gaynor

We are flying into Dubai and renting a car to drive to the Hatta Fort hotel out in the desert. We know that we need to pass through Oman to get there and back and have arranged insurance etc with the rental car company. Can anyone advise on visa requirements for the entry to and from Oman to get to Hatta Fort ? We are UK citizens.

Thanks,

Gaynor

moschops

Oman is visa on arrival for UK citizens - £11 - r u sure u need to go into Oman to get to the Hatta fort though? I thought it was about 1 hr outside of dubai

moschops

Hi again gaynor - been thinking about this one - i did the journey from Muscat to Dubai about a month ago and stopped at the Hatta Fort for lunch - we def stopped at immigration before Hatta fort to get exit stamps but didn't stop again from memory

gaynor

Thanks for the replies, Moschops. You are right about Hatta Fort being an hour or so from Dubai, but you do have to pass through about a 20 mile stretch of Oman to get there (it doesn't sound particularly logical but that's how the borders run). It may be that passage through the stretch is allowed without normal restrictions - it would seem that way from your experience. What did you think of Hatta Fort ?

Gaynor

moschops

Hi gaynor - I think if ur just going to Hatta Fort you don't need a visa - I work for a travel company and we sell dual centres Hatta fort and beach hotel - i've never had any advice regarding clients needing visa's.

Hatta fort is nice - its quite isolated and different from alot of the other hotels in Dubai - good to get away from it all for a few days

Its going through a big refurb at the moment - what time of year are you travelling?

gaynor

Oh dear ! We leave the UK on Saturday and have a RTW ticket - Dubai is our last stop in late August. Do you know if we are going to be affected in a big way ? We chose Hatta because we will have had plenty of beach experiences on the trip already and, although we will obviously want to see a bit of Dubai driving out into the desert is what really appeals to us.

Gaynor

moschops

Hi Gaynor
at the end of Aug 8 rooms on the East Wing are being refurbed - the Jeema restaurant is being relocated to the Gazebo Coffee Shop - there will be work in the public areas between 10-4

If you went through an agent they should have told you this...

gaynor

Hello Moschops,

We booked direct by emailing the hotel. They never mentioned it ....

Gaynor

moschops

Hello Gaynor

we have a memo from the hotel that we must inform clients of the building work during this period before bking them in ..

contact the hotel.. see what they say..

gaynor

Moschops,

Thanks for your advice. We certainly were't informed when we booked and, although we have contacted them recently to change our credit card details, it has not been mentioned. As we drive down to London tomorrow, it's too late to do anything else now - we have got a pretty good rate, so we'll take our chances and complain once there if needs be.

Thanks again.

Gaynor

gaynor

The Hatta Fort hotel was wonderful! There was refurbishment work going on but it did not affect us at all. The hotel staff were wonderful - we arrived at 7am (very tired having travelled from Queensland, transiting through Singapore) and were allowed to have our room straight away. The room had not yet been part of the refurbishment programme, but was absolutely fine. The daily bowl of fruit was a very nice touch and the rate we got included dinner which was excellent. We loved it and were really glad that we stayed at Hatta rather than Dubai City for the final leg of our trip.

Gaynor