You might think the desert is all about lots of sand and excruciating heat, man and camel walking together for days until they find a beautiful oasis.
It can be all that, but hear me out while I give you our experience of glamping in Wahiba Sands desert.
The desert for us has a certain magnetism and believe me, it is not the heat, it’s the emptiness, the quiet, looks like an infinity of sand. So we decided to go and stay for two nights to experience more than just a day drive in there.
First of all, we chose one of the resorts because we liked the looks of it and there are still tents in Bedouin style but with all the facilities.

First of all, to get there from Muscat you drive to Bidiyah, a little town by the edge of the desert. You can use the google maps pin but be aware the will loose the signal to your phone after a little while driving in the desert and it will come back when you approach the camp.

The other thing we learned about driving in the desert, there are the sand dunes and the ridges, the dunes are really high, but the road is in between the dunes, so even if you don’t have a signal, you follow your “lane” in between the dunes.

From Bidiyah you have another 40km to the camp of desert driving, it is not difficult as there are almost roads just with little more challenging part where you might have to cross a small dune.

As you drive through the dessert you think there is nothing there at some point you will start seeing faint shapes on the right side, approaching the camp there is a gate, ornamental, Arab style and you turn left and you will arrive in a few meters in the parking.

1000 nights camp is resort where you will find a few main buildings, where the reception is, than the restaurant and a play area. The pool is by a wooden old boat, close to the restaurant and after you enter the area where all the tents are.

There are 2 “Sand Houses” as they call them for rent if you really don’t want to be in a tent, Ameer tents – the most luxurious ones with a private pool but honestly, since you have access and can enjoy the main pool, I didn’t think is worth, the Sheik Deluxe tent which was our choice and the normal Sheik tents which are a bit smaller and with a tiny bathroom.

All tents have electricity, obviously AC, they replicate beduin tents but will the comfort. The WiFi was only for the main common areas which I found a plus.

Let me tell you a bit about our tent. We choose it because was larger in size and the bathroom was an open air one…no..not outside, still inside, with everything you need but the shower space had no roof so you can actually shower under the stars.

In terms of food, we had HB, breakfast and dinner were buffet style, with freshly cooked elements. Due to the nature of the place and the location I thought the diversity of the food was exaggerated and the idea of having seafood in the desert was weird. Otherwise, salads were nice and the fruits.

In terms of entertainment, in one of the evenings there was a big camp fire, which instead of making a bit more traditional they added a not nice hot chocolate and marshmallows…I know you might think I am wrong but this is not what I expect when I go to the desert in an Arabic country… And yes, I am very pretentious when it comes to hot chocolate. The atmosphere was nice by the fire and because it was march was a chil night.

There is a kids playground and some games available, you can see the animals, they have a few oryxes and camels that you can ride.

Riding camels and renting quad bikes comes at an extra rate plus other activities.

We enjoyed the pool a lot, sunrise on top of the dunes and rolling down from them, we had days with clouds, which was quite unexpected and made the landscape very interesting.

I would go again, in winter time and I would like to actually hike through the dunes.