Shinas

We almost drove straight past Shinas. It’s the last town of any size before the UAE border, and most people treat it as a fuel stop rather than a destination. But a friend in Muscat told us to look for the boatyards on the beach, and what we found there was one of the more quietly memorable afternoons of the whole Batinah drive.

Boats Built the Old Way

Shinas is one of the last places in Oman where traditional dhows are still built entirely by hand, without blueprints, using techniques passed down through families of shipwrights. We parked near the beach and walked over to where two half-finished hulls sat propped on wooden blocks, ribs exposed like something skeletal, men working the planks with hand tools and eyeballed measurements. Nobody minded us watching. One of the older carpenters gestured for us to come closer and pointed out where the wood — imported teak, still — would eventually curve into the bow.

The Fort and the Fishing Harbor

Shinas has its own small fort, less restored and less visited than Sohar’s, sitting above a fishing harbor where boats come in early with the day’s catch. We got there around 7am after an early start from Khasab and caught the harbor at its most alive — ice being shoveled into crates, fish sorted on tarps, gulls working the edges of everything. It’s not a spectacle built for visitors. It’s just the town’s actual economy, running the way it runs every morning.

Lia bought grilled kingfish from a stall by the harbor that had clearly never seen a tourist menu, and it remains one of the best fish we ate anywhere on that trip.

When to go: Early morning, any time October through April, for the harbor and the boatyards — both are most active before the heat sets in. Shinas works well as a stop on the coastal drive between Khasab (via the UAE) and Sohar.