Desert Nights Resort

The door is difficult to open and lock. The room lighting is so dim. Not enough lightings. The wash basin in the toilet did not work. Couldn’t drain out the water. The meals are good enough for both dinner and breakfast. The dune sunset watching is the best part of the stay.

You arrive and you and your suitcases are taken on a quad bike with trailer to your room. Its a nice three star equivalent room with regular toilet and shower. Good a/c, decent bed. The staff are nice enough. Rajah was very nice Now here is where it is not good. You are promised a dune drive at 1700, it’s literally 1 minute drive up to the top of the dune, unbelievably oversold. Right then i realised the dune drive was a rip off. When you get up there there are quad bikes and jeeps dune bashing everywhere so it’s really not very nice. There is a cacophony of noise and you are keeping one eye out for incoming vehicles. The camel ride is similarly a few minutes. It is also misleading on expectation, its just a couple of minutes on the camel. They did look well treated though They want you to hire their quad bikes or get massages at a heavy price but apart from that there is nothing included vis a vis experiences. Very disappointed. The evening buffet food was actually good. The quoted time was 1930-2130 so we rocked up at 7:25. EVERY outside table was gone except a large number which were reserved. (We were not offered to make a reservation at reception) . So in truth the dining time is from 7 onwards so why list it as 7:30?. So being last in we were herded into the hard seating tables inside along with the drivers looking at the air conditioners. The waiter then wanted to upsell the drinks as per training. He just said tables all gone. It would have been lovely to have eaten outside under the stars on the soft cushioned banquettes but what could have been the highlight of the stay was denied ( on st valentines day too!). You are very much treated as a second class citizen here truth be told. There is local movie played outside and there is a so called lounge with pool table. Thats it. If you could get a hotel not so far away and just get a day tour with lunch and a bit of dune bashing and maybe learn about the wildlife a bit that would definitely be the way to go. A day trip from muscat in my opinion is way too much driving. They really provide nothing as part of a desert experience which we were heavily sold on. You dont expect to pay top dollar then effectively get ripped off No doubt this will get buried under lots of bought reviews but this is a real factual review which i hope may help others to choose It is on the edge of the desert and is aimed at omanis. Better more authentic camps are further in i am advised

Wonderful resort, and few miles into the desert, nestled between dunes. Based on cabins, with tented roofs (ours, not sure of all), proper bathroom, comfortable bed. Meals were exceptional, western and Arabic mixed (first time I've seen a make your own classroom salad bar), and we sat under the stars. Sunset from the top of the neighbouring dune (driven up) is a magical experience. There are some comments about having paths rather than walking in sand. This is as close to a desert experience, and that would ruin its authenticity. Staff are kind, friendly, engaged.

Right from the check in at reception, through to the activities and the food. We were super impressed by this resort. Super user friendly staff, tidy and clean rooms. Make sure you get up to the top of the sand hills for sunset Wished we had stayed longer !!!

I wanted the archetypal desert camp experience - endless dunes, stargazing, camels etc but with air con and nice beds to pacify my wife and kids. I did a lot of background and thought I’d made the right choice with Desert Nights, so I was pretty horrified to read some recent TA reviews talking of “Mad Max” style quad bike racing and floodlit race tracks going on well into the night and fairly aggressive upselling of camp experiences. I actually looked into cancelling my booking, but it was too late. Which was a good thing, because our experience wasn’t anything like that at all. The camp was serene, there was no noise post about 8pm, we climbed the dunes by the camp at night and had the most beautiful sight of the night sky, the activities were fantastic and the food really excellent. I guess maybe the previous reviewers were unlucky - quad biking is advertised as available from 7am which is clearly too early for a noisy activity, but no idea what this floodlit race track referred to…. Overall I would highly recommend the camp, with one caveat - we did sunset on the dunes on arrival and stargazing that night, then a camel ride, quad bikes and dune bashing the next day and finally a dawn balloon ride (Royal Balloon Oman - a must do) the next morning. On our full day we’d finished the activities by 11am and there’s not much to do until the evening, no hotel pool and too hot to be outside for long. We drove to Wadi Bani Khalid just for something to do (it was fine, but as it was the weekend very busy). Given the time again I would arrive mid afternoon and pack all these events into late afternoon/evening and the next morning, so one night at the camp rather than two