Review: Alila Jabal Akhdar, Oman

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The Hyatt property in the Al Hajar mountain range was our next destination. This is probably the only Hyatt hotel in the world that I have been wanting to visit, and visiting this property was my primary motivation in planning this trip.

Did Alila Jabal Akhdar live up to the hype? For most of the time. This is one of the most stunning places I have ever been, and words can't explain the beauty of it. If you enjoy hiking and the outdoors, you will love this place.

There is room for improvement with both the food and service. You come for the nature, not the food. I am hopeful that this is just a temporary issue, given how many places are having staffing issues due to the Pandemic.

How we booked our stay at Alila Jabal Akhdar

Points were redeemed for our stay at Alila. The hotel is a Category 6 World of Hyatt property, meaning that a free night redemption costs the following number of points.

• 21,000-29,000 points in a standard room
• 36,000-44,000 points in a standard suite
• 42,000-58,000 points in a premium suite

We booked a standard room for three nights and used the Globalist suite upgrade award to get an upgrade. I decided to upgrade into the Loft Suite after seeing the upgrades clear into the Jabal Terrace. Even though the Loft Suite has more interior space, I thought having a really cool outdoor space would be better.

The paid rates for our stay were over $600 per night, so redeem points at this property is an exceptional value. I value it at 1.5 cents per World of Hyatt point.

You can earn World of Hyatt points even if you are not a Hyatt loyalist. You can transfer points from the World of Hyatt Credit Card to the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card.

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If you are going to book a paid stay at this property, make sure you book through the program. Hyatt Privé rates are the same as standard flexible rates and include additional perks.

• Daily full breakfast for two in the hotel’s restaurant
• A $100 property credit per room per stay
• A one category room upgrade confirmed within 24 hours of booking (room-to-room or suite-to-suite) — based on availability at the time of booking
• Early check-in (as early as 9AM) and late check-out (as late as 4PM), subject to availability
• A welcome gift and letter

Alila Jabal Akhdar location

The Alila is located in the Al Hajar mountain range. The hotel is close to a major airport. It takes about two hours to get to the hotel.

You can either rent a car or arrange a transfer. If you are going to rent a car, make sure you have four wheel drive because the hotel is in a mountainous area.

The first half of the ride is fairly straightforward, with good roads and flat terrain. The last half of the drive is a real adventure, as you drive through some of the most spectacular scenery you have ever seen. The roads are steep and winding.

I would have liked to rent a car, but we just booked a hotel car. I'm sure it can be had for less through a third party, and the hotel charges 90 OMR for the one-way transfer.

Alila Jabal Akhdar lobby, layout, & check-in

Alila Jabal Akhdar has an unparalleled view of the mountains and the resort has a great sense of place. There are 86 accommodations spread over many buildings on the property. The lobby, restaurants, pools, etc., are all located in the main building as you enter.

Most of the hotel's amenities can be found in the lobby, which has plenty of seating.

If you want to find a quiet place to work or read a book that isn't your room, the library is off the lobby.

The check-in process was efficient. Most of the front office staff at the hotel are from nearby villages, which is different than most of the other hotels we stayed at. It makes the hotel feel more authentic.

Alila Jabal Akhdar Jabal Terrace room

We were checked in and taken to room 38. The building was close to reception and had a total of four rooms. The room was on the second floor.

The room was nicely appointed and marketed as being 1, 120 square feet, but it wasn't particularly big. It had a king size bed, a chair with an ottoman, and a desk with a chair.

There was a walk-in closet behind the bed.

There were complimentary soft drinks and a tea kettle in the minibar near the entryway.

There was some fresh fruit and some delicious sweets in the welcome amenity.

The bathroom had double sinks, a beautiful tub, a walk-in shower, and a toilet.

The water controls in the bathroom were problematic. If you turn on warm water, it will immediately be hot and you should be careful with the water temperature.

There were ceramic containers for the toiletries. I can appreciate that this is intended to be sustainable, but am I the only one who has a bad track record with breaking these, no matter how hard I try to be careful?

The highlight of the room was the outdoor space. There was a couch at the far end of the room.

The terrace must have been the same size as the bedroom because it was the highlight of the room. It had a large dining table.

How amazing are these views?

At sunset, they got even more spectacular.

Alila Jabal Akhdar pools

There is an indoor and outdoor pool. The outdoor pool has some of the most gorgeous views of any pool I have seen.

There was a lot of seating around the pool. There were a variety of daybeds scattered around the pool, many with amazing views of the mountains, right next to the pool.

There was a hot tub in this area.

There was an indoor pool as well as an outdoor pool.

There was a yoga deck across from the pool.

The views from this area were amazing.

Alila Jabal Akhdar gym

The gym is located next to the indoor pool. It is on the basic side, but did the trick for a secluded mountain resort.

Alila Jabal Akhdar spa

Alila properties have spas, so Alila Jabal Akhdar has one. We did not get any spa treatments at Alila Hinu Bay since we were busy with other activities. The spa looked great, and I would think the treatments are great. You can find the menu at the spa.

Alila Jabal Akhdar Juniper Restaurant (breakfast & dinner)

There are limited dining options at Alila. Breakfast and dinner are served at the signature restaurant of Alila Jabal Akhdar. There is a large indoor space and an enclosed outdoor terrace at the restaurant.

The indoor space was usually empty, but guests almost always chose to eat in the beautiful enclosed terrace.

The outdoor terrace is even more beautiful in the evening.

