ESCAPE TO PARADISE AT SALALAH ROTANA RESORT, OMAN

I have never been much of a beach lover since I don’t enjoy lying in the sun for more than a couple of hours per season, but I could easily become one after spending a short vacation at Salalah Rotana Resort in Oman.

“Our beach is more beautiful than the ones in the Carribean’s”, told us our host Jad Boulos, while picking us up from the airport. We have arrived in Salalah on one fine Saturday evening with a flydubai flight from Dubai. One hour and 45 minutes after take-off from the city of skyscrapers we were landing in the remote and authentic Arabic city known as  “the world capital of perfumes”. Situated on the southern coast of Oman, Salalah is located just 150 km away from the border with Yemen.

Amazing view over Salalah Rotana Resort and its fabulous beach taken from the pier.

Early Sunday morning I rushed to the beach, curious to see if what Jad had told me earlier was true. And, Gosh, he was right. I haven’t been to the Carribeans so far, but I have travelled to more than 35 countries and I have seen hundreds of beaches. But, truth be told, I have never seen a more beautiful beach than  the one of Salalah Rotana Resort. It’s pristine, wide, with white sand and overlooks the beautiful and always warm Indian Ocean. I could not imagine a more perfect place for an exotic and romantic getaway so close to Europe.

During the days spent at Salalah Rotana Resort I would wake up in the morning for some quiet and “me moments” on the beach, thinking about a thousand things and in the same time not thinking about anything in particular. The sunsets here are utterly amazing, with the sky painted in shades of orange and dark red.

Have lunch at the The Beach Bar & Restaurant while enjoying the spectacular views.

Salalah Rotana Resort offers 400 splendid rooms and suites that are beautifully built around the lagoons, water features and manmade canals for an unforgettable experience. The upscale hotel’s Omani-inspired architecture features a series of clusters surrounding the main building, housing major public facilities and amenities.

When night falls over the Salalah Rotana Resort…

The resort has been carved from desert rock as the hotel rises out of the water, making it part of the landscape. In-room furnishings including beds, tables and sofas have been integrated into the main walls while Arabesque geometric designs and stone archways, constructed using traditional techniques, resemble a cathedral atrium and provide areas of contemplation. Natural light covers every corridor in the hotel as bright furniture provides the contrast against matt-finished walls, changing colour and texture as the shadows move and a new area of the hotel is bathed in sunlight throughout the day. High ceilings and a central, internally-lit handmade red clay dome complement the wooden finishing and decorative mashrabiya latticework windows.

For the adventurous type of travel there are also plenty of options. Book a boat trip to see the dolphins swimming each morning very close to the shore. “Sometimes you can see hundreds of dolphins swimming together. It’s amazing”, says Jad. We took a trip like this on one mornings and we were very lucky to see at least 10 dolphins swimming very close to our boat, enjoying all the attention they were getting from a bunch of enthusiastic people trying to film them or to catch a selfie with their smartphones.

Salalah lives up to its reputation as the world capital of perfumes. Discover hundreds of oil perfumes in their local market.

You can hire a guide and find out more about their Sultan, Qaboos bin Said, who  has turned Oman into a modern and luxurious travel destination, combining the traditional values of an ancient civilization with up-to-date luxury, complete with shining new, chic hotels.

Nevertheless, Salalah is famous for its perfumes, therefore one trip to the traditional souk is “a must do” while spending your vacation at Salalah Rotana Resort. There are hundreds of oil perfumes to choose from. At the souk you will find out more about the Frankincense, which in older times it was so valuable that it used to be traded for gold.

A short trip out of the city takes you to the mountains, where you can find the Frankincense trees. The guide will show you how to peel the bark of the tree in order to get the frankincense, which is afterwards used for producing perfumes or as air freshener in households.