Things to Do in Muscat in January

January is the month this hike was made for. The 3.5 km (2.2 mile) trail from the boat crossing to the canyon pools runs along exposed rock ledges that would bake you in April's 34°C (93°F). In January's 25°C (77°F) the walk feels pleasant, almost cool in the shade of the limestone walls. The turquoise pools at the end of the canyon hold water that hovers around 22°C (72°F). It is refreshing without the gasp-inducing cold of mountain springs. The final swim through the narrow gap to the hidden waterfall, where water pours through a crack in the rock ceiling into a cathedral-shaped chamber, is worth every minute of the approach. Go early. By 8 AM the parking area fills. The boatmen who ferry you across the first stretch start queuing visitors. The canyon narrows enough in places that passing other groups means pressing against wet rock. A 7 AM start gives you the pools nearly to yourself before the day-trip crowds from Muscat arrive around 11.

The desert that most visitors call Wahiba Sands sits roughly two and a half hours south of Muscat. January transforms it from a furnace into something approaching comfortable. Daytime sand temperatures that hit 70°C (158°F) in summer drop to the point where you can walk barefoot across dune crests in the late afternoon without burning your feet. The dunes themselves glow copper and amber in the low January sun. The light at golden hour, when the shadows stretch across rippled sand, is the reason every Omani photographer you meet has a Sharqiyah folder on their phone. Nights in the desert camps drop to around 12°C (54°F). The Bedouin hosts pile wool blankets on the cots. The campfire becomes the actual centre of the evening rather than decoration. The silence out there is almost physical. No traffic, no construction, no call to prayer echoing off concrete. Just wind across sand and the occasional rustle of a desert fox at the camp perimeter.

Oman's Green Mountain rises to over 2,000 metres (6,560 feet) above the coastal plain, and January is one of the few months when visiting feels alpine. Temperatures at the summit villages hover around 10-15°C (50-59°F) during the day. You will smell woodsmoke from the terraced farms where families grow pomegranates, roses, and walnuts on stone-walled plots that have been cultivated for centuries. The rose terraces of Saiq Plateau are dormant in January. The walnut trees are bare and beautiful against the grey limestone. The views from the canyon rim down into Wadi Al Ayn, a sheer drop of 1,000 metres (3,280 feet), hit harder in the crisp winter air than they ever could through summer haze. The road up requires a 4x4. This is enforced at a police checkpoint at the base. You cannot bluff your way through in a sedan. The switchbacks are steep. The drops are unguarded. The road surface goes from tarmac to gravel without warning.

The drive from Muscat to Nizwa takes about two hours through the Hajar Mountains, and January's clear skies mean you see the geology that makes this route extraordinary: folded layers of grey and ochre limestone pushed vertical by tectonic forces, cut by narrow wadis lined with date palms. Nizwa's seventeenth-century fort is the largest in Oman. Climbing to the top of its massive circular tower puts you above the date palm canopy with a 360-degree view of the mountains. The real draw is the Friday livestock market at the adjacent souq, where Omani men in dishdashas and kummas haggle over goats in a dirt-floored ring that smells of hay, animal musk, and the cardamom-laced kahwa (coffee) being poured from brass dallahs at the edges. The silver souq behind the fort sells Omani khanjar daggers, some antique, most not, and the vendors tend to be more honest about the distinction than you would expect. January mornings in Nizwa are cool enough that the kahwa tastes better, the walk through the souq's covered alleyways feels unhurried, and the light inside the fort's corridors falls in angled shafts through the defense windows.

The Daymaniyat archipelago, nine rocky islands about 18 km (11 miles) off the coast northwest of Muscat, is a protected nature reserve and one of the best snorkeling and diving sites in the Arabian Sea. January's water temperatures sit around 24°C (75°F), warm enough to snorkel in a rash guard without a wetsuit, though a thin 3mm suit keeps you comfortable on longer dives. Visibility in January is often exceptional, 15-20 metres (49-66 feet). The reef life is surprising for the Arabian Peninsula: hawksbill turtles cruise over coral gardens, reef sharks patrol the drop-offs, and the moray eels peering from crevices are fat and unbothered by divers. The whale shark encounters happen more reliably in the waters between the islands and the coast, and January is prime season. These are not guaranteed sightings. Operators with sonar and experience know the feeding patterns. Success rates in January tend to be the highest of the year.

Muttrah is old Muscat compressed into a strip between harbor and mountain, and January evenings are the time to walk it. The corniche curves for about 3 km (1.9 miles) along the waterfront, lit by ornamental lamps that reflect off the harbour where wooden dhows still dock alongside modern fishing boats. The air carries diesel from the boats, salt from the sea, and frankincense from the souq's entrance, where vendors burn luban on charcoal in small clay burners that send thin blue smoke drifting across the walkway. Inside the souq itself, the alleyways twist under a timber-and-fabric roof, and the goods shift from tourist-facing pashminas and ceramic camels near the entrance to working-class Omani products deeper in: frankincense resin sold by weight, Omani halwa in wax-sealed clay pots, rose water from Jebel Akhdar, kohl eyeliner in brass tubes. January's comfortable 20°C (68°F) evenings mean you can walk the full corniche and browse the souq without the desperation for air conditioning that summer visits demand. The fish market at the far end of the harbour is worth the walk, even if you are not buying, just for the spectacle of the evening catch being auctioned in rapid-fire Arabic under fluorescent lights.