Jabal Akhdar - weekend in Alila, via ferrata

Jabal Akhdar - the Green Mountain. It is part of the Hajar Mountains and it rises to 2980m. The weather is always cooler than in Muscat - in fact as it turned out we were massively underdressed for the evenings! During the day the temperature was in the pleasant mid 20 range but in the evening it dropped drastically. Some of the hotel guest wore winter coats and heaters were fired up on the terraces. Jabal Akhdar is famous for its terraced orchards where pomegranates, apricots and roses grow (from the roses the famous rose water is distilled). They say that the terraces look like out of this world during spring - we plan to come back and see it for ourselves! Jabal Akhdar is the home of some of the world's oldest trees, including 3000 year old juniper and olive trees

The area was restricted until the end of the 90's - only people who lived there were allowed, expats or other residents could not visit (the military base might had something to do with this rule as well). Than the late Sultan declared the area as nature reserve in 2011, a new road was built and a major urbanization development took pace on Saiq plateau at 2000m which led to the rise of a modern small-town, Saiq Qatanah. It also meant that many villagers from remote areas moved to the modern town with water, electricity schools and hospitals. 

Now the area is easily accessible although 4WD is mandatory as roads are steep. Also there are 2 luxury hotels now to choose from: Alila and Anantara besides the many smaller ones and more are under construction. In August we stayed in Anantara (read here about our stay) in a private pool room now we opted for Alila - we wanted to try both of them and hoped for better culinary experience this time since the food in Anantara was not that great. 

So we had 4 days / 3 nights due to National Day public holidays. We planned to chill, do the via ferrata, hike, and do some offroad-driving - we accomplished it all! 

Read more about our adventures in Jabal Akhdar here! The overview of all hiking trail we know of in this area is here.

Let's start with the hotel. Alila is inspired by  the traditional way of building houses out of stone in the area - we have visited a few abandoned villages and indeed the resemblance was clearly there. It is a stunning hotel with great views - with a few side notes. Food - the menu did not change during our stay and while it was OK it was not wow while the price was certainly wow. And the rooms - we opted for a terrace room with canyon view and expected a stunning terrace with spectacular view. Well, the terrace was stunning, view less so. It was not good value for money, we would had been better off with a standard canyon view room - cheaper with better view. Anyway, after complaining at least we got a complementary dinner which helped. The hotel also offers lots of complementary activities, like star gazing, spa kitchen and they screen classic movies under the stars - this we tried and it was great but extra warm blanket was a must!

That is the terrace we aimed for..

and yup, this is the view we ended up with. But hey, we at least got a free dinner :). In short: if you want Jabal Terrace room with an actual view, go for room 39. If not available, book Ridge view room - better view for less money.

The sunset was absolutely stunning - there is a short trek within the complex with great viewpoints and activity centers. Wonderful for all ages!

Resident lizard 

Via Ferrata - the hotel installed a thrilling via ferrata, basically just under the building. You jump through the wooden fence and off you go. Complete with a "bridge", sort of. Alma loves climbing so we decided to go for it but and frankly her mum developed a fear of height over the years. Let's just say that there were certain moments when this mum cursed herself :).