Three week Stay: September 9th to September 30th 2025
The Location (Excellent)
Without a doubt one of the hotels assets is its location. It is set within the regarded affluent embassy district of Shatti Al Qurum, very close walkable (if temperatures permit)) to the Opera house, many shops, restaurants with a short drive/taxi ride to the Sultan Qaboos Mosque, main shopping malls such as the newly opened Mall of Oman, to many other interesting and cultural places to visit. The hotel is approximately twenty-minutes’ drive from the Muscat International Airport. If hiring a car and have not visited Oman before i.e. have not driven on the roads, we would recommend becoming more familiar with driving there for a few days. It can get very busy particularly at peak times on the Sultan Qaboos highway and the Muscat expressway. Taking a taxi (is safer and easy to do) from the airport to the hotel and have your hire car delivered or picked up afterwards once familiar with the roads. This hotel has an easy to access underground parking area and with valet parking too. The beach from the hotel is a bird’s breath away it is very clean, the sea is safe to swim with it getting deeper very gradually so is mostly safe for children. Fishermen can be seen some evenings bringing in their days catch with traditional nets at certain times the discarded fish can be a nuisance on the beach but these have recently been cleaned up; the locals and the community can be seen playing football on the beach most every evening and the Arabian horses from the nearby horse school can be seen galloping the same stretch; all can be viewed from one of the hotels Seaview rooms. Alternatively, to sit in one of the covered in pavilions or pitch up on one of the hotel loungers at the edge of the beach whilst watching the beautiful sunsets over the Oman sea.
The Accommodation ( Excellent):
The hotel itself has been designed beautifully with so many authentic design features there are hints almost everywhere of local Omani culture within the architecture and throughout. Particularly pleasing to the eye is the stunning handblown glass chandelier and the artwork by the local Omani artist Alia Al Farsi, these all taking pride and place in the lobby/ foyer and with many of her other pieces including her famous Harley Davisdon strategically placed in the centre. For those that would like to see her work she has a gallery and we fully recommend the drive to Rusayl to view, it’s well worth the trip and it is open most days.
The suites/rooms ( Excellent):
The suites are superb, they are spacious and very well-equipped providing all the amenities one would require or expect from a five-star luxury hotel; we occupied suite 521 a sea view room, centrally located, overlooking the pool and Shatti beach on the (top) fifth floor. A nice touch are the automatic curtains that open and close as you enter the room, these also provide total black out. The bed is spacious and super comfortable. There is also a very useful Armoire; it houses the complimentary teas coffee, water with a fridge and drawers for plates and cutlery etc. this also serves as an attractive piece of furniture and is such a nice touch. The housekeeping staff Serena and Tama and maintenance team were all excellent at servicing our room and whatever we requested anything at all ice etc, they always promptly responded, we loved all the little touches they provided with cable ties for our phone charging leads, hairdryers, almost anything they could find we found they had tidied.
Only slight criticism was that for a room of this size, it did not have a practicable desk/dressing table neither a table with some chairs to enjoy in suite or indeed balcony dining. The balcony to this suite was frequently (daily actually) pooped on by birds and it really required more regular cleaning. For those with allergies they might struggle with this and the top floor may not be the right location. To be honest though we could not mark down the room for this as it was perfect in so many other ways and one of the best hotel suites we have stayed.
The Spa and pool (Excellent):
It has multiple relaxation areas with lots of nooks and crannies to escape to for a private yoga or meditation practice or to just simply enjoy some quiet time alone. There is a lovely area to enjoy a complimentary herbal tea with some local nibbles and to enjoy some mindfulness with a colouring book provided, if in need of switching off. This another nice touch. We didn’t experience any activity classes whilst there but understand from the hotel literature these could be booked. There is a wonderful Hamam, No Sauna, however, there are additional separate steam room within the male and female changing areas. The changing areas accommodated the lockers and private changing areas with showers, I felt they lacked the amenities (such as shower caps, combs etc that were available in room and should have been available for the guest’s convenience. The massage rooms are very clean, calm and peaceful spaces. I was treated to a frankincense massage for my birthday which was bliss and such a treat. The gym is unisex and is very well equipped.
The Restaurants – Rawya (Excellent for breakfast)
We breakfasted at the Rawya restaurant each day and the food choice was very good with a mix of local, international and some Asian cuisine. We really loved this restaurant for breakfast and for the occasional lunch, the staff and service were exceptional. Esenza: (Average) The Esenza Italian Restaurant was not really our thing; more of an Urban café style, it got very busy, and we felt there were not enough serving staff with long wait times. It started off well but as it got busy the service deteriorated and it was also too noisy me. People tended to dress more casually in here and if you like that for a dining experience then guess that’s ok. The food we had was not that great, we had the fish; Red Mullet and Tuna and the quality was not up there. Overall, it was not a great experience, so we didn’t bother again.
The hotel restaurants had only two options; and only one dining venue; the Italian Esenza. With no alternative and with no fine dining option one would expect from a five-star hotel we felt with a longer length of stay such as our was limited. Therefore, we decided to dine elsewhere. There are many excellent alternatives to choose from in Muscat.
The staff (Excellent)
The real asset of this hotel is without doubt its staff. Almost everywhere the staff go above and beyond, working so hard to assist with their guests needs and to providing a genuinely heartwarming, at times humbling service to its guests, this very reflective of the Omani way. Yasin The Rawya Restaurant Manager (A truly lovely man) The waiting staff ; so many of them to mention did a great job: Sarah, Osman, Shirin, Stanley, Hilton, Anusha, Alena, Chef Mustafa, and finally to Sheryl Barcelon The Guest Relations Manager ; made a great effort to make ours and guests experience a pleasurable and positive one. Their efforts went someways to offset some of the least favourable aspects from this stay........
The Hotel Parking Area and Security (Poor)
The hotel does not have an adequate or visible, security presence within the; underground parking areas (with non-guests accessing the lifts), Within the foyer/lobby lifts (potential for non-guests accessing room levels – hitching lifts) and around the pool area with no visible security personnel. It was unfortunate during our stay; we witnessed a serious incident at this hotel around the pool area and in an open public space. This was immediately reported, unfortunately it was not immediately responded to with a female person being harmed. This incident does not reflect upon the excellent service of any of those staff that worked so hard to provide us and other guests with such an outstanding service. Moreover, it reflects upon the abusive behaviour of a guest at the hotel that remained as a guest.
Overall, our experience was a positive one with exception to the safety and security. It was unfortunate that we were exposed and witness to such an incident that occurred during our holiday at this hotel. It brought into serious question the hotels overall security/presence and with lack of a timely response to deal with such a serious incident that occurred. Also, with unauthorised access to areas within the hotel specifically to the lifts for non-staying guests. This we feel poses an overall potential risk to the safety and security of its guests. Therefore, we could only recommend staying at this hotel having highlighted this as an issue when staying and for the further awareness/improvement of the hotel.
