• Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), an emirate of the UAE, can be travelled to from Muscat, by road, in five hours
• It is home to Marjan Island, an artificial archipelago (man-made group of islands), that hosts several resorts including DoubleTree by Hilton
• DoubleTree by Hilton offers a vast range of facilities and entertainment for its guests, and is fun for all the family
• Popular attractions and things to do in and around RAK include “Jais Flight”, the world’s longest zipline, desert safari tours, hot-air ballooning and the peninsula Governorate of Oman, Musandam

For the Eid al-Fitr holidays this year, DH treated us to an amazing stay at Ras Al Khaimah. We had visited the UAE a few times before this, both via air and road, but this was the first time venturing out to this particular emirate.

The drive from Muscat took around five hours and we went via the Muscat Expressway. That is the quickest we have ever reached the UAE. It took about 3 hours to drive up to the border (this time we used the Khatmat Malaha border point) and another 2 hours or so to reach our resort. As usual, we passed some breathtaking scenery along the way. The roads were nice and wide with many lanes and not too many cars (we left around 9am). We shared the driving for both journeys and it was my first time doing such long stretches but DH reminded me how to operate the cruise control and after some faffing around, holding back the panic tears, and facing random bursts of rain, I somehow managed to do it.

The drive back took more or less the same amount of time, again with the longer stretch being on the Oman side. The border formalities at both ends for both journeys did not take very long at all, and it was a smooth and easy process, thankfully. You have to stop at a few checkpoints and receive an entry stamp on arrival, and exit stamp upon leaving the UAE. There is an exit fee of a minimal amount – I believe it was around 3 omr per person. Some cars are stopped by local police for random checking but we were permitted to pass this step – I guess due to having a child in the car.

We are still not clear whether our Oman resident cards allow us to travel freely to the UAE, and whether it would have sped up the process, I guess that is a question to be answered another time. We showed our passports and the officers had to check on their system if a visa was required, which just meant we had to wait a few minutes (FYI, British and Australian passport holders receive free tourist visas upon arrival in the UAE).

We stayed at DoubleTree by Hilton, Marjan Island. Marjan Island is an artificially-made “archipelago”, a term that describes a cluster of smaller islands, and reminded us somewhat of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai.

The resort is home to a 650m private beach, a kids club, a Pirate Boat Aqua Zone (with water slides and splash zones), a bouncy castle, a gym, a spa, several gift shops (including a very talented in-house artist), thirteen dining options (with some that offer live music), two playgrounds and seven pools (including multiple kiddie pools). And that is not even an exhaustive list. Suffice to say, we were spoilt for choice and really enjoyed ourselves.

The kids club has so much to offer for children of all ages. Soft play, indoor rock climbing, video games (including a whole station dedicated to Fifa), arcade games (including air hockey and Dance Dance Revolution) along with an outdoor playground and a gated shallow pool area with balls. There are also scheduled activities throughout the day, including face-painting, arts and crafts, movie time and disco. The supervisors were lovely and if you leave your details and notify them where you will be, you can leave your children there and do your own thing.

At dinner, it was good to see there was a dedicated counter for kids options. Here you can treat yourself to popcorn and ice-cream too. Yum!

During our stay, there was also an outdoor cinema screening of the live action Aladdin movie. We could not stay for long as we had to head over to the dinner buffet, but it seemed like a really neat set up with the lounge chairs out ready for guests to relax on and enjoy the film. I think these sorts of open-to-all-guests events are a common occurrence at the resort.

The only drawbacks we noticed, and noted on our evaluation form, were that smoking is permitted near the kids club, the television remote in our room definitely needed to be replaced (I had to push down my finger on the buttons with all my might just to change the channel) and the buffet spread for dinner, surprisingly, was not as varied as we have experienced in hotels in Oman. I know, first world problems right? But the smoking issue definitely needs to be addressed.

Also, I did not really understand why all the souvenirs in one of the gift shops were related to Dubai. I asked the shopkeeper and he said that that is what sells. Fair enough, but it would have been nice to have had some options to take back a bit of culture from Ras Al Khaimah itself.

We were more than happy to spend our entire stay at the resort, but if you are feeling adventurous when visiting RAK you may wish to try out the world’s longest zipline, “Jais Flight”, which will take you a whopping 2.83km across the Jebel Jais mountain peak, part of the Hajar mountain range that covers parts of UAE and Oman too. On this incredible [but terrifying-sounding] three-minute flight, a thrill-seeker can reach speeds of up to 160km/h whilst being at a height of 1680m above sea level!

Another, more grounded, option, is to take a RAK desert safari tour, and many different packages are available from providers. You can go for a short while during the morning or evening (I’m assuming if anyone tried to visit during the afternoon, they may run the risk of melting), or stay overnight. There are also camel trekking, quad biking and dune buggy packages on offer. And if you feel like taking off the ground to get a view of the desert from above, hot-air ballooning is also an option!

Musandam is also a short drive from RAK (approximately 1 hour 15 minutes to the port city of Khasab). Interestingly, this peninsula region is actually a Governorate of Oman, despite being detached from the rest of the Sultanate. Here, visitors can enjoy dhow cruises, dolphin watching, snorkelling, mountain safari tours and much more.

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I hope you enjoyed the Eid holidays and get to visit RAK soon too 😎