Oman

If you head southwest from Muscat into Oman's interior, you'll find Ad Dakhiliyah, a jagged, mountainous region dotted with mud villages and luscious oases, where cardamom-infused coffee, soft dates and dark halwa are the sweet symbols of Omani hospitality

- KAROLINA WIERCIGROCH

The Western Al Hajar Mountains climb to around 9,780ft above sea level, creating a climate that's made the area an important centre of agriculture.  The Sayq Plateau and Al Jabal Al Akhdar - 'the Green Mountain' - are famed for verdant terrace fields, built around the ancient Aflaj irrigation canal. Here, local villagers grow juicy pomegranates and sweet-scented damask roses, whose petals are distilled into Oman's celebrated rosewater, used for flavouring coffee.

The menus at Juniper Restaurant at Alila Jabal Akhdar draw heavily on locally grown fruit, vegetables and beans. The cliffside restaurant takes inspiration from the majlis - the sitting rooms where Omanis gather for discussions, celebrations and entertaining. It's also where they eat their meals and enjoy kahwa (coffee), served with platters of soft dates and a dipping bowl of homemade ghee or runny tahini.

The oasis city of Nizwa is the largest in the interior and was once Oman's capital. Its extensive souk was renovated in the 1990s to house stalls filled with fish, meat, spices, fruit, vegetables, frankincense and handicrafts such as local clay pottery, woven baskets, khanjars, silver jewellery and antiques.