Holidays in Oman are a sad experience.
We started getting ready for New Year's Eve. On the strong recommendation of the head of the "Merci travel store" S. Shkitova, the choice was made in Oman, Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa - Al Husn. As it turned out later, Ms. Shkitova's enthusiasm was explained by the high level of commissions, while the interests of the client did not bother her.
Problems arose immediately after the Lufthansa flight landed in Dubai. After a long search for two cars sent by the hotel, my friends and I headed to Muscat. About an hour and a half to the border with Oman, and - a spectacle like on the native Ukrainian-Russian border: about a hundred cars, a dozen buses on a dusty site, respectively, a huge queue. But we were lucky for the first and last time in this country - the brother of one of our drivers worked at customs, so the border crossing procedure took only about an hour.
Four more hours across the territory of Oman - and we are in a hotel declaring six!! ! stars. Accommodation proved to be very difficult. It was about 11 o'clock local time, check-out at 12, check-in at 14. What should I do? We wait. ...At 15 o'clock patience ran out, we come to the room. The picture that appeared before our eyes was simply shocking: the hotel worker, who was supposed to put the room in order, perched with his feet on our bed, was talking on the phone. He was clearly in no hurry to take it off. After an explanation with the hotel manager using idiomatic expressions from English and all the richness of the Russian language, the cleaning process was completed within an hour.
In general, this institution includes three hotels declaring 4.5 and 6 stars, respectively. Buildings in the national style, 4-5 floors, many corridors, passages, stairs, etc.
A bare, deserted shore, surrounded, as the aforementioned owner of the "Merci travel store" Mrs. Shkitova, was told by picturesque mountains. In fact, low hills are gray-yellow in color with a complete lack of vegetation. All this dull spectacle is somehow decorated with two or three dozen palm trees, bushes and a lousy lawn.
We lived in the Royal Suites, which consisted of two rooms, 60-70 sq. meters, generally acceptable, apart from the stupid layout (the entrance to the wardrobe through the living room, bedroom and bathroom, for some reason the kitchen without dishes) and an incredible number of bookcases, figurines, bedside tables, ottomans and other rubbish. Naturally, the promised fax and Internet access did not turn out to be. The price level is from 430 to 4900 US dollars per day.
Meals - 3 restaurants from 18 o'clock, they cook well, especially lamb, 3-4 small restaurants on the beach with a standard set (meat or fish, french fries, a glass of beer).
By the way, about beer: you can order it not earlier than 12 and up to 15 hours. From 15 to 18, according to local laws, for some reason it is impossible to drink beer, but from 18 - you can. We failed to find a reasonable explanation for this idiocy. What's impressive is the prices. Lunch at a beach restaurant for two - 50-60 Omani rials. Course: 1 rial - 3.33 US dollars, i. e. 180 dollars, dinner at the hotel restaurant 250 - 300 dollars (excluding alcohol, of course).
You can talk about the service only from the point of view of the complete absence of the latter:
There is a queue for sunbeds, a queue for towels, a queue for a restaurant. In addition, all this is not enough, so you need to get up early and stand in line like under socialism for sausage. Of course, no one will offer you ice cream, soft drinks and so on on the beach. Excursions are absent, shopping as well. There are two "shopping centers" in Muscat - each with a dozen and a half miserable shops with locally produced junk.
But the prices - Switzerland is resting: two cups of coffee and a slice of cake - $ 25, a tube of toothpaste - $ 8.
We managed to survive in this blasphemous institution for 4 days instead of 9, we spent the rest of the vacation in Vienna, restoring a shattered nervous system. Our friends were billed $5.500 when checking out of the hotel (meals for four days). After the exclusion of "erroneously entered" accounts, the amount decreased to one and a half thousand.
If in general - Burj Al Arab in terms of prices, a cross between Crimea and Egypt in terms of the level of the hotel, service and the country as a whole. We strongly do not recommend. Neither Oman nor Shkitov. I hope a few photos will illustrate the point.
