Al Ayjah Plaza Hotel

I loved this hotel! It was actually my favorite hotel we stayed in while visiting Oman and we stayed in a fancy hotel in Muscat, but I'd rather be at the Al Ayjah Plaza Hotel in Sur. The staff were incredibly friendly. We had a long, difficult drive from the airport in Muscat, due to much construction which forced us to take a different route, so by the time we got to Sur, I was not in a good mood at all. Also, we initially had trouble finding this hotel because we kept turning to the left (towards the ocean) when we went over the bridge. Finally, we turned to the right and, bingo, there was the hotel right pass the overhead arch. It was so big one couldn't miss it, but you have to be in the right area to see it! The receptionist greeted us very warmly and offered us tea and dates. This helped my mood a little bit, but then she told us something fun we could do right away. It was nearly twilight and she suggested we immediately walk up the hill, right next to the hotel, for a beautiful view of the sunset and the bay. We were so glad we did! It was an easy walk and the views from the top were amazing! We truly felt as if we had finally arrived in Oman! We did this every night we were in Sur. Our hotel room was very large and the bathroom was large as well. We had booked Standard Double Room, Sea View, and I am so glad we did. The view of the sea from the room is exactly as you see in the hotel photos. We would just stand there and watch the fishermen , the boats and the birds. We were there when it was extremely hot and the air conditioning worked beautifully in the room. We really liked the location of our hotel because we could easily walk down to the beach where the boats were and watch the fishermen securing their boats for the night. Beautiful view of the town from our crescent of the beach, too. We would not have wanted to stay in town with so many buildings all around us. We liked being somewhat removed from the town and enjoying the quietness where we were. We had booked the half board option and we were the only ones for breakfast and dinner. The breakfast was wonderful with fresh cut fruit and eggs cooked to order. The dinner was nice with several choices as well. Many side dishes and breads accompanied the dinner meal. Here is a suggestion. When we drove to Sur from the airport in Muscat, we couldn't visit Wadi Shab, nor the Bimmah Sinkhole, due to the construction forcing us to take a different route to Sur. When we departed Sur, we had planned to stop at Wadi Bani Khalid on our way to Nizwa. Our GPS took us to a small town called Wadi Bani Khalid, but when we asked people where the wadi was, no one understood. After an hour of driving around and with dark rain clouds overhead, we finally gave up and drove straight to Nizwa. As a result, we never saw a wadi when we were in Oman!! We were quite sad. Then we remembered that the hotel, the Al Ayjah Plaza Hotel, offered very inexpensive tours from Sur to both Wadi Shab and Wadi Bani Khalid. If we were to do this vacation again, we would have booked another night at this hotel in Sur and signed up for a tour to take us directly to one of the wadis. This way we don't have to worry about finding it and we could have visited a wadi and ended up back at our hotel for the night. So much easier when someone else is giving you the tour. If you think you might have trouble finding the wadis, consider staying an extra night at this hotel and book one of their tours to take you directly there. Enjoy Sur!