We spent a week this January at this pleasant hotel, a low block in traditional arabic style. Our room, overlooking the garden and the beach, was large and comfortable with excellent a/c. The hotel has a large garden with a pool area and a huge beach where herds of camels are occasionally driven by. We were very impressed by the friendly and efficient service and the quality of food in the restaurants. We ate at Al Maha for breakfast where you can sit on the terrace. We tried Sushi and Sheeba Steakhouse, both were excellent. Lunch and dinner were mostly in Palm Grove which was open air and adjacent to the beach, the menu was extensive and varied.

I am a Hilton Honours Gold Member, so that tipped me to choose between Hilton and the other luxury hotel in Salalah. I am so glad I chose this hotel. Rooms are spacious, the staff are very helpful and polite, the administration is accomodating, Food is too much in quantity but that you have to control yourself...
I highly recommend this hotel and I feel that I have come to stay with friends as each of the employees I meet regardless of where they are from, becomes a friend

My daughter and I stayed at the Hilton Salalah in December, 2011. The Hilton Salalah is, without question, the best hotel in Salalah - far nicer than the Crowne Plaza and even nicer than the remotely located Marriott which is near nothing. The Hilton rooms are oversized, very spacious, and beautifully decorated - five stars. The restaurants are simply outstanding. The food is so good that if the hotel restaurants were free standing restaurants in any city, anywhere in the world, they would be highly rated and worth making a special visit to. The Hilton is on a beautiful beach and there is a large and excellent swimming pool. Indeed, this is a true resort.

In addition to all of the above outstanding qualities of the Hilton Salalah, this hotel is a model of excellence in management. The multi national management team and staff are not only highly professional and efficient but genuinely friendly. This is a hotel I will return to and which any guest will return to because the people working here make you feel like you are a guest in their own home. Everything about the Hilton Salalah is true excellence. Indeed, I found the Hilton Salalah far nicer and far more friendly than the Ritz Carlton and Intercontinental where I stayed while in Muscat, Oman's capital. In summary, there is only one hotel to consider in Salalah - the Hilton - one of the truly great hotels in the Persian Gulf.

The hotel minibus was waiting for us after our short flight from Muscat and we were soon on our way for the 15 minute transfer, via the ring road, to the Hilton. Do not be put off by the first impressions, what with the Industrial area inland and the dock cranes to seaward. We subsequently had lots of fun watching the ships coming and going and the coloured lights of the port certainly enhance the skyline at night. This was our second visit to Salalah, we had previously stayed at the Crowne Plaza and, having visited the Hilton, decided this was a better choice.
Check in was prompt, friendly and efficient and we were in our room in 15 minutes. There was a problem however, not the fault of the Hilton Salalah, in that the picture of the room (a deluxe plus sea view twin) we had booked on the Hilton International web site was in fact of the Grand Suite so we felt very let down. To their credit the Management, once the error had be shown to them on the web site were very apologetic and made immediate arrangements to amend the web site and after a few complimentary drinks we accepted the room offered, with a large balcony and garden/pool/sea view, and we were very happy with the position and facilities. The bedrooms are large and roomy with a good range of TV programmes, full tea & coffee making facilities, a well stocked fridge, complimentary water and an excellent bathroom with fluffy towels, great Crabtree & Evelyn/ La Source toiletries-everything you would expect from Hilton.
The Gym is well equipped and the only regret we had was not taking advantage of the Spa massage which were told was of very good quality and sensibly priced.
The buffet breakfast is excellent with a really good choice of hot and cold food-service is friendly and cheerful.
The hotel was full over New Year but even so there were still lots of sun loungers available, although not around the pool which was very busy with families, mainly SS&S (Swedish Sun & Sea). Pool temperature was 27C-sea similar The loungers on the extensive lawns are a good choice with some shade from the palms and there shades and loungers on the beach. The sea is some distance across the wide beach, 250m, but the sea was clean and warm and we enjoyed long walks on the firm sand by the waterline trying to identify the many birds in the area and a migrating dozen black winged storks made our day.
In addition to the Swedes the guests were very cosmopolitan with a smattering from most European countries, some Gulf expats and including a few Brits taking advantage of good deals from Oman Air Holidays.
Lunch choice is either served to your lounger, or for us the better option was the Palm Grove which served both the poolside menu and their own more comprehensive choice. Our lunches which included either salads or sandwiches with beer and wine averaged OMR14-18, excellent value for Oman. The Al Maha restaurant had an evening buffet, sometimes themed (Omani, Asian etc) and there was always demand for the poolside seating. We preferred the Palm Grove in the evenings and did not dine at Sheba’s Steak House or Sushi. One of the nice things about the Palm Grove are the port lights in the distance, which change colour and shape as to whether ships are being unloaded. It is at least a couple of miles away and we had no noise disturbance.
At the Palm Grove expect to pay OMR3 for salads, OMR4-6 for Indian dishes, Grilled fish OMR5, sandwiches and burgers are OMR3.5-4, pasta from OMR3.5 and desserts from OMR 1.5. If you want to push the boat out , steaks are OMR12 and lobster OMR16. The chef and his team at Palm Grove have a very light touch and everything is to order and is delivered piping hot- the chef’s special fish & chips is as good as it gets. Drinks are also affordable with decent house wine (OMR3.2 glass, OMR14 bottle )and draft beer at OMR3.5 and a much wider and expensive choice of wine from OMR25 upwards.
A couple of points on service-Front Desk is very, very efficient and helpful as is Concierge. We were very impressed with Housekeeping who always fitted in with our timing. Laundry service was good and room service was also pretty good with only one delay, quickly rectified. Lunches and dinners at Palm Grove were fairly “relaxed” but this is entirely due to problems hiring good local Omani staff and the fact that it was peak season with full occupancy. The expat staff work hard under the circumstances and those seated probably got a better service than those around the pool. The food, when it arrives, is of great quality.
Our check out was again efficient and amendments to the final bill ,due to variance from our web booking, was quickly adjusted-our airport transfer again was very professional.
For many years in the winter months there has been a weekly charter package from Stockholm and during our visit about 40% of clients were on this tour, many with very young kids, enjoying the sun and sea. Oman is apparently very affordable with prices 20% less against the SK. The OMR is pegged to the US$ so Oman is expensive for visitors from the UK, and increasingly expensive for those Euro countries, but the Hilton Salalah has sensible f&b pricing, making it affordable.
Conclusion:-The German GM, Klaus Schack, runs a tight ship, resulting in a very well managed hotel with motivated and trained staff. The rooms are large and well furnished, the pool and gardens are excellent and do not be put off by “near the port” comments-we found the coming and going of Container and Naval ships fascinating. We had 8 days of unbroken sun with temperatures around 27C and low humidity. We are already planning our return next year, this time for a longer stay.
Note:- Salalah is a bunkering/R&R port for the various Navy’s on Somali pirate patrols and for those returning from the Gulf. All hotels in Salalah have to take an allocation of crew given shore leave, they cannot refuse. Whilst we were there, two ships were in port-Japanese and US. The Hilton “managed” the visitors very well allocating them to the two bars and we had little disturbance. If you were in Salalah when a large aircraft carrier was in port that might be a different matter but guests have to realise that the numbers of these visitors is out of the control of the various hotels, it is managed by the Department of Oman Tourism.