For a 5 day trip to Kota Kinabalu, we had 4 nights to stay at Le Meridien. We were on a hike up Mt Kinabalu (see our review on Trip Advisor). So we stayed in Le Meridien for 1 night, then up the mountain for the next night, then returned to Le Meridien for 3 more nights. Why did we chose it? Because there was a fantastic offer (stay 3 pay 2) and it was a Starwood Preferred Guest hotel.
Location: The location is fantastic. Its right across the road from the Philipino markets, where you can get Nasi Lemak, Mi Goreng, and a variety of seafood and chicken wings. The strange thing is that there are really only 3 areas. 1 which serves Nasi, Mi and other staple carbohydrates, the next which serves only BBQ chicken wings, and the last area which is seafood. There is nothing else! But there are about 6 chicken wing stalls, 10 seafood stalls, and they all serve IDENTICAL fare. Nasi and Mi are very cheap, about 3-4RM a plate. The seafood is notoriously expensive here. We paid up to 35RM per prawn. The hotel has a Saturday night seafood buffet for 88RM per person which looked fantastic, but we didn’t go.
It is also situated next door to a shopping centre, but I wouldn’t go shopping in KK unless you absolutely need to. There is nothing to buy in terms of fashion, electronics...For a 5 day trip to Kota Kinabalu, we had 4 nights to stay at Le Meridien. We were on a hike up Mt Kinabalu (see our review on Trip Advisor). So we stayed in Le Meridien for 1 night, then up the mountain for the next night, then returned to Le Meridien for 3 more nights. Why did we chose it? Because there was a fantastic offer (stay 3 pay 2) and it was a Starwood Preferred Guest hotel.
Location: The location is fantastic. Its right across the road from the Philipino markets, where you can get Nasi Lemak, Mi Goreng, and a variety of seafood and chicken wings. The strange thing is that there are really only 3 areas. 1 which serves Nasi, Mi and other staple carbohydrates, the next which serves only BBQ chicken wings, and the last area which is seafood. There is nothing else! But there are about 6 chicken wing stalls, 10 seafood stalls, and they all serve IDENTICAL fare. Nasi and Mi are very cheap, about 3-4RM a plate. The seafood is notoriously expensive here. We paid up to 35RM per prawn. The hotel has a Saturday night seafood buffet for 88RM per person which looked fantastic, but we didn’t go.
It is also situated next door to a shopping centre, but I wouldn’t go shopping in KK unless you absolutely need to. There is nothing to buy in terms of fashion, electronics etc that you can’t buy in Australia or anywhere else, for that matter. The closest cinema is 500m away, or less, and it is adequate (Cathay Cineplex). We ended up going a touch further, to Suriah Sabah (5 minutes by cab, North along the coast) where we saw a movie. Seats etc were comfy but the shopping centre was nothing special.
We went to the South Sea Sanctuary massage day spa (a review of which will follow from my girlfriend soon) and that was only 2 minutes by hotel shuttle.
The hotel is about 15 minutes to Tanjung Aru which is where you go to get access to another market stall style food area. That costs RM20 to get to (about A$6.50)
Room: The first night we stayed in room 914. On the door there was a sign stating that it was a room for a SPG member. We didn’t really notice anything unusual or out of the ordinary with this room. The following 3 nights after the climb, we stayed in room 933 – this was a slightly upgraded room, not an SPG member room, and had a view of the bay. It was bigger than 914. The bed is comfy enough, no complaints. It was a full king, rather than 2 singles put together which is good, and everything was clean. Service was good, and they were quite good...More
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