An Exclusive Test Drive of the Genesis G80 Across Oman’s Dhofar Coast

I’d never been to Oman before. I’d barely even been to the Gulf, save for a wee work trip a few months prior. I’d also never been on a press trip before. So, my head was naturally filled with visions of swanky business class seats and posh hotels when I got a text asking, “Would you by any chance be free to go to Salalah in Oman in two days? It’s a work thing. Something about a car?” 

My imagination ran wild with notions of fulfilling my childhood Top Gear dreams of cruising the streets of a foreign land (on the wrong side of the road, I might add) in some swanky foreign whip. 

“But, it probably won’t be anything like that,” I told myself, desperately trying to temper my expectations as low as possible, so as to exist in a permanent state of excitement if even one of these things did end up happening. What are the odds of this actually being one of those trips? The ones you spy on influencers’ Instagram stories with utterly unveiled jealousy. Well, as the saying goes, the odds are low, but never zero…

The Trip: ‘Switzerland of Arabia’

The surreal feeling of ‘this kind of luxury feels way above my paygrade’ began when my ticket came through – I would be flying Business Class back from Salalah to Cairo at the end of the three-day trip. I re-read it at least seven times. Business Class. Unreal. 

And, as I read on through the details of the trip, the smug grin that had appeared a few moments prior began to take up permanent residence on my face. 

Genesis, the luxury South Korean car manufacturer, was gearing up for the Middle Eastern launch of the brand-new G80 model, and had invited various media outlets to their ‘A Thing of Beauty’ launch event on the southern reaches of Oman’s Dhofar coastline. 

What’s more, we’d even be test driving (test driving!) not one but two insanely-high-end cars – the Royal and Sport variants – under the beautiful overcast skies of Salalah’s khareef season, when monsoon-like weather from the Indian subcontinent makes its way to the fringes of the Arabian peninsula, cloaking what is otherwise a very rugged, barren landscape in outrageously lush greenery. 

At this time of year, it’s known as the ‘Switzerland of Arabia’.

So, as you can imagine, having flown from sweltering 42-degree Cairo, my jaw was almost on the floor of the Salalah airport arrivals area when I stepped out into foggy, 25-degree weather I would more readily associate with almost anywhere else in the world before the Arabian Peninsula. 

I was picked up from the airport by the charming Salim, who – clad in the trademark Omani Dishdasha and Kuma – proceeded to point out hundreds of herds of camels lining the airport road. They had been brought down from the city’s surrounding hills to make the most of the lush seasonal grazing on the flat plains of the coast. 

The Stay: Al Baleed Resort Salalah by Anantara 

Arriving at the resort with a strange concoction of exhaustion and intense excitement, I wandered into the lobby and was greeted by rich wafts of frankincense, the fragrant tree sap that put this part of the world on trade maps centuries ago. I was swiftly checked in, and led to my very own private villa, complete with its own pool…

The speechlessness continued, as you can imagine. I could barely manage a quick “Thank you, goodnight” to the man who had kindly carried my suitcase from the lobby, as I was left to take it all in. Within minutes, I was in the pool, chowing down on a stack of club sandwiches that had been left in the room for me. By the time I got to bed, I still couldn’t quite understand how I had ended up here. 

Genesis were pulling no punches in their efforts to prove the brand’s embodiment of luxury and elegance – all this before I had even laid eyes upon the G80 that I would be driving (driving!) later in the trip. 

The Launch: ‘A Thing of Beauty’

After an extremely taxing day drifting between the beach and the pool, all the lucky invitees gathered in a vast, exclusive and purpose-built hall for the official regional launch of the G80. We heard from the heads of design at Genesis, as they talked of the shared customs and culture between Korea and the Middle East, both of which value hospitality as highly as the other, matched with a clear appreciation for the finer things. 

As soon as Omar Al-Zubaidi, the Chief Executive Officer of Genesis Middle East & Africa, had ended his speech with “The G80 embodies our vision of combining the most advanced technology with sophisticated elegance, while catering to our valued regional market.”, satin sheets were pulled back to reveal both G80 models in all their glory, their striking silhouettes glistening under beaming stage lights. 

We sat for dinner shortly thereafter, flanked by the two cars, as we took every free moment between the decadent five-course dinner (and by ‘decadent’ I mean a doorstop-sized steak and locally-caught scallops) to look over at the two guests of honour, every single one of us bristling at the prospect of driving them both the following morning. 

During the mouth-watering meal, I had some lovely imposter syndrome-filled chats with fellow invitees on my table – from owners of local Omani car dealerships to Jeddah-based social media influencers. This seemed fairly run of the mill for them, though they all agreed that “nobody does it like Genesis” when it comes to events like these. 

