TRAVEL NEWS

Why Muscat should be on your getaway list; plus new hotels on the block and the latest for the intrepid traveller.

Spring has sprung upon us, both close to home and on foreign shores. In Muscat, the Jabal Akhdar Mountains have come up smelling roses – Damask roses, to be specific. The Anantara Jabal Akhdar Resort has a rose season package that will let you enjoy the blushing blooms with a two-night stay in a Premier Canyon View Room, and a rose water of Al Jabal Al Akhdar tour, where you will be chauffeured around the valley with a guided tour of a village distillery by a village elder whose family’s rose potion recipe is so renowned it has been recognised by the Oman Heritage Foundation. The package also includes a rose rescue ritual spa treatment for two at the resort’s spa and takeaway. From Dh3,578; call +968 25218000.

In Amsterdam, you can tiptoe through tulips thanks to the Conservatorium hotel’s Tulips in Bloom package that celebrates the annual Tulip Festival (until May 13). Guests booking in the two-night floral package will enjoy a ride aboard a EC 120 helicopter flight to soak in aerial views of multi-coloured tulip fields, flower parks and the Dutch coast, a drive across a tulip farm where you’ll learn all about the art of tulip cultivation and also pick up your own tulips to take home and entrance tickets to Keukenhof, the Netherlands’ celebrated flower garden, which houses seven million bulbs and 800 varieties of tulips. From Dh7,693 including breakfast; visit conservatoriumhotel.com.