Oman is a beautiful country that we have the blessing to be neighbours. It is only a 45 minutes flight from Muscat to Dubai and 3 hours of drive to start making your way in the beautiful mountains of Oman. After going camping a few times in Oman in the Mountains and in Musandam, it was time for us to tackle another popular activity to do in Oman: Trekking.
Mitch & I are not huge trekkers. We do aspire to one day do Kilimanjaro, make it to base-camp of Everest, hence we better start somewhere to trek a bit more seriously than trekking up the Monastery in Petra! (Okay, we did “hiked” before…)
So we boarded the flight to Oman to get picked up by Alila’s Hotel lift service to get to their facilities for a good night sleep before heading up to the mountains for our trek! Alila Jabal Akhdar recently introduced 6 scenic and exciting hiking routes and we had to tick that box out of our to-do list! Each trek will take you to different scenery. This includes in and out of caves, wadis, abandoned villages and incredible backdrops.
Getting good shoes for a hike
We rushed last minute into this trip and had no time to go grab some proper shoes for the hike. Although – we did survive with our Nike & Under Armour shoes, we made sure to choose the pair with the most grip. Any good suggestions for a great investment on good hiking shoes?
Should I start with easier treks?
Healthy, active or not, it’s important to always train your body to something. We agreed we would do a milder trek, to make sure we won’t be taking too much time or, in the end literally give up. Mitch usually never struggles with anything, but with me previously having had my leg broken, it is still a big fear to go on challenging journeys. Despite all this, we chose to do the Level 5 trek anyways.
There are many trekking routes. Alila Jabal Akhdar offers many options and at some point we wanted to do it all, but we had to pick one. As we arrived quite late, the concierge thought it would be a great idea to guess what we would like and picked the hardest adventure on the list. Before the trek when we discussed about what was booked for us with Ali Al Abri, the Leisure Manager, he casually convinced us that they thought we could and should just do the hardest thing they had. We hesitated a lot but we went for it, the Level 5 Via Ferrata it is!
If you are scared of heights, you might want to reconsider. Mitch doesn’t particularly like heights and I pushed him to go for it. There are many security measures and a great instructor, which should give you some confidence. The height is “only” 20 meters, perfect to practice how you can handle it before going to higher spots like in Austria!
As for me, I hate heights when I feel unsafe, but I had to do it. So are you scared of heights? Just do it… it was amazing. Stay tuned for our video through the path!
What is Level 5 in hiking?
There are many levels of difficulty in hiking. Let’s not pretend we are experts here, we’re not the right people to explain it properly for you. In a nutshell, what you should know is that out of 5 levels/classes, the 5th one is at the mountaineering/rock climbing stage. To give you an idea…an unroped fall on any Class 5 climb will result in serious injuries or death, not to worry, you will be very well secured and roped on this trek!
Make sure to find the cheapest flights to Oman by booking early! Check out SkyScanner for some good deals!
- Have you ever visited Oman?
- Would you love to try out this trekking adventure?
- If you trekked before, tell us where was your favorite hike!
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