Holiday report and question about diving with dolphins.....!!

[sidicks]

I have just come back from spending some time in Oman and Dubai, and thought it worth a brief post in case anyone else was considering a similar trip:

Muscat, Oman
We spent 5 days in Muscat, Oman, staying at The Chedi hotel. If you read the reports on ‘trip advisor’ about this hotel, there are 5 areas of concern:
1) It is on the flight path to Seeb International Airport
2) The beach is poor
3) The staff aren’t friendly
4) The rooms aren’t as luxurious as they could / should be for the price
5) There is a desalination plant next / near to the hotel

Firstly, I can honestly say that in the 5 days that we were there, I did not notice a single plane go overhead, and if they did they did certainly not disturb us in the slightest. Admittedly we were staying slightly off-peak, but even so I would be surprised if this was a major issue.

Yes the beach isn’t great, but to be fair when we were out and about on trips it didn’t matter, and when we were relaxing at the hotel, we much preferred staying around one of the two wonderful ‘infinity’ pools. I guess it depends how much you want to swim in the sea!

We could not fault the staff - from concierge staff to bar staff to restaurant staff, nothing was too much trouble and they were always very friendly. To be fair I think we are maybe less demanding guests than others that might visit this quality of hotel but regardless of this we could find little to fault.

Our room was the basis room, but was still perfectly adequate and included a plasma / LCD TV on the wall. Our friends paid for a room upgrade and did receive a larger room, but this did not have a large TV which was surprising. I can only assume that they are in the process of upgrading the rooms, and we were lucky to have a room that had already be done.

We did not see or hear the desalination plant – not an issue at all.

I would be happy to recommend The Chedi hotel, although I am told that Al Bustan palace will probably be the place to stay once it has completed its extensive renovations which have been going on for over a year. The Al Husn at Shangri-La resort is highly recommended, but was fully booked for the period we were looking to spend in Oman.

During our trip we managed to do a city tour plus a boat ride to see the dolphins, and I also managed to do a couple of scuba dives nearby.

Dubai
Having spent a week in Dubai 3 years ago (Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach) I was keen to do something different if I ever returned. As our Emirates lights to Oman went via Dubai, I had the ideal opportunity to investigate the Al Maha desert resort which is in the middle of a conservation area, about an hour outside Dubai.

The rooms are situated so as not to be visible from each other, and even the ‘basic’ ‘Bedouin’ Suite has its own pool. Activities included in the price include horse riding, camel riding, dune bashing, archery, falconry, wildlife tours, nature walks etc and all meals are included (drinks are extra). There is also an excellent spa.

Because of the heat, activities tend to be focussed early in the morning (e.g. 5.30am for horse riding etc and 7am for Archery) or later in the evening (e.g. 6pm camel ride to see the sunset), and as the purpose of the stay was primarily to relax, we didn’t go on every tour that we were entitled to, preferring to lie in on occasion!!

The food was exceptional – a comprehensive buffet breakfast, 3-course buffet lunch and 7-course dinners. The evening meal was sensational, including a number of different options, and allegedly they are very flexible so that you can request other meals if what you see on the menu isn’t to your taste – we didn’t need to out this to the test.

Getting around is easy – call reception, and within 2 mins a golf buggy will arrive to transport you to your destination of choice!!

4 days is probably enough here, as after a while you do run out of things to do, but it was the perfect relaxing stay for us.


Dolphins!!
My wife doesn’t dive, but does snorkel and was asking about opportunities to snorkel with dolphins. I know that there are a number of ‘artificial’ places where you can pay to spend time in the water with trained / tame dolphins, but can anyone recommend locations a) where there are suitable opportunities to interact with ‘wild‘ dolphins (albeit not guaranteed) for both divers and snorkellers, b) where there are plenty of other things to do apart from diving (nice hotels, good beaches, golf courses, casino etc?!) and c) which isn’t too far to travel for a weeks’ holiday (say 8 hours max)?

Happy to answer any further questions about the above, if anyone wants to send me a PM!

Cheers

Sidicks

[Mac]

It's a tough one that diving with wild dolphins thing. It's arguable it's not good for them, the interaction I mean, whereas there's a simple counter argument that the things would just swim off if they're not happy.

The other thing to remember is that wild-dolphins, depending on the time of the year, are not something you'd readily want to be in the water with

They can be very protective when and leading up to calving.

My most spectacular run-in with Dolphins was actually when swimming from a moored boat out of Sharm a few months ago... Was quite happy swimming along and I got buzzed by 3 large adults swimming around me.... Quite intidimidating cos they're damm big and they go at an astonishing rate.

You hear them a lot while diving around Sharm too.

I have some articles on interaction, I'll see if I can dig them out for you

[sidicks]

Originally Posted by Mac

It's a tough one that diving with wild dolphins thing. It's arguable it's not good for them, the interaction I mean, whereas there's a simple counter argument that the things would just swim off if they're not happy.

That would be my view - as long as you are not 'interfering' with them i.e. trying to grab hold of their fins etc then I think it's a mutuallly beneficially interaction and as you say they'd just swim away if they didn;t want to be there!

Originally Posted by Mac

The other thing to remember is that wild-dolphins, depending on the time of the year, are not something you'd readily want to be in the water with

They can be very protective when and leading up to calving.

Of course

Originally Posted by Mac

I have some articles on interaction, I'll see if I can dig them out for you

Thanks

Sidicks