In many ways Oman fulfils all the desires of the traveller for old Arabia: a big country with hillsides that change colour during sunset; friendly locals who are charming and approachable; a beautiful old-fashioned capital of white buildings set among rocks that cascade into the sea; and a port where dhows jostle for room with each other.
From the UAE, Muscat can be reached either by a longish drive through a landscape that is flat and rather boring, reminiscent of the Karoo in South Africa without the water pumps to break the monotony.
After an age you hit Ibri, a town built along a strip with a couple of roundabouts and a Hyundai showroom, then more empty space.
Keep motoring and you pass two towers, a few kilometres apart, four storeys high with crenulated tops.
Bahla fort, in the heart of Bahla, is rather more impressive, under renovation and under the supervision of Unesco.
Then you reach Nizwa. Nizwa is a town of about 70,000 inhabitants, once the capital of Oman. Get there at lunchtime and the famous souq doesn't open until 4pm. It's at this point you probably wish you had flown.
It is only an hour's flight to Muscat airport from Abu Dhabi or Dubai and the airport boasts the only Dairy Queen in the Middle East, which makes visiting Americans whoop with delight.
The only problem for business travellers to Muscat is that there is not much business going on.
Oil and gas present the biggest opportunities, tourism must certainly start expanding soon, but the government is probably the biggest investor at the moment, hoping to kick-start the economy and create jobs for the well-educated population.
"Who is investing in Oman?" Ewan Stirling, the chief executive of HSBC, asked at a recent investment seminar. "The United Kingdom is still number one but the UAE is second, with China and India closing fast.
"There are significant opportunities but in the Oman way, which means steadily and progressively."
