Crowne Plaza Muscat Hotel

The hotel is situated on a rock overlooking a small bay with an adjacent long sandy beach and a wonderful view over parts of Muscat. Make sure to get a room with sea view and balcony so you can enjoy both the view and sunsets (rooms No 240-250 are spacious and have a large terrace-like balcony). Buffet breakfast is superb, try also the Persian and Italian restaurants where you can dine on the teracce. Buffet lunch and dinner are also available in the main restaurant. A few tables form a tiny open-air restaurant for dinner (small selection of food) with a great view of the beach and Muscat (although it was too cold and partly windy in the evening to try it out). An Irish pub with a good selection of beers and other drinks also offers snacks in the evening. Prices for all that are not cheap but correspond with what one has to expect of a 4star hotel. Everything in the hotel is very clean (except the chairs and table on the balcony), staff very friendly, attentive and helpful (it was no problem to get a better room at our second stay in that week). Nice swimming pool with plenty of deckchairs and free towels, one bathrobe per person in the room, pool snackbar which is open till late. Tennis court and private sandy beach with deckchairs (a number of stairs take you down there which are not really suitable for older or handicapped persons). However, as the sea is mostly shallow, you can't really swim but rather wade in the water. There is nothing much around the hotel to see or do in the evening. The hotel itself is ideally located for private excursions to the other parts of Muscat (Old Town, Souk of Mattra, Friday Market, International Shopping centre) and the Great Mosque - just take a taxi (rank at the front), one of the very helpful concierges fixes the fee (normally 4 or 5 Rial) with one hour waiting time for the passengers included (no tip for the driver). Taxi ride takes between 10-15 minutes. Car rental in the hotel (no problems for self-driving, except the still stony road to Sur or up to the Grand Canyon and the desert, for which you need a 4WD). However, taxis are available almost everywhere but have no taxameter - so fix the fee beforehand. All in all, we had a great stay in this cosy hotel and we can highly recommend it for business and holiday stays, offering reasonable value for money - more than you normally can expect from a 4star hotel.

We loved it. Felt more connected to Oman than the very seperate resorts. Food much better than we expected. Pretty much tied for breakfast at about £10 per head but wide choice with super fruit and freshly cooked eggs/ommlettes etc. We took out some fruit and ate that for lunch. Bar menu was very good if not too omani! Lebanes restaurant was ok. Off the resort the local well known indian was excellent (3 reals each way by taxi) and Kargeen's cafe in MQ was good fun. Hotel obviously not brand new but looked as if it had had a recent face lift. 4 star rather than 5 star but that was fine. Service very good and not too crowded even though we were there at half-term. VG tennis and squash courts and free to residents. Tennis courts were floodlit so lovely to play in the cooler evenings. Pool was lovely and not oo busy. We tended to use the sunbeds away from the pool on the very nice lawns. Also a more than adequate gym. Thoroughly recommended - hope you have as good a time as we did. Sorry no photos but 2 meg limit is meanng I can't even upload one!!

I recently stayed at the Crowne Plaza for 12 days while on business. The hotel is very good, with nice rooms, excellent views over the Gulf of Oman, a very nice pool area (with bar and restaurant), access to a secluded private beach and a good bar/restaurant. It must be one of the best spots in town because many expats join the 'club' to gain access to the pool and fitness center. I also ran into the same resident expats over and over at the bar/restaurant. My only complaint is about the conciere service. Sometimes instead of saying 'That is not possible' they'll say 'Yes, sir, I'll make sure it gets done right away' and then things don't get done. I had this issue with trying to rent and return a car through them. There was one miscommunication after another. Despite this, the concierge and the rest of the staff were friendly and courteous.

Stayed for 6 nights in October. Clean and comfortable room, only drawback no balcony. Excellent choice for breakfast, ate in restaurant most evenings. Buffet dinner varied but staff seemed in a hurry to clear away. Staff throughout hotel extremely courteous and helpful (esp. concierge). Nothing too much trouble. Hotel pool clean and warm, plenty of sun loungers. Would definitely recommend as winter break from UK.

