link2110

Myself and my partner will be transiting MCT overnight in late May, I was wondering if we are arriving around midnight and flying out at 2pm, is it even worth it to get a visa ($25 USD ea) and then spend the night in a hotel/morning in the city? My other option is to just book the airside hotel and sleep there, then spend time in the lounges before leaving. Flying J with Oman Air to LHR the next day, if that matters. I have a couple Marriott FNAs I can use, but they're all pretty far away from the airport. Any suggestions?

IAN-UK

The (paid) visa requirement was suspended for many passport/nationalities in an effort to promote the recovery of tourism after Covid restrictions were lifted.

https://fm.gov.om/visitors/entry-visas/

Things change, often without much warning: but as far as i know, British passport holders (at least) can enter the country for up to 14 days without a visa. So it's worth checking.

There are hotels around the airport. The Holiday Inn is one, though you'd still need a taxi. Nicer spots such as Shati al Qurum, which would give you morning sea-side strolls, is around 20-30 minutes from the airport.

link2110

Oh, thanks for the link! Good to know, I'll probably find a closer hotel and then spend the morning exploring then!

odie11

I just returned from 8 days in Oman. We had a guide pick us up at the airport at 5:00 AM, he dropped us at the Sheraton )I had booked for the previous night) so we could sleep and freshen up then he came back for us at 9:45 AM and we did a 1/2 day tour of Muscat before he dropped us at the W. Muscat is very spread out. I might suggest you do something similar to what we did. You can not really walk anywhere and certainly not from the airport hotels, but you could easily visit the Mosque, souq, museum and Palace (from the outside only). We also stayed at the Novotel Airport on the final night and there is nothing to walk to from there! The airport was dead and I mean dead both on arrival and departure. Happy to share our guide's contact- he was great!

link2110

After talking with a couple other posters in a different thread, I was considering just sleeping in the airport lounge, since we arrive around midnight, and our flight out is at ~2pm the next day. Not sure if it's worth the time to go to hotel and sleep, and then explore for a couple hours before heading back to the airport. I think next time I go through MCT I'd book a full day+ there to explore, but this time the only flights that worked were the ones we have.

odie11

From what I could see there is absolutely nothing going on at the MCT airport. Sitting in a lounge for that long would not be very fun. I would maybe at least go out and see something, The Sheraton was cheap, as was the Novotel.

link2110

I see, would you be able to send me your guides contact info? I have a couple FNAs I could use at the Sheraton, so that's a good option for me.