Al Bustan Palace, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel

Al Bustan Palace was built in the 1980s to host a Gulf summit, and it has never stopped feeling like a palace that happens to accept guests. The approach through a mountain cutting delivers you to a nine-storey octagonal atrium of Omani arches, chandeliers and burning frankincense—an arrival that remains one of the region's great set pieces. Outside, the hotel commands its own crescent of beach on the Sea of Oman, with the Hajar Mountains rising as a rock amphitheatre behind.

Now flying the Ritz-Carlton flag, the resort pairs its ceremonial bones with a thorough contemporary refit: rooms in soft sand-and-sea tones, deep balconies facing the water, and a lagoon-style pool complex threading through the gardens. Families gravitate to the beach and pools; the adults-only infinity pool and quieter garden wings keep couples content.

Muscat's charms—the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Mutrah's corniche and souq, the old town of Old Muscat—are all within an easy drive, making this a rare resort from which a genuine cultural capital can be explored. It lacks the intimacy of Oman's boutique hideaways, but for palatial scale with real Omani character, nothing else in Muscat comes close.