For the final three nights of our Oman honeymoon, we returned to Muscat, but this time staying in a different hotel, the Shangri-La Al Husn, one of the top three hotels in Muscat along with The Chedi and Al Bustan Palace.

The former we had stayed in at the beginning of our holiday before we embarked on our Oman road trip and describing it as excellent is an understatement; the Shangri-La had a lot to live up to! Unlike the last few days, we had minimal activities planned other than lying down, eating and swimming!

Staying at a desert night camp in Oman was one of the things I was most looking forward to on our trip. Not so much the camping part, but more experiencing a traditional desert for the first time, particularly overnight (we’ve all seen the pictures of those beautiful star constellations). I can’t say I’m a camping kind of girl really though; I like the idea of it, but since I’ve grown up, the execution hasn’t exactly floated my boat.

Despite having been assured on multiple occasions that this was luxury desert camping, I still had visions of a hot tent, no running water and sand getting everywhere. I was therefore slightly reassured (despite our unorthodox method of arrival at our evening accommodation) when on our approach, I we saw that our tents appeared to have walls, this was my kind of camping!

There are two luxury hotel options in the Jabal Akhdar Mountains; the Alila and the Anantara and they are both regarded as two of the best luxury hotels in Oman. I dithered for a bit trying to decide which one to stay at, the spreadsheet came out, pros list was huge for both hotels, cons were minimal…we went with the Alila Jabal Akhdar.

A couple of weeks later, I watched BBC’s Amazing Hotels featuring the Anantara and thought I’d made a bit of an error, nothing could possibly beat it with its decadent luxury and jaw dropping views.

I had therefore regulated my expectations for the Alila and having seen the views for myself from the Anantara earlier in my journey, didn’t see how any hotel could compete.