Introduction We had a stay at Al Bustan Palace (Ritz Carlton) which overlapped Valentine’s Day and had a relaxing time in what is arguably one of the best hotels in Muscat and surrounding areas, where royalty from neighboring countries are occasional guests. The hotel provides a little bit of everything for all tastes, from the old school luxury for couples who want a premium experience, to activities for families with young children. This is a difficult balance to achieve for any hotel but AB Palace does a fairly good job in my opinion. Room I booked the entry level room and was upgraded to the Exec Suite with sea view – this is one such instance where I suspect the upgrade as Ambassador Elite was better than it would have been as Platinum or Titanium – they could have upgraded me to a junior suite or even the exec suite mountain view, but instead we ended up in their top suite category besides the royal suites so the upgrade was highly appreciated.The room was nice and there was plenty of space, however it could have been designed differently. The library room near the entrance was somewhat of a window-less (second) living room and we did not spend much time there. It might have been more useful to have a half bathroom but unfortunately this suite only had one bathroom. The other issue with the library was that the door leading to the main living room did not stay open unless we put something on the floor to block it so it felt even more isolated than it could have been. The terrace had nice sea views and mountains in the back from our high floor; the negative was that internet reception from the balcony was poor so when I needed to use my phone or laptop I had to go back inside the room which mitigated the appeal of the outdoor space. Common Areas The common areas are the strength of the hotel. They had classical music performers in the atrium during afternoon tea and live jazz music in the Al Maha lounge bar for the more mature crowd; kids did not partake in afternoon tea and did not go to the jazz bar (except for our well-behaved daughter of course!) and regarding dining, families with children tended to pick the buffet rather than the upscale a la carte restaurants. In the afternoon children mostly went to the slides and water splash park, but I can imagine some adults might not be happy at the main pool with some children around, although there is still a solution for that, some rooms have direct access to a semi-private pool shared by a few rooms. That only left breakfast as the time of day where couples who want a quiet time might feel a bit overwhelmed by the crowds, but they could still order room service. To conclude regarding common areas, as far as I know only Al Bustan and Shangri-La have private beaches in Muscat; other hotels have no beach or use a public beach. So for people who highly value a beach, AB would have an extra appeal relative to others. Dining Back to dining, the dinner buffet had a different country theme each night so guests on a long stay would not get bored. The food quality was quite good – it was not a low-end buffet by any stretch of the imagination. But where the hotel stood out the most was with the fine dining restaurants. The China Mood restaurant had an extensive a la carte menu along with a signature set menu. The Pavilion restaurant near the beach had the best location and they organized a special Valentine’s Day set menu which was enjoyable. Breakfast was not as impressive as the various dinners we had but there was enough variety including Indian and Asian dishes. The main point of improvement would be to have more a la carte options rather than only eggs. Service Service was a mixed bag during our stay. It started well upon arrival with in-room check-in, also staff in restaurants / bars in the evening were excellent. I made frequent use of the mobile chat function for various requests and service was good from them as well; they got back to me quickly with suggestions from the concierge. In addition, housekeeping was done exactly when requested every day. One area where service could have been better was during the breakfast buffet where staff tended to be busy and some orders were missed. Also when I asked to organize a hotel car to drop us off at two different locations, it seemed the driver was not prepared and was simply told to drive us around; he did not know exactly where to drive and he was relying on me for directions which was not a good idea. I suspect he was simply told he was hired to drive us around rather than told exactly where we were going which would have allowed him to look up the locations ahead of time himself. He had to stop twice to ask people on the street for directions, and his phone did not have enough time credit so he also had to stop somewhere to buy a scratch card to make a call for further directions. Overall Overall Al Bustan Palace is a resort with very impressive architecture, facilities, and a large estate perfect for relaxing on a resort close to Muscat. It was more family-oriented than I expected and we will return for sure. Guests who want a quiet time would be able to do so for the most part, depending how they choose their venues within the hotel.