As I flung myself onto my massive bed, all I could think about was getting behind the wheel. Or, more accurately, wheels. It was certainly going to be a step up from anything I’d driven before (no offence to my family’s trusty 2010 Ford Fiesta, Roy). I could hardly sleep that night from the excitement – or perhaps the copious cups of Arabic coffee I’d been too foolish to refuse. 

The Drive: Revving in the Rain

The next morning, when the two people I would be sharing the car with for the test drive suggested I go first, I was more than happy to oblige. Perhaps I wasn’t hiding my excitement as well as I thought. Whatever. I was about to drive a brand-new 300-horsepower luxury sedan along the eye-wateringly beautiful Omani coast. Sue me for being excited.

In the passenger seat to my right was Ali Alqarni, Chief Editor of Mubasher News in Jeddah, who was very quick to hand me his business card and insisted I come visit him in Saudi Arabia. I struggled along with my rusty Egyptian-inflected Arabic, but I was just about able to sustain a conversation. And, happily, the Chief Editor was far too busy Chief Editing on his enormous phone to take over the driving until the very end of the drive – more on that later. 

It was a wet day, and we’d been advised that the roads might be a little on the slippery side. So, I was more than a little apprehensive as I rolled the shiny, conspicuously expensive car out of the hotel gates and onto the main road. I must admit that apprehensiveness passed rather quickly, as the road (and the speed limit, I hasten to add), opened up in front of me. My right foot found the floor and the G80 found its grip, shooting up to 70 in a handful of seconds. Surprise surprise, the smug grin was back, as I tried desperately to count my blessings. Alas, there were far too many to count, so I simply settled in and let them wash over me, as we cruised in convoy past miles of fog-soaked banana farms and herds upon herds of camels, who very kindly kept themselves off the road. 

We pulled over at Wadi Darbat, an achingly beautiful river that looked fit to burst its banks under all the precipitation, and swapped drivers. A quick glance at messages from my brother to the tune of “You lucky git!” were yet another reminder of how lucky I had been to be brought on such a trip, to experience such a classically elegant, athletic and, most importantly, fast car in such surreal surroundings. 

It was after handing the wheel over to the previously work-distracted Mr. Alqarni that I realised I may not have been challenging the athletic aspects of the car quite as much as I thought. My fear of being the person who ended up parking a brand new car in a roadside ditch had prevented me from doing what Alqarni was about to do. 

The comedic timing was pretty perfect. As soon as our third passenger remarked on her issues with anxiety and hypertension, the car violently squirmed out of the gravel lay-by where we’d stopped. Alqarni swung the steering wheel in a vain attempt to kick the back end out. Luckily, the traction control was on our side, battling valiantly against Alqarni’s spirited driving. It was at that point that he told us he used to participate in high-speed motorway drifting for which Saudi Arabia has become known. Thankfully, his desire to drift the car wasn’t as strong as his respect for Omani road rules, and the rest of the journey passed uneventfully, except for the few roundabouts we encountered, each of which became a new proving ground for Alqarni’s bold driving manoeuvres. 

The Farewell: TV Presenters & Padel

We returned to the plush environs of the hotel just in time for lunch, where – once again – my imposter syndrome reared its forthright head. Alqarni beckoned me over to his table, where he happened to be chatting with Mohammed Saadoun Al Kuwari, an executive presenter at beIN Sports. Just days earlier I had watched him break down the final of the UEFA Euro Championship, where England had been defeated by the pesky Spaniards. And now, here I was in Salalah, chatting to him about our shared love of padel, as we ate from a huge shared dish of Chicken Biryani, the waves of the Arabian Sea crashing over the beach a mere 50 metres away. He insisted we play padel when he’s in Cairo (an empty promise, I hope, seeing as he’s a semi-pro, and I am, well… not even semi-amateur). 

Twenty minutes or so passed before we were joined by several members of the Genesis team, who were also in attendance. While talking about the brilliant time we had, one of them confessed that Genesis was not the first auto manufacturer he had worked for. Indeed, several other big, prestigious names (which I shan’t identify…you can take your guesses) had their place on his CV, but in his estimation, none of them knew how to do an event of this kind quite like Genesis. Once again, I couldn’t believe how jammy I was for this to be my first trip of this kind. 

I was pinching myself for the remainder of the trip, right up until I stepped out of Cairo Airport after my first ever Business Class experience, thrown back into the chaos of Egypt’s mega-capital. The contrast couldn’t have been more stark. I hopped into a somewhat falling-apart taxi, closed my eyes, and desperately willed my imagination back to the driver’s seat of the G80.