When we holidayed in Oman last month we stayed in a quite a special hotel called Zighy Bay. I know there are a few of you out there who'd like to know more about this place so here, finally, a more thorough hotel post.
The hotel will organise a car to pick you up from Dubai airport on your arrival. After about 1.5 hours you arrive at Oman borders where the landscape changes into something rather rugged. You'll see beautifully impressive, rocky mountains, sand and goats. A lot of goats! Your car will first travel uphill over the mountains and once at the top this is the view that faces you. Pictures don't do it justice, it's very impressive. From the top you need to get all the way down again. The Zighy Bay resort is the green area that you can see all the way down there in the above picture. I'm no good on winding mountain roads but luckily our driver knew them well and drove slowly and carefully.
At Zighy Bay all the rooms are villas. There are bigger ones and smaller ones, beach front ones and non-beach front ones. It is part of Six Senses hotel and spa group and like all their hotels looks very authentic and blends in perfectly with its surroundings.
Zighy Bay's beach bar.
They do a great caipirinha!
The roads within the resort look like this. Hence I hardly wore any footwear! Everywhere is covered in soft, white sand.
They have bicycles for the guests to use around the resort but they'll also whizz you around in a buggy should you wish.
We had lunch at their poolside restaurant called Summer House every day during our holiday and didn't get bored of it. The food was excellent! Some reviews that I read about Zighy before our holiday didn't speak too highly of the food. Maybe it has improved since as I couldn't fault one dish I had in any of their restaurants. The food was fresh, tasty and skilfully prepared.
This was one of my Summer House favourites, the grilled king prawns.
And another one, a very yummy tuna tartar.
I had their sweet potato and coconut soup as my starter most days. Delicious!
A special of the day; seafood skewers. (I'm hungry as writing this and my mouth is salivating looking at these!)
One negative about Zighy Bay; flies, a lot of flies. These little pink fellas keep them away from your food. Them or burning coffee. A must at your table whilst lunching al fresco.
The hotel organises a traditional Bedouin dinner twice each week. The food consists of delicious, traditional starters (great for a hummus addict like me) and a main dish of lamb cooked in their underground oven. It all tasted amazing and it was quite special to be dining on the beach seated on the low sofas and cushions.
They can also organise a private dinner for you at the top of their wine tower (or in the wine cellar but I can't see that being a better option than dining under the stars!). We did that one evening and it was lovely. This was the view down whilst climbing up the stairs to get there... Very, very high!
There is virtually nothing outside the resort so your dining options are limited to what the hotel has to offer. That is however not a problem as they have so many options to choose from be it one of their three restaurants (Sense on the Edge was amazing, Spice Market we didn't get round to trying and Summer House I already mentioned), dinner at the wine tower, barbeque at your own villa or one of their special Shua Shack beach dinners.
If no footwear was needed during the day high heels were definitely not the choice for the evenings. Flip flops and flat sandals kind of place.
There are goats even in the resort but not to worry they are very friendly ;-)
Not sure they can read though...?
Kids had a great time too. Zighy Bay is a place for a very relaxed holiday whether you're a family or a couple. It caters well for children however it's a big enough place so that everyone can find their peaceful corner. They have a fun kids club however the actual facilities for it are small. That's the one thing I'd change especially as they certainly don't have lack of space.
To sum it up; I definitely recommend Zighy Bay and will hopefully be back one day. Right now it already feels like months ago even though we've only been back for a couple of weeks!
Minna x
