Bit late addition, but as I have had many helpful answers from others here - I'll contribute some about Oman as I was there recently.
1. Oman is a very friendly country, and getting
visas is normally not a problem. While they can be purchased upon arrival, there is some benefit in getting them from the Embassy before travelling.
2. Oman is
hot! During the warm periods (June - Aug) Muscat reaches up to and beyond 50 Celsius which is.... HOT! This is why most people escape the town and go to Salalah in the south, which then has a mosr comfortable monsoon period.
3.
Where to stay: there are two very posh hotels, the Chedi and the Al Bustan. The former is truly beautiful, and is recommended to anyone that can afford it! The latter is nice, though very opulent, and has the benefit of being close to the two most known dive centres (Bluezone and Oman Dive centre [i think is the name]). I made the mistake of staying at the SAS Radission.... not very good I'm afraid. Most "evening activities" seems to happen around the international hotels too. Alternatives are the Crown plaza (nice and with priate beah), and the Hyatt.
3.
Driving: with the heat, you may not do a lot of walking around. Hiring a car is cheap (around £100 for a week) and petrol costs next to nothig. However, bring a pen!!! Maps are notoriously inaccurate, so if you want to find your way back to where you were yesterday, its a good idea to make little annotations on the map
4.
Diving: I hooked up with the Bluezone dive centre. Have nothing but good to say about them! Located in a marina with lovely staff, nice relaxing pool for afternoon post-dive loitering, and a very decent little restaurant. The Divemaster at the time was called Mark Green, and he was a gem. Great chilled out guy, and very pedagogic when it came to explaining environment, objectives etc etc (I took my OW cert there, and compared to subsequent courses where I have e.g. been at 33m depth with an Divemaster who realised that he forgot to go through some basic stuff... well, I'd have Mark back any time).
UW environment: much marinelife, good visibility, and some quite noticeable thermo-clines! the latter is something to consider - suit up! I dove with my partner who got so cold once that she had to abandon the dive (yes, she's a skinny lady but she was in 7+mm!).
Happy to answer any questions,
R
PS: prices for dive equipment is quite good (and can always be made a wee bit better if you have picked up some of the local barganing skills!)
