The Chedi Muscat Hotel

The Chedi Muscat Hotel

Where the Al Hajar Mountains fall into the Gulf of Oman, twenty-one acres of landscaped garden hold the Chedi Muscat, Oman's first contemporary beach hotel, built in 2003 under GHM Hotels. Three low floors keep the 158 rooms and suites close to the ground and to the water, a scale that feels more like a private estate than a resort chain. The 103-metre Long Pool, the longest in the Middle East, is the one feature that sets this hotel apart from the newer towers along the coast; guests swim its length before eating Japanese and Asian food at the cabana that watches over it. Six restaurants and lounges, a Balinese-style spa with steam room, sauna and massage treatments, a 700-square-metre health club, a tennis court and a diving club fill the space between mountain and sea, while two meeting rooms and a business centre serve the delegates who come for work, and a position near Muscat's city centre serves everyone else. Families travel well here, with a children's pool, babysitting on request and family rooms, though Oman's own rules mean unmarried couples sharing a room need a marriage certificate at check-in, worth knowing before booking. A private beach, extra bed fees of 30 OMR a night and a 38 OMR one-way airport transfer are the practical edges of an otherwise plush stay, and during Ramadan the meal service adjusts to local custom rather than tourist expectation. Check-in runs from 3pm, check-out at noon, and pets are not permitted. Over two decades after it opened, it remains the address serious travellers to Muscat still ask for first. Built in 2003 around the Al Hajar Mountains and the Gulf of Oman, this GHM hotel is anchored by the 103-metre Long Pool, the longest in the Middle East. It suits business travellers and families alike, though unmarried couples need a marriage certificate at check-in.