The Al Jissah Resort & Spa is the ideal affordable family vacation package as well as being a the best place to take a luxury holiday in Oman.
The Al Jissah Resort & Spa consists of the Exclusive Al Husn rated at 6 stars [The Castle], Al Bandar [The Town] rated at 5 star, and Al Waha [The Oasis] which is 4 star, and very much for the family vacation package.
This Shangri-La Hotel and Resort has a fantastic location in over 120 acres with mountains behind, and a private beach of golden sand in front with the blue water of the Gulf of Oman to provide the icing on the cake.
This is a large Resort at Al Jissah, with the exclusive Al Husn with 180 suites and guestrooms, Al Bandar with 198 rooms and the Al Waha with 302 rooms.
All of the 680 rooms and suites face the sea and overlook the 600 yard beach.
It is the first three hotel luxury resort both for Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts and for the country of Oman.
There are a wide range of leisure facilities within the complex and this includes three freshwater swimming pools, and to connect the Al Waha Family oriented hotel to the Al Bandar is a lazy river. When you add to this four tennis courts, a PADI dive centre, a fitness centre, the Little Turtles Kids Club based at Al Waha, which is one of the main reasons this This Shangri-La Hotel and Resort is the ideal family vacation package, you can begin to realize what is on offer.
When you add on the chance to not only go snorkelling, but even dolphin and whale watching trips can be arranged, and at certain times of the year turtles come up onto the beach to lay their eggs, and the Turtle Ranger will take trips to see this.
The Al Jissah Resort & Spa has the renowned Chi Spa with some of the largest and most luxurious spa suites you will find anywhere in Oman, and a Turkish Bath, an ice room, a sauna, steam rooms and a jacuzzi
Everybody visits the Omani Heritage Village where you can soak up the atmosphere of a retail souk, and you can experience life in a traditional Oman village. This will include demonstrations by silversmiths, henna painting, weaving to add to the authentic feel. If you want to visit Muscat then there is a daily complimentary shuttle.
The Al Jissah Resort & Spa complex has twenty restaurants and bars, so guests are spoilt for choice. There are six main restaurants and seven more casual food outlets. You can add to this three pool bars, a night club, and two bars so you really can't go wrong, as there is something to suit everyone's taste.
For dining, guests are spoilt for choice with 6 main restaurants, 7 casual dining outlets, 3 pool bars, a nightclub and 2 bars providing sumptuous local and international cuisine to suit all tastes.
Any good family vacation package to a luxury hotel should have restaurants that all the family can enjoy.
The Samba is outstanding in this regard because there is a chocolate fountain for the kids and unlimited oysters and mussels on ice for starters. Apart from this there is a huge selection of dishes, and this restaurant is the ideal spot for huge and varied breakfasts.
The surf bar and pool bar are good for burgers and salads, and the fish restaurant between Al Waha and Al Bandar has top class fish at decent prices.
This is a good all year round destination, but the temperature in July and August is pretty fierce, but then some like it hot, the expect extreme temperatures in Jul and Aug but prices will be lower then and the Al Jissah Resort & Spa less busy.
A final note about this top of the range luxury Oman hotel is the staff, who are very good indeed, being helpful courteous, friendly, and have very good language skills.
Go to Oman and stay at the Al Jissah Resort & Spa.
Our villa could only be described as large, extremely well furnished with high quality materials. Our king sized bed was very comfortable, something you don't always find even in the best five star resorts.
It also included an ice machine, and an ipod!!.
What we really enjoyed was the privacy, yet the open air feel to the villa, and our own infinity pool. We sat on the veranda on the day beds and enjoyed the ever changing wonderful view.
A personal butler, seems to be a must have nowadays in top resorts, and our butler was outstanding, never in your face, very unobtrusive, very willing, full of smiles, and above all very efficient.
Also I expected the butler to be male, but our lady butler, added several thoughtful feminine touches, which included flowers, and an unexpected and very romantic dinner for a very special occasion, that we still don't ever remember mentioning!!
The beach at the Maia Luxury Resort & Spa is very private, and quite beautiful, what we liked as much as anything was this it is small, yet still a decent enough size to walk about on. The other great thing about the beach was the fact that you could snorkel the reef off the beach, and we should add the snorkeling was pretty good, lots of brightly colored fish.
The public areas of the hotel, by that I mean the pool, restaurant are also right next to the beach, and very important for me, there is no shortage of sun loungers, and a plentiful supply of towels, cold drinks, cold flannels. Again the quality of the staff at the Maia Resort & Spa was of the highest order.
The food in the restaurant was excellent, and you could leave the menu, and order whatever you fancied, which the chefs would produce for you. We saw people doing exactly this, though I can't for the life of me think why, because the menu was very good on its own!!
This is a real romantic island hideaway, on a special private beach, and we both recommend you to the Maia Luxury Resort & Spa, on Mahe in the Seychelles
Both Peter R Stewart & Jeff Cowan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.