Salalah in winter - the hotels

We roughly split the trip half - half between camping and staying in hotels. Here are the ones we tried:

1. Anantara in Salalah

This was definitely a big ticket item in the budget - luxury does not come cheap in the middle east. But they had very good staycation deals for residents and we stopped giving Christmas presents long time ago - we rather spend on travel or nice hotel stays. Hands down this was the BEST hotel experience in the whole of middle east! The room was fantastic, the service was great, the food was nice. This hotel despite its size somehow manages to maintain personal touch - like the waiters remember your name or at least room number. The Christmas Eve dinner was sensational - despite being buffet, it was really high end. And the freshly grilled Omani lobster... out of this world!

We stayed in room 111 and it was perfect with the big terrace directly opening to the beach. The sunrise from the pool was a sight to die for! 

2. Souly Ecolodge - we frankly did not know what to expect. These local places (outside the big chains) are a hit or miss. This one - is a different category all together. Perfect location, the bungalows are big, the beach is perfect and the whole place has this relaxed atmosphere. You just chill and relax. We planned to spend 2 nights and we ended spending 4 - and Alma already declared that we should be back for her birthday in May!

3. Crown Plaza - we planned to stay here for new years eve but we enjoyed Souly so much, that we eventually stayed there. Thankfully, hindsight. We did go for the new years eve dinner - and it was just not a good experience. It was chaotic, not professional at all, we had to wait 1.5 hours for the food and buffer was hardly open for an hour. Many stations - naturally the more expensive ones - were never refilled. And the music.. no ambiance at all. So we dinner and went back to Souly where we joined the guys on the beach around the campfire and had a wonderful time!

And to be fair: we did have dinner twice at the Dolphin Terrazza restaurant and the Italian pizza there was perfect. Also service was super good.