Overall
Cabins
Food
Guides
Safety
Dive Spots
The Oman-Explorer is a solid ship without excessive luxury, the cabins are functional with just enough storage space, the shower is surprisingly large and practically designed without everything being under water when showering.
The crew is very helpful, hard-working and very well coordinated. Overall, the organization was excellent, everything went like clockwork.
With regard to the food, it is amazing what the two chefs can conjure up - it always tasted good and was replenished until everyone was full.
Oman is quite an expensive country, and you can see that in the drinks prices. While water and (very artificial) juice were included, you had to fork out €2.50 for soft drinks, €5 for a can of beer (0.5 l) and €7.50 for a glass of wine. Otherwise, you had to pay around €250 for fees and permits, €55 for Nitrox and €35 for a 15-liter bottle. Some of this is included on other safari boats...
A total of 19 dives with 2 night dives were offered. While close to land you felt like you were in a quarry pond with 5 m visibility in places, this was much better on the Daymaniyat Islands - even if it cannot be compared with the beautiful blue of the Red Sea. The colors are not too spoiled either - even the fusiliers are olive-brown. On the other hand, the fish appear much larger than in the Red Sea.
The highlight was certainly a young whale shark, as well as very trusting turtles, leopard sharks and large net and other moray eels. However, vegetation and corals are rather sparse.
Conclusion: A certainly interesting diving area, but unfortunately not one of the top 10 due to the limited visibility. If you also consider the rather high costs for booking and on site as well as the often indirect flight connections with a stopover, I can only recommend a safari to the Daymaniyat Islands to a limited extent.
(Automatically translated from German)