Through a drive on single carriageway Highway 47, beyond Salalah Port in the Western direction of Salalah, the most stunning beaches in the world can be found. One of them is Mughsail Beach (also written as Al Mughsayl Beach), which is the most popular beach in Dhofar Governorate of Oman.
On the way to Mughsayl Beach from Salalah, there are other beautiful beaches are located – like Raysut Beach and Eftalqot Area.
Beyond Mughsayl Beach and Marneef Cave, the same single carriageway will have hairpin bends in mountain before reaching the pristine beach of Al Fazayah. To go down to Fazaiah Beach, there is a off road track.
Going further towards West, there will be a police checkpost before the beaches of Shaat, Rakhyut and Dalkhkut. After Dalkhut, Sarfayt is the last point in Oman before Yemen.
Read: West Salalah Journey to Fazayah, Shaat, Rakhyut and Dalkut
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Book Tour to Mughsail Beach and Marneef Cave
You can rent a car and drive yourself or book the guided sightseeing tour at TripAdvisor or through Beautiful Salalah by email or WhatsApp +96891206678.
The trip to Mughsayl and Marneef is covered in the TripAdvisor tours of West Salalah Half Day Tour and Half Day West Salalah Beach Excursion.
Mughsail Beach Oman
Al Mughsayl Beach is one of the best, if not the best beach in Oman. The white sand shore stretches for kilometers with mountains at the background.
There are couple of huts in Mughsail Beach, for a day long picnic providing shade from sun in sunny months and protecting from rain drops in Khareef season. There’s Barbecue place at the huts as well. However, the huts are not clean from inside, so bringing your own portable chairs or mats is a must.
Huts at the Beach
Huts at Mughsail Beach are built with the traditional style. They are large enough to accommodate an entire family. Besides shaded sitting area, the hut provides barbecue making area and an out-door area to sit.
The inside walls of huts have various forms of graffiti. Picnickers leave their marks by writing their names with the charcoal or whatever is available.
What to do if Huts are not available?
There are couple of huts, spread across the shore, but are not too many and if you come late in the day or on the weekends, these will be occupied by other picnickers. In that case, just park your car at the beach, pick out mat, chairs and umbrella from your car and enjoy.
What to bring with you to the Mughsayl Beach?
Mughsayl Beach is a perfect picnic spot. You can bring the following:
- Chairs / mats for sitting
- Lunch / food / refreshment items. Food item is not available nearby.
- If planning to make barbecue, then bring all items for the barbecue.
- Water and juices
- Sports items if with kids
- Sunblock cream / hats
- A good camera to capture the moment
Activities at Mughsail Beach
There are many things to do at this most popular tourist destinations on the western side of Salalah.
Following are the activities you can do when you visit Mughsail Beach:
- Kite Flying
- Make Barbecue
- Beach Strolling
- Birds Watching
- Sunset and Sunrise moments
Drive From Mughsail Beach to Marneef Cave
After the cyclone of Mekunu in Indian Ocean in 2018, the road to Marneef Cave and beyond was damaged. The water is still in the place of the old roadand across it.
The detour was constructed quickly and it is still used for Marneef and beyond.
On the way from Mughsayl beach to Marneef, at some places on the road we found Camels crossing the road. It’s an amazing sight, but at the same time the driver must concentrate on the road.
If you find camel crossing the road, drive slowly, make the parking lights on so that anyone behind your car can know in advance. Don’t horn the camels.
Other than the road, we also saw camels walking besides the road and taking bath in Khor Mughsayl.
The camels walking across the pond was one of the most unique part of the road trip. In such case park the car at right place and then capture the sight with camera.
Marneef Cave
The Marneef Cave is a big hard rock structure visible like a mountain. As there’s a blowhole as well, which is formed due to sea cave that grows land wards and upwards into vertical shafts. As a result of this geometry, water blasts out of the holes forming blowholes.
Besides the blowholes, there are many visible smaller caves on the structure, which results in small rock climbing activities for family.
At the entrance of Marneef cave, the golden words in both English and Arabic are engraved on a marble piece. The engraved words from Ministry of Tourims are
“Take nothing but memories
Leave nothing but footprints
Enjoy your visit to the Marneef Cave“
When I first visited Marneef it was pretty readable. Now in 2019, it’s lighter and not quiet readable.
Leave nothing but footprints; so don’t leave your rubbish around. There are some dust bins placed for the purpose of disposing off the garbage.
There is a sharp ascend on a walk way to reach Marneef cave. The path is wheel chair and stroller accessible.
The view of Indian Ocean from this altitude is beautiful on both eastern and western side.
On the Eastern side, the shore of Mughsayl Beach can be seen with mountains on the background. The huts and coconut trees can be seen on a clear day. In Khareef, due to mist and fog, the view is not clear. But at the same time the tides are higher in May to September than October to April each year. So in Khareef you can see higher tides across the sea on both sides.
On the western side, the view of blowholes is quite breathtaking. This is one of my favorite views in Dhofar.
There are couple of benches to sit and enjoy the view. Other than benches, it’s a common site to see people on their own portable chairs and mats enjoying the site and eating some snacks that they have brought with them.
Mughsayl Blowholes
The most fascinating part of the visit to Mughsayl is the blowholes, which are at the downside of Marneef. Due to its proximity with Mughsayl Beach, the blow holes are known as Mughsayl Blowholes (also Mughsail Blowholes).
Blowholes are natural fountain and that’s why also refered as Mughsayl Natural Fountains by tourists.
There are both stairs and paved path leading towards them making the walk accessible for wheel chair and stroller. I didn’t count the stairs but it’s a rough estimate that they are around 50 in numbers.
Although there are three blowholes, covered with metallic mesh, but usually two of them are working.
During Khareef season, due to high tides and rough sea, the blow hole water jets are as high as 28 meters in the sky. In other seasons its lesser in height and in some days of the year it’s near to nothing.
It’s common to see kids standing over the mesh and get totally soaked with water when the splash comes out. Many adults also do the same.
On both sides of the blowholes, there are viewing galleries to see the ocean and some huts to sit and relax.
At Marneef, there are some makeshift restaurants for Khareef season and a proper restaurant, which is sometimes open and sometimes close. The restaurant, which has two floors and a very nice viewing gallery facing eastern side of the beach.
Stay Near Mughsail Beach
There is no hotel or resort at Mughsayl Beach but if you want to stay, the nearest is Hilton Salalah Resort in Salalah.
Recommended Read: Other places to visit in Salalah