Our personal experience on the trip
Just to be clear as this is about to be an extremely glowing review, we paid full price for this trip, and the tour company was unaware that we have this website. We booked our trip with a company called Oman Daymaniyat Islands – well that’s their name on Instagram as they don’t actually have a website yet. It was a bit of a gamble because there are many companies with slick websites and lots of reviews. However, one thing made me choose the wildcard and that was their Instagram reels.
We saw them posting lots of Whale shark videos, but more than that they were looking so hard for them for their customers. It wasn’t just a token effort to find them, and when I contacted them and had a chat, I knew they would be our best bet. As it happened we didn’t find the Whale sharks, but that wasn’t through lack of trying.
The boat size was small – a max of 14 passengers – and on our day there were only 9. They also do the itinerary in the opposite order to the other companies, which meant we snorkelled with the sharks completely alone (despite visiting on a weekend) and were at the turtle spot with just one other boat.
This made the experience really special and we realised it even more so when that second boat came in right at the end of our turtle session and the customers all began touching the turtles. It was horrible to watch and they didn’t listen when their guides told them not to.
Had we been snorkelling with groups like this all morning, I honestly wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much at all. You also take a lot more fins to the face when groups come in!
We also got to enjoy the island landing alone which was a much nicer experience.
In terms of the boat itself, it’s smaller and I would guess more basic than the bigger operators, but still decent and there is a small marine toilet on board. We had plenty of space to stretch out, so whilst it wasn’t big, it wasn’t small for the size of our group.
I would say the ladder to get on and off the boat was a bit small and awkward, but they happily offered you a hand every time if needed.
They had snorkels, flippers, life jackets and noodles onboard. My snorkel mask did keep filling with water, but I think that was more about my hair getting in the way when I put it on, which is definitely a user error.
They also give you some snacks – sandwiches, bananas and watermelon as well as unlimited water.
But more importantly than all that is the staff. The captain, Khalid, and the other staff member onboard, whose name I’ve sadly forgotten, were the best. The kind of people that make you feel instantly at ease and can’t do enough for you.
Whether that was helping me get my rash vest off when it got stuck to me (could have been embarrassing, but wasn’t because they were so sweet) or offering to take pics and vids of you snorkelling and then send them to you later, nothing was too much trouble.
They were probably the best boat crew we’ve ever had.
We paid 28 OMR (approx USD $72.75) per person, which wasn’t the cheapest price we were quoted, but we are so glad we chose them. Prices generally vary according to boat size, but not dramatically. At time of writing, you’re looking at somewhere between 22 OMR (approx USD $57) and 30 OMR (approx USD $78) for a group trip. Private trips seemed to be around the 250 OMR (approx USD $650) which is great if you have 8 or so people, but was prohibitive for us as a 2.
As mentioned, we paid full price for our trip and don’t receive commission from recommending them, we simply love sharing people we think are doing a great job. If you do want to contact them you can do so by Whatsapp or Instagram. The Whatsapp numbers are Khalid: +968 9916 1723 or Ayub: +968 9955 6707.
If you want to look at alternative options booked through international companies, then check out GetYourGuide or Klook who list several options.
