Imagine opening your curtains in the morning and looking immediately over the edge of a 2000-metre cliff to a vast mountain range.
Or dining under the stars in your private backyard after a day strolling through quiet wilderness.
This is the magic that luxury hotelier Anantara is preparing for its new resort on Green Mountain in Jebel Akhdar, Oman. Due to open during summer, it will be the highest hotel in the Middle East.
A 4 ½ hour drive from Dubai, the 66,000 square metre property atop a plateau is expected to become one of the most sought-after retreats in the region.
Of the 115 keys, 33 villas will have a private pool. Of them, five will have private road access. The ultimate will be the three-bedroom 700sqm royal mountain villa, with a personal butler, outdoor dining room and uninterrupted canyon views.
The resort’s general manager Darren Darwin said it took a year to break the rock before construction could begin and 1500 people worked on the enormous project to build the resort. Darwin said it was deliberately designed around the local environment, with pomegranate trees and lotus flowers among the local flora that has been preserved.
“The landscape has really been centred around what was already there; we have preserved a lot of the landscape. Construction has been around the trees, [which have been] protected and covered,” Darwin says.
“I have been living on the mountain for two months now and I never get tired of looking at the views.”
The resort will target adventure travellers and those seeking a traditional Omani experience, with bushwalking, cliff-top yoga and stargazing some of the activities to be offered. Locals also will occasionally sell handicrafts, while the resort’s central courtyard resembles an Omani town square and Spice Spoons offers a local market experience and Omani cooking lessons.
But, of course, guests do not have to do anything.
“As soon as you arrive, you forget about everything. It’s very surreal, especially in the evenings,” Darwin said.
The Jebel Akhdar resort also will boast the famous Anantara spa, with couples treatment rooms, a separate women’s entrance and a garden.
Even the design of the mosque blends into the local environment, Darwin said.
Six dining options include traditional Omani fare, Thai, Asian, Arabic grill and Italian. The signature restaurant Al Qalaa, set in Musandam Tower, serves fine dining including ingredients from the Sea of Oman as well as nearby fields and farms of Jebel Akhdar.
Guests can also customise their experience through Dining by Design, served on Diana’s Point, where the late Princess Diana visited in 1986.
Darwin said he expects the resort to be popular with UAE residents, as well as Omanis and travellers from European countries such as the UK, Germany and Italy. Even the typically slower season of summer is expected to do well, with the mountain’s temperatures on average between 27-30 degrees.
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