We like snorkelling, but it’s rare that it’s one of our favourite things to do in a country. Especially a country with as many great hiking and wild swimming spots as Oman. However, snorkelling at the Daymaniyat Islands is truly something special.
It’s easily the most turtles and sharks we’ve ever seen in our entire lives. There were so many that I counted the number that I could see in my eye line at any one time: 26 turtles and 12 sharks! I’m delighted if I see a single turtle or shark when snorkelling, so to see so many was just incredible.
Given how easy the islands are to access from Muscat, it is a very popular trip and crowds can be an issue. That’s why we opted to go with a boat that had a small number of passengers and did the usual spots but in reverse, so you never met up with the bigger tour boats. More on that later in the guide.
Here’s everything you need to know about visiting the Daymaniyat Islands.
What to expect from snorkelling the Daymaniyat Islands
How the day usually works
Assuming you’re doing a public rather than private trip, most follow the same itinerary (if you go private you can customise, but it is much more expensive). The most popular trips are the half day tours that leave once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
We were told that morning trips offer the best chance to see Whale sharks and also generally have the calmest weather, so the morning departures are the most popular.
The afternoon departures are quieter and offer the chance to see sunset from the boat, so if you’re not visiting during Whale shark season and you don’t mind so much about the weather, that could also be a good time to go.
Depending on the boat you take, the journey time is around 30 - 45 minutes each way and more if you’re looking for Whale sharks. The boat ride for us wasn’t choppy at all and even though I usually get very seasick I was fine on this one.
Generally speaking, the majority of tours visit the same three spots: the turtle snorkel spot, the shark snorkel spot and one of the Daymaniyat Islands. If you visit between May and October you can’t set foot on the islands themselves as it is turtle nesting habitat, but you can view the islands from the boat. Outside these months you can land on the islands and we’ll go into more detail on that later in the post.
The trips vary in duration, generally between 3 and 5 hours - but having said that, we booked the 3 hour trip and it lasted 5, so maybe they are all closer to 5 despite what they say!
We were told we would get 30 minutes at the shark spot, 1 hour at the turtle spot and 20 minutes on the island. However, we definitely got longer than this as we were out for 5 hours (and less than 2 of those were the boat journey, despite the fact we spent a long time looking for Whale sharks)!
The wildlife
We came to the Daymaniyat Islands for the turtles and we weren’t disappointed (we were also really hoping for a Whale shark but we knew we were just outside the peak season). It’s one of the best places in the entire world to see Green turtles and they are present year round.
It’s not a case of whether you’ll see them, but how many you’ll see. You might also spot Hawksbill turtles, but it’s less of a guarantee and to my knowledge we didn’t - though I am not the best at recognising different turtle species!
We’ve been lucky enough to see quite a few turtles when snorkelling at various places over the years, but more often than not we will spot one or two and they will swim off relatively quickly.
At Daymaniyat I honestly couldn’t tell you how many we saw, but my guess would be over 40 (with the 24 I mentioned in the intro being the amount we could see at any one time).
It was simply incredible to see so many, but on top of that they appeared to have no fear of humans and would swim right up to you - I frequently had to fumble to move backwards so they didn’t actually bump into me - not something I’ve ever encountered before!
They appeared to be feeding on the seabed and then would come up for a few breaths on the surface before resuming feeding again. You could be watching one mass of turtles and then turn slightly to see one taking a breath right beside your head, it was extraordinary.
As well as turtles there were plenty of colourful fish including Nemos and Parrotfish and many more that I wish I was able to identify!
You are also very likely to see Blacktip reef sharks, though not always in as huge numbers as we did. They tend to swim quite low towards the seabed, so it’s not such an intimate and interactive experience as it is with the turtles - but given they are (albeit harmless) sharks, that’s probably more to most people’s taste!
If you visit between July and September and sometimes even into October, you also have a pretty decent chance of seeing a Whale shark. We were utterly gutted to have missed them by a day. They had been seen the previous 10 days in a row (from October 21 - 31), but alas not on our trip on November 1st.
The price of the trip does not change at this time, so even if you don’t see Whale sharks (which there is no guarantee of even in season) then it’s still worth going for the experience with the turtles and sharks.
The one thing I would say about the snorkelling was that the coral was not particularly noteworthy. It wasn’t very colourful or elaborate, though that wasn’t really a biggie given the sheer amount of wildlife.
The snorkelling itself
Generally speaking, I would say the snorkelling is easy at both spots. You don’t have to swim far from the boats to get into the action, so you by no means have to be experienced.
I would say there was a bit of a current at the shark snorkel spot, which wasn’t present at the turtle spot, but it wasn’t a strong current. I would recommend taking the flippers for the shark snorkel though, as I didn’t and did end up feeling a bit more tired than I think I would have done otherwise.
But for both spots I would say you could swim for as little as 10m and then hover over all the action, so strong swimming ability is not a requirement for this trip.
Landing on one of the Daymaniyat Islands
The islands are beautiful, but landing is not a must. The landing is the shortest part of the trip, for us only around 20 minutes or so. You can walk to the top of the island (only a couple of minutes walk) for a lovely view and sit on the beach or swim in the clear turquoise water, but in honesty I wouldn’t have been overly sad to miss it.
I only say this because I met people in October who were sad they couldn’t land, but honestly I don’t think it’s a big deal - that is unless you wanted to camp on the islands because that did look very cool!
