Muscat Souq

Just for info, pics from the souq can be seen over at my private blog

http://tbs2810.blogspot.com/2010/02/lille-update-med-bedler.html

Desert Nights Camp Wahiba Sands

This is not the place to book for a business traveller - it's in the middle of nowhere, also known as the desert. But great for holiday travellers looking for 1-2 nights away from city life, or for incentive travel. Activities include camel riding, crazy jeep driving (yay!), those funny little 4-wheel motorbikes, and just relaxing and enjoying the warm night in the desert.

This is a 5-star beduin dream come true - though in actual fact, probably only 4 stars as there is no pool. They were building a bar but were not licensed to serve alcohol yet. In my opinion it was true luxury, unbelievably quiet when you went to sleep, and lovely to wake up and see the morning mist. Good food, too! Only 2 hours drive from Muscat

Accommodation - will sleep 2, but I had it all to myself:

What the rest of the place looks like:

 Reception house

My house!

Nighttime view from my house towards dining/reception buildings

This is where I had my breakfast the next morning

Outdoors dining area, there are dining rooms to the left and right, the buffet

is behind the sitting area

Food made to look pretty

Early morning in the desert

Camel driver (??) + apprentice

Pictures can't really tell how funny it is to drive up and down the dunes

Sunset

Wheeeee!!! :-)

Spotted on the way home from Wahiba Sands: In Oman, they don't have dogwalkers. But they do have camel walkers...

All you need is a jeep and a bit of rope, and you're in business!

http://www.omanhotels.com/desertnightscamp/

Hotel Muscat Holiday

We didn't stay at this hotel so I can't tell you if the beds were soft or how the breakfast is. But we did get a tour of the place plus lunch. The hotel is located midway between the airport and the central business district where a lot of government offices are. Muscat is such a big place, that I have no real idea how long it would take to get to e.g. the souq, but I would guess about 15 minutes by car. The area itself is not all that interesting (but not unpleasant), but in my opinion the interesting part of town is down by the harbour and the souq, and I didn't see any hotels there.  I don't know how many stars this hotel has, but my impression is 4-4½ and it is more upmarket than the Al Falaj where we stayed. I would recommend this hotel for business travellers, it's very close to the main road between the airport and the town so I would guess handy for going wherever you need to go in Muscat. They also have great conference facilities

The rooms:

Standard room

Pool and fitness room:

Dining room/restaurant:

OK, indulge me for a bit. No pictures of the actual room, just the buffet (and only a selection of the pictures I took). Quite simply the best lunch I had had in a long time, huge dilemmas about how much of each dish to eat to ensure I had room for everything, including dessert. And, according to other members of the party, the best hommous ev-ah. They even got the chef out of the kitchen to share his secrets! Unfortunately, I was preoccupied with the sweets so did not have time to make notes. But really, great restaurant!

Le buffet

                                     

                                      

                                     

'Twas goooooood.....

http://www.muscat-holiday.com/

Al Falaj Hotel Muscat

This 3-star hotel boasts a prime location in the heart of the city. I don't know about that - but then again, Muscat strikes me as a very large, widespread city, so exactly where its heart is, I couldn't tell.  The neighbourhood is, to be honest, not very interesting, but it is true that by car you have very easy access to the main roads/highways and it only takes about 15 minutes (again, by car) to get to the harbour/souq area, and 5-10 minutes in the other direction takes you to a huge hypermarket.

In my opinion the hotel deserves its 3 stars. It is an average standard hotel, tourist class or for the business traveller who just needs a place to sleep. The staff is very friendly and all the people I spoke to spoke very good English.

The rooms:

Standard room

Mekka - this way!

Nighttime view of Muscat

The hotel is next to what I first thought was a local mosque - but it turned out to be a

banqueting hall (no noise though)

View from my room, looking away from the city

Pool area and fitness facilities:

View from the pool to the breakfast room (decent breakfast, catering for Western as well as Middle Eastern travellers. Eggs/omelettes cooked to order. Nice to eat breakfast outside by the pool!)

The gym is well equipped. It is also open to non-residents so they have quite a lot of members

The hotel has a bar at the top floor which serves alcohol. There is also (quite surprisingly I thought) a Japanese restaurant and apparently it's the best in town and very popular with Asian travellers. On the ground floor there is a Sports Bar (also licensed) which shows football matches etc. (smoking permitted)

Traditional low Japanese dining table - but for people who are not accustomed to sitting on the

floor with their legs crossed, there is a hole in the floor under the table! :-)

The Sports Bar

http://www.alfalajhotel.com/