Arabian delights at Oman’s Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah

The Middle Eastern destinations of Dubai and Abu Dhabi have become well-known, popular holiday spots over the last few years, but recently I wanted to try some a bit different in the region. We finally decided to travel to Oman to stay at the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Shangri-La Al Jissah has a beautiful setting right on the beach and backed by huge, craggy rocks. It is in fact a complex of three distinct hotels – Al Husn, Al Bandar, and Al Waha, with many shared facilities. Between the three of them they have an incredible 19 eating and drinking venues! We stayed at Al Waha and were not disappointed - it was very picturesque, with plenty of Arabic style and a stunning lobby area.

Choice of rooms

The rooms were a reasonable size and if I was to point anything out I would say that while the standard rooms have nice views overlooking the pool, they can get a little noisy in the daytime with the sound of children enjoying the pool. If you prefer a quieter room then the sea view rooms are ideal as these are around the corner from the main courtyard area.

Fantastic pools and sandy beach

You can use the pool at Al Bandar if you prefer total peace and quiet. Not that the Al Waha is overly noisy but it does have a popular shaded children’s pool – always busy during the day as the sun is always out (unlike the UK!)

There is also a fun lazy river feature, where you can grab a rubber ring and be gently carried down to Al Bandar and back again if you wish, or instead take the five-minute walk along the sandy beach. We thought this was great fun and spent a lot of time just going backwards and forwards.

There were plenty of shaded areas around the pool at Al Bandar, although not so many around Al Waha. The beach itself is very nice and a nice touch is the narrow trail of sacking which leads down to the water so you don’t burn your feet on the sand, which was much needed, as the beach gets incredibly hot during the heat of the day.

19 bars and restaurants

As I said, there are 19 places to eat and drink, so we were totally spoiled for choice. The staff at La Samba restaurant were particularly great, in fact all the staff at the hotel were super helpful. La Samba is the main restaurant in Al Waha and the food was great, if not a bit too generous with the portion sizes! The buffet was amazingly varied and you could dine outside or sit in and listen to the evening entertainment which was usually fairly low key but good.

There is a lovely bar in Al Bandar which to my husband’s delight showed football games on a big screen. Thankfully this was not imposing for non-sports fans. They also have twice-daily happy hours throughout most of the bars at the resort.

For a really fab night out you can dress up and go the Shahrazad, a gourmet Moroccan restaurant in the swanky Al Husn hotel. The décor and music is North African and the food is fabulous. Try the mouthwatering tagine.

Overall we were very impressed by Al Waha and the entire Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah experience. It is a very relaxing, laid-back resort where the staff simply cannot do enough for you.

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