Shangri La's Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa

Wonderful stay

We stayed at Tanjung Aru to celebrate our 25th anniversray. The hotel is stunning, the grounds are expertly manicured, and the food was -- for the most part -- outstanding. It would be nice if the main dining room’s buffet included more Western choices for meals. But this is a small quibble. It’s a gorgeous setting and the staff was outstanding -- very helpful, and exceptionally friendly and polite. Parts of Malaysian Borneo can be challenging for the unprepared tourist, but Tanjung Aru is an oasis where it’s almost impossible not to relax and just drink in the beauty around you.

Not as good as I’d hoped

For the comparative price to hotels in KL, I was expecting something stunning in the Shangri La. I certainly wasn’t disappointed with the lobby, nor the overall service - it was a truly beautiful building and decorated and maintained in a consistent and traditional way. The spa also was excellent - one of the best I’ve experienced (ask for Natalie - great massage). But unfortunately that’s where the fabulousness ended. The rest of the hotel was more like a good 4* rather than a 5* experience. The room was clean and conformable, but not stunning. The breakfast buffet ok. The beach area was small. The grounds were nice, but not particularly relaxing given the amount of people around. The gym was ok - but it’s a vacation. The hotel was a short taxi-ride into town (about 15MR/$5) which just got annoying after a couple of days. The best part about the place was that is was adjacent to a very large and Quiet public beach. A 10 minute walk down it and you have a big local food court with Malay, Thai and Chinese food - good, clean, cheap and authentic. This was my favorite part of staying here. All in all, the best things were the local experiences, and I feel I could have found a hotel at better value for that.

Traveler's tip on local attractions

The local food court 10 mins down the beach. The food was good and it was fun just sitting here watching local life.

Best vacation...better than Hawaii

We’ve travelled to many lovely places,but this by far exceeded other experiences as far as hotel service and attention. Really great place with the beauty of Hawaii but with extraordinary service and warmth from the staff.

A little luxury in Kota Kinabalu

We stayed here for a long romantic weekend and could not have asked for a better experience! the hotel is stunning and the staff very friendly and will help you with anything. Had a lovely dinner at the excellent Italian restaurant on site (Crab linguine to die for) as well as many cocktails by the pool-side restaurant. Although a bit far from town, there are shuttles available and taxis are not expensive. A visit to the food market here is a must - eat with the locals! The hotel beach is clean though small, but I would certainly recommend going to one of the small islands by ferry’s accessible from the nearby jetty, if you are after a bigger beach experience. Would certainly go back for another long weekend.

Traveler's tip on local attractions

Rent a car and drive to Kinabalu National Park to the foot of Gunung Kinabalu and search for Rafflesia flowers! Spectacular scenery to be seen.

Best hotel in Kotakinabalu

I Think best hotel for vocation with childern.

Traveler's tip on shopping

I think little bit small shopping acade in Hotel.

good hotel. not good beach.

The service at the hotel is excellent. Especially, we stayed in the Horizon Club (or something like that), and the service was amazing. Our first night, our reservation some how ended up with a view of the marina (not very nice), but they upgraded us to a seaview, no problem. The beach is not very nice, but the pool is. And you can take a boat taxi to the marine park to snorkle, hang out on the beach or SCUBA... there is some nice coral to see, but a lot of it has been killed by previous snorklers who stood on the coral with their fins.

Traveler's tip on getting the most out of your stay

In the horizon club (or something like that) rooms, you get breakfast, afternoon tea and cakes, and cocktail happy-hour with food. We found that was almost enough to live on... (we added fruit from the local market and some wine).

We’d Definitely Go Back!

We were delighted with our vacation at the lovely Shangrila Tanjung Aru. The resort is located close to the airport, so we were able to get our holiday off to a quick start. The attractive low rise hotel is set amidst beautiful gardens and palm trees, with two gorgeous large pools adjacent the ocean and the private white sand beach. We enjoyed the attractive view of several small islands offshore which you can go to on an island boat tour from the small wharf and boat concession at one end of the property. The hotel’s leisure center provides lots of ativities for young and old, and everyone seemed to be having fun. The the onsite tour desk arranges ecotours for guests who want to see some of Borneo’s famous rain forest area, as well as Mount Kinabalu Park, and some of its wildlife. Although we didn’t have children with us, we couldn’t help noticing how child-friendly the hotel was, with play areas but inside and out and a separate small wading pool for toddlers. With the town nearby, we had the option of going into Kota Kinabalu to shop and to eat some of the local cuisine. This is a place to relax, and no doubt a great spot for honeymooners. We would definitely go back again.

Traveler's tip on recreational activities

The five or six offshore islands from Kota Kinabalu are defintely worth seeing. Boat and snorkeling tours are easy to arrange at the concession at the end of the hotel’s boardwalk.