Dunes by Al Nahda

A pleasurable desert experience, with Mr Ram and his team working hard to ensure the environment remains tranquil and blissful for guests. Kudos too to the Chef for dishing out top quality meals throughout our stay. There’s even a professional harpist on site to entertain diners after dark! Her mesmerising harp music certainly added to the magic of the desert night for us.

Excellent accommodation and food, very scenic location overlooking the desert and gigantic dunes. Very, very restful break. Only surprise was the 2 Kms of rough terrain between the motorway exit and the resort, a SUV Is highly recommended. Watching the 4WDs dune bashing was also interesting but apparently at weekends +200 vehicles can be there so sleeping could be difficult. If you want peace and quiet then best to avoid weekends

The hotel basically has comfortably equipped guestrooms in tents and an open restaurant are, all nicely nestled in some high sandy dunes. So it is a very nice setup, totally suitable for e.g. a romantic candlelight dinner under the stars. In fact, the hotel even provides lanterns free of charge, that you can write your wishes upon and let it go up in the sky. Check in was fast and efficient, car taken care of by valet service. Tents are nicely furnished, of course fully air-conditioned, and provide a minibar, content of which can be consumed free of charge. Staff is caring and friendly, in a professional way, never pushy, always attentive. However, what could be a perfect place to stay, was to some extend spoiled, though admittedly our biggest displease may have been out of the control of the hotel. The dunes surrounding the hotel attract drivers who take pleasure to run them up and down, with all kinds of vehicles. What may be fun to look at during daytime, is driving you crazy during night time. Some of the vehicles are extremely noisy and the tents to not provide noise protection. So if you try to sleep, it is a little bit like staying in a tent in a rainforest whilst it is cut down with chainsaws all around you, to give you the picture. We would have hoped that at least between 10 pm and 6 am, there is some peace and quiet, but no, the noise went on and on and on... Other than that, you could feel that some fresh made restaurant food is combined with microwaved stuff...

Stayed for two nights. It was a little noisy, but it was ok. There were a lot of activities. But we wanted to just relax. Didn’t try the spa though.

Hotel amenities and facilities were excellent - I couldn't fault the room we had - staff excellent - my only slight gripe was that the hotel wasn't really as advertised. The sand in and around the resort has a fair amount of litter and there is a highway being built nearby which reduces the serenity. Not really the fault of the hotel but something worth knowing is that this is seen as a bit of a family retreat for Omani people - so expect a lot of kids running around all the time (not necessarily a bad thing).