Abu Dhabi, Sport, Travel, blog -->
Popping to Oman for the weekend
One of the advantages of living here is that you can pop to Oman for the weekend, which is what we did last week.
We drove from Abu Dhabi over the border to the Musandam Peninsula and the exclusive, gorgeous Zighy Bay resort.
Arriving there from the city through a mountain track populated by goats was extremely exciting and romantic. The resort itself has a feel to it a little like a small Spanish village from another era, with sandy tracks the children cycled up and down and wooden huts.
Listening to the sea was glorious, the waves crashing against the beach and hundreds of little crabs scuttling around like over-sized demented spiders.
It was so lovely to see the children outside, cycling around, playing and swimming. They had three friends there and the six of them roamed around in a pack, in total safety, and ordered room service endlessly (eating for kids under the age of 12 was free).
There was a classic line from Bea when she told me off for being caught topless by her young friends; “Mummy, you only have one life and there is no point in spending it naked”.
The four of adults played tennis (once we got Leo and Max, the new Rafa and Federer off the court), read books and watched the England game which was undoubtedly the low-light of the weekend.
Having said that possibly the only thing that was more painful and irritating than witnessing England’s sad performance was watching my husband flirting with a Brazilian woman sitting next to us. What is it about Brazilian women that sends men mad? You just have to mention the word Brazilian and they start salivating and behaving like fools.
As there were no men for me to flirt with I went to bed at half-time hoping that by the time I woke up England would have scored. They hadn’t, but neither had my husband, so I suppose I should be grateful for small mercies.
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2010
20 Jun 2010 helena
Sounds like a wonderful weekend and hopefully not too hot (Brazilians aside!). I have been considering a trip to the resort myself so am glad to hear you all enjoyed it. Oman is certainly a special place.
A nice enough place but – off the record – you didn’t think it hideously over-priced? In all our 40+ years of travelling, this is the hotel that we both reckon was the worst ever value.
yes, totally and utterly over-priced, we only paid 1/4 of the normal rate and still found it horrendously expensive. I agree, ridiculous, but I guess there must be people out there with the money. I heard one story of someone who thought prices were in dirhams not dollars, so 2000 dirhams a night. He got a hell of a shock when the bill arrived…
Hx
This is no excuse for their extortionate rates but, frankly, I feel that as residents of the southern Gulf we’re discriminated against when it comes to hotel (and flight) prices for I’m sure if you book a package from – say – Finland or Germany to Zighy Bay you’ll pay a mere fraction of what we were charged and have your flight included. Al Maha (another seriously nice though pricey property) is sometimes given away free to EK passengers on stop-over! (Consider that for another weekend when you’re feeling flush.) You know, I sat next to a man on the plane from Dubai to Rome the over week who had paid roughly half what I had yet he had come all the way from Brisbane!!!
Ladies, I’ve been and have paid for my stay and can’t say enough about it. Did anyone at the resort tell you how it was constructed? A: By the hands of the local community and predominantly from the rocks and palm fronds in the local area. Sure there are elements that have been brought in from asia, but by and large the cost is associated with what you get and how you get it. What Ibis hotel have you been to that you get your own butler, pool and bath the size that could fit the entire family?
Did you also know they grown their own veggies?
The Four Seasons is nice, but most of them are smack bang next to another chain hotel offering the same buffet and tired clichéd lounge singers. Six Senses doesn’t aim to fill that otherwise silent ambiance in it’s restaurants with such hideous infractions of the ears, it simply allows you to be at one with as much nature as is possible, but doing so ever so elegantly. It’s no wonder they coined the phrase ‘Barefoot luxury’.
If you want value for money with 100 screaming kids, waiters in formulaic uniforms then I suggest Travelodge.
Worth every dollar an dirham.