One of the occasional indulgences of living in Oman of expats working in the interior parts of the country are staycations in Muscat. Staycations are usually for celebrations of a special occasion, sometimes to satiate the taste for a bit of metropolitan bustle for city-born expats missing it and sometimes out of necessity because a lot of errands are needed to do in the capital of Muscat & the current residence is a far drive away.
In my ten months living in Oman, my family had a total of three staycations, two of which, we brought along my mother-in-law who stayed with us here in Oman for one month. We are a family of five, my husband and I plus our 3 young kids with the addition of my mother-in-law, we are a total of six. For staycations, we wanted an apartment-style lodging. It doesn’t seem cost-effective to get two hotel rooms. Also when my mother-in-law returned to the Philippines, if we booked a hotel, we couldn’t just get another extra room for our older kids. Our option would be for us to squeeze in one big hotel bed or get an extra bed in the room. So we searched for an apartment-type hostel that would be perfect for our family’s needs. And we found just that in Somerset Panorama Muscat.
The three staycations we had in Muscat were all in Somerset Panorama. It has been our official go-to lodging if we want to stay in Muscat. Our kids love the place and looking forward to book there again soon. We had our last Christmas there. Our kids are even asking as early as now if we will spend Christmas there again this year.
Somerset Panorama Muscat is a serviced apartment providing hotel-like indulgences. It is located Bawshar commercial district, centrally located near the diplomatic areas, Ghala industrial estate, and midway between the Central Business District and Muscat International Airport. Somerset is under the leading international lodging owner-operator, The Ascott Limited, a Singapore company. Ascott’s portfolio including Ascott The Residence, Citadines ApartHotel, Citadines Connect, Lyf, The Crest Collection, Quest and Tauzia Hotels are found more than 180 cities across over 30 countries in Asia Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the USA.
It has so many great points why we chose Somerset every time for our Muscat staycations:
• 2-Bedrooms in One Apartment
Our initial main concern is that with our growing family, one hotel room is not enough for us to sleep in. We are happy to find a serviced apartment such as Somerset Panorama that has two rooms in a 78 sqm apartment. One room has the king size bed & TV and in the next room there are twin beds. The bigger room has a bathroom with bathtub, toilet and sink while the smaller room has another bathroom across the room with shower, toilet and sink. There is a dining area, living room area with TV and a kitchenette with stove, water heater, microwave & all the utensils. They even have a washing machine to you to wash your clothes with a laundry powder provided. There is no laundry dryer though so you have to airdry your washed clothes in the room balcony which you have to inform concierge if you want to have it opened.
• Affordable Price Point
One of the other reason why we keep coming back to Somerset because you cannot beat the affordable price that comes with fantastic amenities. We get good deals in booking our stay in the place compared to other apartelles, hostels and hotels we checked out in hotel booking apps. We can get a two-bedroom suite for a price of 30+ to 60+ OMR.
• Accessibility
Somerset is found centrally in the Bawshar commercial district. It is attached to Panoroma Mall which has a food court that provides wonderful choices for all taste buds. It is a big plus for us because the food court has Palayok that services Filipino foods that we miss. They also have Spinneys in Panorama Mall for quick grocery needs and has a sections for pork items that is hard to find in Oman. (The pork item can be really expensive though.)
Taxi are easily available in the area. You can use the O-Taxi app similar to Grab or Uber to get taxi quickly and cheaper too.
Somerset is near Oman Avenue Mall and Muscat Grand Mall. It is not far from Muscat International Airport. There are a lot of restaurants, cafes and shops around the area of Al Ghubrah Street.
• Wonderful Service
In our three time stay in Somerset, we never got disappointed by the hotel staff services. They were very polite and helpful with our needs and requests. They were nice to provide us with reasonable late check-outs too.
In our last stay, we got to enjoy their nice pool and lounging in their pool benches. We didn’t avail their hotel breakfast because we usually have some food leftover from night before which we would keep in their perfect medium size refrigerator in our room, not the measly small refrigerator in most hotels. The bathroom toiletries are worth mentioning because I have been to several hotels with sub-standard shampoo, conditioners and bodywash. I was pleasantly surprised that Somerset provides good toiletries that is not too drying for my already very dry hair and skin. They also provide iron, iron stand, safety box and free wifi. We definitely good deal staying at Somerset Panorama.
For our next Muscat staycation, we may probably book again a room in Somerset. But if you know any other affordable good family apartelles, hostels or hotels with excellent amenities in Muscat, please don’t hesitant to suggest it to us. We would deeply appreciate it.
Al Ghubrah Street, PO Box 1640, PC 131, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Tel no. 22 040000