Breakfast is a la carte at Alila Jabal Akhdar.

We enjoyed all of the fresh juices that you can order with coffee or tea.

There were several small dishes automatically brought out, including a fruit salad, a salad, some cold cuts, a bread basket, and some homemade spreads.

You could order as much as you wanted from the menu from there. We tried several dishes during our stay, including the Omani omelet, aloo bhaji, oatmeal, and spicy avocados.

Breakfast was good for most of the time. Since you can order as much as you want, I'm a fan of the a la carte concept.

You only have a single restaurant to choose from when it comes to dinner. The menu is small, so you will probably get bored quickly. When you consider that there are some dishes on the lunch menu, it's even more true.

The restaurant serves a variety of dishes for dinner, from salads to pasta, to burgers and Indian dishes. For context, 1 OMR is roughly 2.5USD.

Fresh focaccia with labneh and money is what every dinner starts with. It was delicious, but I wish they would switch things up a bit.

We tried a lot of the starters over the course of our stay, including the cobb salad.

We ordered goan fish curry, chicken biryani, Arabic mixed grill, and tagliatelle al salmone.

We tried a selection of ice cream and dark chocolate fondant.

The food was pretty good, but after three nights, I feel like we have run out of things to eat. Even in the restaurant, the hotel doesn't charge for still or sparkling water. That's a nice touch, because for many other resorts that's a huge profit center.

Alila Jabal Akhdar Rose Lounge (lunch & drinks)

Rose Lounge serves lunch and drinks throughout the day and is open from 12PM until 10:30PM. There is limited indoor bar seating as well as some outdoor seating at this restaurant.

I don't make the rules, but you can find the lunch menu below, with the first page being the European menu, the second page being the Americas menu, and the third page being the Asia menu.

Lunch always started with the same basket.

We ordered the fattoush salad, a pizza margherita, and lahmacun to give you a sense of the food.

The best view of the sunset is offered at Rose Lounge, which we generally had a cocktail at. The cocktails were okay, but paled in comparison to the passion that went into drinks at Alila Hinu Bay.

Alila Jabal Akhdar room service

After a long hike, we ordered room service from Alila Jabal Akhdar. We were able to try the dips as well as the club sandwich after that was delivered.

Alila Jabal Akhdar service

I can't recommend Alila Jabal Akhdar enough. You can come here at the end of the day for the beautiful nature and setting.

Service at this property needs to be improved. The hotel was understaffed and it seemed like no one was in charge. The food and beverage manager was the only person we ever talked to about management.

There is a lot of room for improvement for service here. Where do we start?

• At Rose Lounge you literally had to beg to be served; there was often one person working the entire restaurant and pool, and I’d frequently have to go inside to the bar to ask a server to come out
• The servers here are obsessed with constantly asking for room numbers, and it’s bizarre; at sunset it once took us 30 minutes to get a single drink, and while waiting for the drink a server came out four times to ask us for our room number, and then we went straight to the restaurant, where we were asked for our room number two times
• Staff are generally friendly and well intentioned, but many don’t speak English well, and as a result seem to try to avoid contact with guests, and are too timid to communicate
• Service just wasn’t very refined; for example, empty plates and cups often wouldn’t be cleared, but rather they’d just pile even more stuff on your table (below you can see how we were brought more coffees, but our original coffees weren’t taken, despite being empty)
• We did two excursions through the hotel — for the first excursion we were told that there would be Arabic coffee during a stop, but the guide forgot the cups, and for the second excursion the guide forgot to bring water for us (though he ended up stopping at a store to get us some); this is minor, but still, that shouldn’t happen when you’re paying a premium for a tour arranged through a hotel

Everyone was friendly and intentioned. Management is responsible for any service shortfalls because they don't have enough staff to take care of guests. This hotel would be amazing if it could get service fixed.

The service at Alila Hinu Bay was amazing. The hotel was emptier, but the staff seemed to be more professional. If you could combine the staff of Alila Hinu Bay with the staff of Alila Jabal Akhdar, you would have an unbeatable combination.

What to do at Alila Jabal Akhdar

You can stay at Alila Jabal Akhdar in the middle of the mountain range. If you like hiking, the outdoor activities here are endless. Even if you aren't a hiker, you can still enjoy the views without leaving the hotel.

We did the Lost Village Hike on our first full day together. The brochure said the hike should take five to six hours. We usually complete hikes in about half the time that hotels suggest, though we were surprised to see that this was challenging.

We descended into the canyon below the hotel after a guide drove us about five minutes from the hotel. In some cases, we were just climbing big rocks while there were paths. We went all the way to the bottom of the canyon, and you can see part of the hotel at the top left of the picture.

There were palm trees at the bottom of the canyon, and it was amazing how varied the landscape was.

The hike took us just under four hours, but we were tired and sore after.

We did a much easier excursion the next day. We did a one hour hike from the two points we were driven to. After our activity the day before, we were grateful that this was easier.

Bottom line

If you're into the outdoors, you should visit the Alila Jabal Akhdar. The area around the hotel is beautiful. The hotel has a great sense of place, from the room design to the pool overlooking the mountains.

I would return to this property in a heartbeat if I were there. The only feedback I have is that the service needs to be improved and that it would be nice if there were more food options. Staffing issues have been caused by the Pandemic, so I hope they are just temporary. The hotel is worth a visit even though it doesn't have the best food or service.

What do you think about Alila? Would you visit?