One of places we visited in Oman was Nakhl. Nakhl is known for its hot spring and a big fort. Its roughly a 1 hour 15 min drive from Muscat. Once you reach the Nakhl village its like driving through the narrow twisting roads in Goa along Calangute and Anjuna!

The hot spring was a little disappointing especially once we saw people washing their cars with soap there! There is a nice little rocky pool/pond at one of the spring sources for children to  play in and that was about it! It seems to be a popular picnic spot and I guess people like it caz they can drive their SUVs all the way into the shallow “rocky river bed”. There are a few shaded picnic tables too.

The visit to the fort was very nice! There is a 500 Baisa (1/2 Riyal) entrance fee per person and the guard there was very friendly and helpful. Note that the fort doors close at 5:30, so plan your trip wisely! Its a rather large fort with millions of stairs so come prepared to do a lot of climbing. Views from the fort were simply amazing especially with the mountains in the background.

There are quite a few rooms in the fort including a summer living room, a winter living room and a living room just for the ladies. An interesting part was the jail cell. It had a staircase that led up to the roof, just in case the prisoner got bored and wanted fresh air (or to escape)! There were a few canons lying around and strict instructions not to get into “Wali’s” bed. :)

The views from the towers were amazing. The snap above is from the East tower.