Oman tourism: Green mountain retreat of Jabal Akhdar attracts scores of visitors

Oman Monday 25/July/2016 21:56 PM
By: Times News Service
Oman tourism: Green mountain retreat of Jabal Akhdar attracts scores of visitors

Muscat: Hotels are running fully booked and almost every open space is occupied by campers and picnickers as scores of visitors head to Jabal Akhdar especially during the weekends due to its cool and pleasant weather.
“We wanted to have dinner at a fancy hotel up there at about 7pm last Friday but they told us that the restaurant was fully booked and they couldn’t find us a table for six people.” said Hanin al Lawati.
“We went there on Friday and returned by Saturday night, and the place was very crowded with people picnicking and camping almost everywhere. We saw lots of four-wheel drives from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the temperature was around 25 degrees, everyone looked quite happy and excited.” Al Lawati added.
Many people in Muscat who stay back during the holidays go to Jabal Akhdar instead of Salalah because the latter lies about a 1000 kilometre from Muscat whereas the former is closer.
“We only planned to go for lunch to the Alila hotel in Jabal Akhdar yesterday and on my way I noticed that Jabal Akhdar was packed with people- many of them were camping, others were on their four-wheel drives and almost every open space was occupied by families who were picnicking in the nice weather.” said Halima Al Abdul Salam, a popular social media figure in Oman.
“The weather wasn’t as cool but it was certainly much better than Muscat and people were there with their mats, cars, food, kids, mats and enjoying themselves. Even my siblings and their friends were camping there from Friday to Saturday. Once we reached up to Alila I thought because it was the last day of the weekend and there wouldn’t be as many people, but I was wrong as I saw lots of people there, many were from the Gulf.
“The weather in the afternoon was much cooler than Muscat, and early evening was nice and breezy, and if we didn’t have to go back we would have stayed. When we were leaving at around 5pm it started drizzling so that was lovely.” Halima added.
“I went to Jabal Akhdar a few days ago and it was jam packed at the check post which is located at the foothills, at least 15 cars were parked there and you could see that there were lots of tourists in the area.” said Syed Anisuddin, a resident of Oman who went to spend some quality time at the green mountains.
“Jabal Akhdar is a really nice spot to go to especially when you are not in the mood of going as far as to Salalah and the weather in Jabal Akhdar is actually quite pleasant for a few months, we went there for camping overnight and it was a nice experience, we were overwhelmed to see some many people picnicking and camping, feels like the secret of the place is out.” another resident said.
An official from the Alila Hotel in Jabal Akhdar said “On weekends we are almost fully booked with families coming from the UAE and Oman. We have been running on full vacancy at the hotel and most people are coming in and staying for at least two nights. This weekend we had a few groups coming in just for lunch and experience the trekking, tour and then they drive back to Muscat.”
Over 160,000 people visited Jabal Akhdar last year.