As one who has spent over 18 years working and living in Muscat, I can say with a certain amount of authority that od what I like most in Oman !
The pivotal reason for that has to be none other than the wise leadership and governing policies that have been laid down by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. May he live long.
Coming back to the question, life is mostly very peaceful here. No hustle or bustle (like for instance, in the neighbouring Dubai in the UAE). Things in Oman take their own sweet time to happen. There is nothing which can’t wait until tomorrow, or the day after !
The roads are excellent. Yes currently massive road expansion works are going on almost all over town, so there is a certain amount of inconvenience, but once the works are completed, it would make life even smoother.
Those expatriates who stay here and constantly complain about the lack of nightlife, or throbbing entertainment options should stop complaining and quickly relocate to Dubai, which is well-known and world famous for that. Muscat / Oman is just not cut out for that kind of extravaganzas.
Muscat / Oman is predominantly a very quaint and traditional society where family life is given utmost importance. For the locals, family comes first naturally, before everything else.
Omanis by nature are very mild mannered and genuinely polite. They could perhaps be the best behaved lot amongst all their GCC country cousins. Okay, there could be some stray incidents where one might find the local youth a little brash and perhaps sometimes even rude. But such instances are few and far between and would be more an exception than the norm.
Muscat / Oman is full of expatriates. I am not getting into any statistics here. There is an overwhelming population of Indians, most notable from the South-Indian states. Disparity does exist between the Asian expatriates and the Western expatriates. But then it is a global malady. However, racism or discrimination based on the colour of the skin, nationality or religion does not happen anywhere - overtly.
Muscat is a very modern and a cosmopolitan city. Pretty much whatever one can enjoy in any of the world’s most modern and cosmopolitan cities can be enjoyed here in Muscat as well – shopping, eating out, sightseeing, culture and heritage tours, et al. Perhaps the one thing big missing would have to be the nightlife options.
There are numerous pluses to living in Muscat / Oman – the high quality and standards of life, no power cuts, uninterrupted water supply (albeit desalinated), low crime rates, little or no poverty, no gross disparity between the rich and the poor, enough educational and medical options (though the quality is questionable), female and elders respecting culture where women and senior citizens are treated with regard and respect ...
Oman is a startlingly beautiful country. And Muscat lies in a valley surrounded by mountains and the sea. The setting of the city is stunning ! Oman being a coastal country has some of the region’s finest beaches. Beaches that are unspoilt and unpolluted. The mountains are also magnificent. The desert regions have their very own charm and splendour. Down south in the Dhofar region, it is a world of its own, particularly during the summer showers season called the ‘Khareef’ when the rest of the country and the region s well sweltering under the blistering summer sun. During the famous Khareef season Dhofar region will be engulfed in mist, with constant drizzles and rains soaking up the region !