Oman
Wadi Bani Khalid
A hot spring keeps these emerald pools warm while the country around them bakes.
The main pool is the colour of jade against pale limestone. Palms shade the walkways around the basin, and local families swim here through the afternoon. Beyond the last pool the gorge roughens quickly towards Muqal Cave.
Wadi Bani Khalid holds water all year, fed from a hot spring, so its pools sit warm and emerald between pale limestone shelves while the country around them bakes. Palms shade the walkways around the main basin, and the gorge beyond turns rough quickly, with Muqal Cave at its head for the equipped and guided. Local families swim here too, and modest swimwear is the custom. Rain anywhere upstream closes the wadi, and a full dry day follows a heavy fall.
Family
The main basin has shaded paths, a restaurant and easy water edges, so the day works even for the ones who never swim.
Friends
Beyond the first pool the gorge empties out fast, and a group with judgement gets the wadi's wilder half to itself.
Couple
Arrive before the tour buses and the emerald basin is briefly yours; the upper viewpoints hold the light later.
- The pools are spring-fed and warm year-round, emerald water held between pale limestone shelves.
- Palms shade the paths around the main basin, with rougher canyon beyond for those equipped for it.
- Muqal Cave feeds the wadi from a hot spring, and entering it takes ropes, lights and someone who was in it last week.
- Flash floods arrive fast here even under a clear sky; a rain forecast means a different day out.
The restaurant beside the first pool does rice-and-grill lunches, busiest when the tour groups land.
Mishkak skewers off the charcoal at souq stalls across this region, the right food for the drive out.
Riri Blue Hole
Vanuatu
Locals paddle you through dark jungle to a pool that glows like stained glass.
Arrábida
Portugal
Turquoise coves locked between limestone cliffs and monastery forest above the sea.
Funafuti Conservation Area
Tuvalu
Green turtles nest on six empty islets holding nearly half Funafuti's remaining native forest.
Lagunas de Montebello
Mexico
Karst lakes shift from green to blue among cool Chiapas pine forest.
Salalah
Oman
Frankincense smoke, coconut palms and monsoon-softened hills meet beside the Arabian Sea.
Wadi Darbat
Oman
From late June the waterfall comes over the escarpment and camels graze between the pools.
Jebel Akhdar
Oman
In April the rose harvest scents whole villages terraced into canyon walls.
Muscat Old Town
Oman
The Sultan's palace stands framed between two forts the Portuguese raised over the harbour.