The desert deserves a night. We leave Muscat with an experienced Omani guide and reach the crystal-clear pools of Wadi Bani Khalid before the crowds, with time to swim and picnic in the shade. In the afternoon the 4WD rolls into the Wahiba Sands for a dune drive and a golden sunset from the top of the dunes. Your camp welcomes you with Arabian hospitality, a traditional dinner and live cultural entertainment under a sky crowded with stars; camel rides and quad biking can be added. After breakfast we cross to the historic city of Nizwa for its souq of dates, halwa and silver, its fort and the mud-brick villages and aflaj irrigation channels that UNESCO recognises as a masterpiece of engineering, before returning to Muscat.