On that note, between November and April you can opt to spend the night on one of the islands and we saw lines of tents already set up for people. It looked like a rustic back to nature experience and gets great reviews.
One of the things that’s extra special about this is that they often spot bioluminescence on the shore at night, which would be so magical. Camping trips were a lot more expensive and sadly out of our budget, but it did look like it would be a very memorable experience.
The one thing I would say though that if you go with a standard operator on a group tour then it’s not very private as the tents were all lined up very close to each other.
Our personal experience on the trip
Just to be clear as this is about to be an extremely glowing review, we paid full price for this trip, and the tour company was unaware that we have this website. We booked our trip with a company called Oman Daymaniyat Islands - well that’s their name on Instagram as they don’t actually have a website yet. It was a bit of a gamble because there are many companies with slick websites and lots of reviews. However, one thing made me choose the wildcard and that was their Instagram reels.
We saw them posting lots of Whale shark videos, but more than that they were looking so hard for them for their customers. It wasn’t just a token effort to find them, and when I contacted them and had a chat, I knew they would be our best bet. As it happened we didn’t find the Whale sharks, but that wasn’t through lack of trying.
The boat size was small - a max of 14 passengers - and on our day there were only 9. They also do the itinerary in the opposite order to the other companies, which meant we snorkelled with the sharks completely alone (despite visiting on a weekend) and were at the turtle spot with just one other boat.
This made the experience really special and we realised it even more so when that second boat came in right at the end of our turtle session and the customers all began touching the turtles. It was horrible to watch and they didn’t listen when their guides told them not to.
Had we been snorkelling with groups like this all morning, I honestly wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much at all. You also take a lot more fins to the face when groups come in!
We also got to enjoy the island landing alone which was a much nicer experience.
In terms of the boat itself, it’s smaller and I would guess more basic than the bigger operators, but still decent and there is a small marine toilet on board. We had plenty of space to stretch out, so whilst it wasn’t big, it wasn’t small for the size of our group.
I would say the ladder to get on and off the boat was a bit small and awkward, but they happily offered you a hand every time if needed.
They had snorkels, flippers, life jackets and noodles onboard. My snorkel mask did keep filling with water, but I think that was more about my hair getting in the way when I put it on, which is definitely a user error.
They also give you some snacks - sandwiches, bananas and watermelon as well as unlimited water.
But more importantly than all that is the staff. The captain, Khalid, and the other staff member onboard, whose name I’ve sadly forgotten, were the best. The kind of people that make you feel instantly at ease and can’t do enough for you.
Whether that was helping me get my rash vest off when it got stuck to me (could have been embarrassing, but wasn’t because they were so sweet) or offering to take pics and vids of you snorkelling and then send them to you later, nothing was too much trouble.
They were probably the best boat crew we’ve ever had.
We paid 28 OMR (approx USD $72.75) per person, which wasn’t the cheapest price we were quoted, but we are so glad we chose them. Prices generally vary according to boat size, but not dramatically. At time of writing, you’re looking at somewhere between 22 OMR (approx USD $57) and 30 OMR (approx USD $78) for a group trip. Private trips seemed to be around the 250 OMR (approx USD $650) which is great if you have 8 or so people, but was prohibitive for us as a 2.
As mentioned, we paid full price for our trip and don’t receive commission from recommending them, we simply love sharing people we think are doing a great job. If you do want to contact them you can do so by Whatsapp or Instagram. The Whatsapp numbers are Khalid: +968 9916 1723 or Ayub: +968 9955 6707.
If you want to look at alternative options booked through international companies, then check out GetYourGuide or Klook who list several options. You can click below to compare:
Where the trips depart from
The boat trips depart from Seeb Marina which is around 30km and a 25 - 30 minute drive from Muscat. There is plenty of free parking at the marina. It’s not immediately obvious where to go when you’ve parked, but as you start walking towards the water someone will come out and guide you to where your particular boat departs from - or at least that’s what happened to us.
If you don’t have a rental car it’s best to hire a taxi to the marina as public transport is challenging in Muscat, I don’t even think from looking online that you could get to the port without a lot of walking as well as several buses.
Where to stay in Muscat
Citadines Al Ghubrah
We stayed in a lot of different hotels in Muscat, but there was only one that we returned to (on a number of occasions) and that was the Citadines Al Ghubrah. We’d recommend the one bedroom apartments over the studios if you aren’t on a tight budget as you get so much more space and they’re just generally nicer.
We loved the apartments which had a large bed, good shower, kitchen and living room. The wifi is good, but ask for the premium wifi (also free) as that wasn’t offered to us on check in, we only got it after asking as we couldn’t connect more than two devices to the main wifi.
There’s a free self service laundry on one of the floors and a small roof top swimming pool. It became our home from home and was right beside our favourite coffee shop in all of Muscat - Especiale (the coffee is up there with the best we’ve ever had).
Check the latest reviews and prices on:
Fraser Suites
The only other place that came close to the Citadines was Fraser Suites. Fraser Suites did have the best bed in Oman (it was actually soft!) but also suffered from a mechanical noise coming from what I believe was the general hotel AC (not inside our room) and that is a pet peeve of mine (however, most people would barely notice it).
If you don’t mind that, then it’s another good choice, however I preferred everything about the Citadines apart from the bed.
Check the latest prices & reviews on:
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