The public holidays over Christmas and New Year provides a nice little break and this year I decided to do something with them by heading to Dubai and Muscat. Spent a few stress free days in Muscat lazing around the hotel but took a 4WD tour out into the Hajar mountains. Turned out to be just me and the driver taking the wadi road to Wadi Bani Awf and then up the mountain road and over to Nizwa. Amazingly beautiful countryside and I now wish I had organised more tours out into it.

Words fail me nearly completely! What an amazing hotel with equally amazing service. Yes it’s outrageously expensive to stay there and Christmas Day/Boxing Day was probably less than ideal timing but the two level suite is more like an apartment and the service from the floor customer service person and the butler was impeccable. Hired a helicopter to do a tour of Dubai which meant my floor customer service person finally got to visit the helipad when he escorted me up there! Finished my stay with a great afternoon tea before taking Etihad’s chauffeur service back to Abu Dhabi airport and my flight to Muscat.