After a morning at Wadi Bani Khalid and a stop at Al Mudhaireb, we arrived at Nizwa and stayed at the Golden Tulip.  The  next morning, I woke up early and took off solo to the Nizwa Fort and Souq.  I actually hitch-hiked which was no problem – I really trust Omanis and their very safe country!  When the girls were ready, they picked me up and we were off to Al Hamra.

Nizwa fort

With a reasonable admission fee at 500 baisa pp, the fort is very well restored with tons of explanations and exhibits.  The Nizwa fort is definitely worthwhile.  While lacking the ‘charm’ of the Bahla and Rustaq forts, the displays and infrastructure are worth making the stop.  A guided tour is included in the price of entry and is worth it.  There are folks inside cooking traditional food (worth trying the egg bread!) and crafts, which is cool to see.  The tour was about 30 minutes, and I roamed and enjoyed for 3 hours.  I definitely recommend visiting, especially for the historical context it provides on other attractions in the area that lack the didactic infrastructure of Nizwa fort.  The leanings I had from the very-detailed Nizwa explanations really helped bring the other forts to life!  

Fort entry

View of Nizwa from the fort

And so began my obsession with Omani doors . . . this fort had really cool ones!

An example of the really cool informative signs and descriptions found throughout – worth going to this for for the education alone!

Nizwa Souq

Very well restored and visually appealing, it’s worth a walk through.  The date souq was great and fun to try lots of flavored dates.  The veggie souq was cool to see what’s grown in the area.  Some crafts, but I wasn’t overwhelmed with it.

We stayed at the Golden Tulip, the most known hotel in Nizwa.  It’s a ways out of town and not near the attractions, but is conveniently located to check out Jabal Al Akhdar.  The pool was nice and big enough for lap swimming.  The rooms were fine but nothing special.  If I did it again, I’d probably look for an AirBnB closer to the souq/fort or central Nizwa, or avoid staying in Nizwa at all and choose somewhere nearby like Al Misfah (which we didn’t ultimately check out).

Oman Tripper has a great write-up about the Nizwa Fort that I highly recommend checking out!