Casa Oman

Casa in Italian means « home ».

Casa Oman is a magic place.

When I went to Oman for the first time, in 2014, Casa Oman was a single building. A simple Arabic-style house that was conceived for private use at the ground floor, the porch, a big courtyard and the walls around it. I went back 10 year later, in 2024. Today Iapo handles 4 different buildings to accommodate on average 600 guests per year. The guesthouse became a source of revenue not only for him, but for all the village: fishermen sell their fish, about 20 drivers take care of airport transfers, local restaurants welcome new clients for lunch, the laundry shops washes your clothes for 0.50 cent per item and even in Muscat Suq you get a discount in the selected shops that have an agreement with Casa Oman (spices, silver, pashminas, perfumes). You will find Italian staff at Casa Oman, because 90% of the guests comes from Italy, but I promise you, you will enjoy the experience even if you don’t speak Italian.

Casa Oman offers a range of tours in the region of Dakhlia, (learning Arabic, I found out it means « inner region »:

• Bimma Sinkhole
• Waadi Shab
• Waadi Tiwi
• White sands
• Wahiba sands
• Nizwa
• The clay towns
• The livestock market
• The fish marked
• Masirah Island

And of course, Muscat, the capital.

What I enjoy most about Casa Oman is that it is the perfect blending of Italian and Omani culture. The fact you are in an Italian Guesthouse does not mean you are separated by Oman. Rather the opposite: Omani people  are friends of Casa Oman and you can learn about their lifestyle and traditions, during the evening, after your tour, when you sit on the big couch in the middle of the courtyard, smoking shisha, drinking chai karak and eating dates with them.

As a foreign language student, I used to live with families hosting me, in order to improve my language skills and this gave an imprinting on my way of traveling. If I have the opportunity, I prefer to have a family around that allows me to experience the country from their point of you while still being a traveller.

Being in a hotel, separate from the locals, separate from the country, with no access to the places Omani people go because you know none of them it is not the same experience.

If you go to Oman, go to Casa Oman.