The Crowne Plaza was a welcome relief to us after we had stayed one night at the Ramada. We had read the previous review about the rooms being small so we asked to be shown the rooms first & thought we could manage. Note the door to the bath room is a sliding door. We were told that there are no connecting rooms but we given two adjacent rooms that were sea facing. A point to note is that not all rooms have a balcony. I guess we were lucky as we stayed in August which is low season. The place was very clean and the staff were most helpful. The views to Kurum beach & hills beyond were quite stunning. See attached photos. We did not come across the smoke problem. Perhaps, they have fixed that. Breakfast is served either in the restaurant down stairs or outside the restaurant with the pool view. The waitress said that during peak season Jan, Feb etc the outside seating area is extremely popular. Yup, the beach may be considered by some to be inconvenient to get to as you have to negotiate down steps down from the cliff to the beach. But there were hotel staff in attendance & sun loungers were also available. However, it is worth the experience. At low tide my kids noticed a continuous flow of water from one side. It turned out that it was a stream flowing from the cliff. Perhaps when you are traveling from UK or Europe on a package there may not be much price difference between the other 4/ 5 star hotels and the Crowne Plaza. However, as we live & work in the region we cannot take advantage of such packages and have to book direct, so we found the Crowne Plaza price very competitive.

The Crowne Plaza is an older hotel in a convenient location, especially for people who have business with the government. The usual facilities are there, service is generally good and sometimes excellent, meals in the Iranian restaurant are outstanding, the buffet in the cafeteria is well stocked, rooms are efficient and clean. There is a large swimming pool on the premises (with luke-warm water in summer), but the beach is inconvenient to reach and unsupervised, so not suitable for holiday makers with children. A major problem for some will be the failure of management to address issues of tobacco smoke and noise pollution: Smoke is practically everywhere, including the elevators, and also invades the rooms from the hallways - there are no no-smoking floors. A steady and pervasive dribble of musac style noises - from pop to European Classical - is almost inescapable, from hallways to restaurants to the pool area. Only negociation with individual waiters may provide temporary relief. This hotel is "OK', but it would not take much to turn is into a more enjoyable place to stay. Inshallah they will !!!

The Crowne Plaza has a nice location at the end of the beach, but is def below average for a four-star hotel. The hotel feels dated, like a package tour destination of years ago. Service is very patchy, particularly in the restaurants. The rooms are variable and can be very small. Beware a lack of hot water at peak times.

We have just returned from 6 days in Muscat after having a wonderful holiday in a wonderful country. The Hotel was evervthing that I expected, first class service and first class food. The rooms I felt could have been a bit bigger but maybe if they had put a smaller bed into the room instead of the 8ft one that we had we might have had a big more space. The bathrooms again were tiny but all the fittings and accessories were top quality. If you are looking for a quite holiday this is the place to go to as Muscat is not very commercialised yet.

Just returned from Muscat and had a wonderful time there. Stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and can only recommend this Hotel for its fine cuisine and the courteous and attentive attitude of its personnel. Breakfast is somptuous as well as theme dinners during the week . try their Iranian restaurant and nice cozy ambience at the Pub. Beach is private and belongs to the Hotel. Will definetely be back as this being one of our nicest vacation in a different destination.

For a four star hotel it just too old compared to some of the four star hotel I have stayed in it needs to be modernised regarding its décor and the beach facilities. Overall I enjoyed the stay but I expected a bit more for a four star, the pool once done will be very nice. Positives It has good facilities and the staff are friendly and very knowledgeable. A good breakfast buffet ensure that you do not have to eat lunch and special dietary requirements are catered for. Fully air conditioned, clean and comfortable Good leisure facilities but they need to be updates some work already being undertaken. Gym sauna steam room however with August temperatures you just sit in the shade and you will sweat. The beach is conveniently located how ever the clean part of the beach is a short taxi drive or a 20 minute walk away. Main shopping areas like Mutthrah Souk is only 2 riyal by taxi locals can get it even cheaper, local restaurants are only 1 Riyal away from some good eateries. No need to pay for snorkelling just when the sea in knee high you can see some colourful marine life. The views of the Gulf of Oman are amazing Negatives The hotel does not manage the beach and there are no life guards on duty so this is not the place to let your kids loose on the beach. Also the stairs that lead to the beach from the hotel are not good for any one who has mobility problems. They do not tell you this on the website and brochures. The rooms are spacious but the décor could be a lot better its just reminds me of the 80’s, we had to ask for an Iron and ironing bored something which I expected to be provided, the bath and shower are something that you see in a Travel Inn. However it must be noted it was clean May be the sea rooms may have been better but I expected a bit more