune ridge and a genuinely dark sky.

Eat: Camp dinners are a fixed affair, usually a buffet - this is not a stop you choose for the food.

Skip / overrated: Driving onto the dunes yourself needs deflated tyres and technique, and getting bogged in soft sand alone is a bad afternoon. Most camps will meet you at the edge near Bidiyah and drive you in - take that offer on a first visit.

A shipbuilding town on the coast where dhows are still made by hand in the yards, and the turning point back toward Muscat. Green turtles nest on the beaches east of town at Ras al Jinz, on guided visits only. The drive back up the coast is the wadi run - Wadi Shab and Wadi Tiwi both hang off it.

Eat: Coastal Oman is where the fish is - the Sur catch is the best eating of the loop.

Skip / overrated: Wadi Shab is not a roadside photo stop: it's a short boat ferry across the entrance pool, then roughly 45 minutes of walking, then a swim to reach the waterfall in the cave. Bring shoes you can swim in and don't start it late in the day.