‘We have the best experiences when we have to work to gain access to (places like Omani family homes and mountain villages), when we need special connections to visit them. I’ve developed such good relationships with Omani women that I feel truly honoured every time they call me ‘sister’’ - Monika Sommer, Tour specialist
Muscat: Monika Sommer designs tailor-made tours of Oman for European travellers, from pomegranate harvests in the mountains to all-female group journeys. She never planned on it.
In 2019, while she was leading a trip in Tunisia, a local man about to start a marketing job with a Muscat agency asked her to organise a similar tour in the Sultanate of Oman. She declined. Then declined again. Months later, an invitation from the agency arrived and she finally accepted.
“Accompanied by a driver and a guide, I embarked on a week-long tour of Oman and was truly blown away”, she recalls. “The diversity of the landscape, nature and people; and the depth and authenticity of the encounters all made a huge impression on me”.
Today, Monika runs the European market for tourtooman.com, designing customised itineraries for history buffs, hikers, divers and all-female groups. Her website began as a favour, an unused domain handed over by a friend, and she keeps its social media accounts free of advertising. “My goals are to provide information and inspiration”.
Her guests arrive with questions. “I’m often asked in advance whether women have to wear the veil, whether they have to stay at home and whether girls are allowed to go to school”, Monika says. Many expect only desert. They find roses blooming on the terraces of Al Jabal Al Akhdhar, freezing mountain winters and a capital without a single skyscraper.
Meetings with Omani women’s organisations, she says, help dissolve assumptions. “There is a great deal of curiosity on both sides. It is important to me to be open to cultural differences and not judge everything from my own perspective”.
In all-female groups, the candour surprises visitors most. “We can talk about any topic — there are no taboos”.
Monika shuns standard packages. “We have the best experiences when we have to work to gain access to these places, when we need special connections to visit them”, she says. That might mean sharing a meal with a family in Wadi Tiwi or helping with the pomegranate harvest in Al Jabal Al Akhdhar.
Her guests describe the effect. Badra Madeleine, a Lebanese woman living in Belgium, says her most memorable moment came at the Daymaniyat Islands. “The best one was Monika helping me to cross almost 200 metres swimming to the shore”, she says. “I don’t dare water”.
German traveller Claudia Hothausen, who journeyed with Monika alongside Matthias Nitsche, chose Oman for its “political neutrality and religious tolerance”. She was struck by “the wide range of lifestyles, from traditional and at times almost archaic ways of life to lifestyles strongly influenced by the West”. Her most unforgettable moment was a hot-air balloon ride over the desert. “I came away from this journey enchanted and captivated”.
Tatjana and Markus Decker, who have driven themselves around Oman several times since 2019, were initially sceptical about visiting an Arab country. “Now we’re completely captivated”, they say. “We never felt unwelcome or unsafe”. Tatjana admits she has yet to speak personally with an Omani woman. “With a guide, there would be many more opportunities to talk to Omanis”.
Jennifer Djavadi, from California, arrived knowing only the basics: the general location, the weather. Her most memorable experience was the Nizwa goat market. “Watching the sun rise as the men and women were inspecting and negotiating for the goats transported me back to the 15th century”, she says. She has travelled in many Muslim countries, she says; and found that “often they are predatory and dangerous for women. Oman is 100 per cent safe for women at any time of the day or night”.
Her advice is simple. “If you’ve never visited Oman, I absolutely recommend you do and that you engage Monika, who is truly an expert in the country and shares places and experiences that are not in any guidebook”.
Monika recalls an Omani Women’s Day gathering where women sang, drank kahwa and applied colourful sandalwood cream to their faces. “When we walked by, they invited us to join them. Despite the fact that very little English was spoken, we were still able to communicate. It was simply wonderful”.
In Al Jabal Al Akhdhar, she sat with ten women from four generations of one family, some speaking only Arabic, others fluent English-speaking pharmacists and IT security experts. The relationships have deepened over time. “I’ve developed such good relationships with Omani women that I feel truly honoured every time they call me ‘sister’”.
For the Deckers, the country defies summary. “Oman is a place where you arrive, lose your heart and leave a piece of it there forever and you always come back”.
Monika hopes more will follow. “It is the country’s authenticity, overwhelming hospitality and magnificent natural beauty that motivate people to visit”.
Pictures by Badra Madeleine and Jennifer Djavadi
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