5* family holiday in Borneo
We didn’t want to be too adventurous and settled for a 10 night stay at the Shangri La Rasa Ria, Kota Kinabalu. I booked a premier ocean wing room which is huge, and comes with a massive terrace/balcony with large day bed and outside bath! These rooms also have a separate reception area, separate pool and enjoy breakfast in the a la carte restaurant ‘Coast’.
This hotel is situated on an absolutely huge beach which is completely unspoilt by sun loungers and most days it was deserted.
The first few days were a little over cast and we witnessed some amazing thunderstorms in the evenings, but the rest of our holiday was glorious sunshine with the odd shower. In fact temperatures here were about 30 degrees in the main, and cool in the evening so a real pleasant change from Hong Kong.
We spent our time in and around the pool which was usually pretty empty. Lily made some lovely friends and played quite happily with them or us. We didn’t use the ‘kids club’ as this was important family time for us, but there is a little club house with some nice facilities for younger children. There is also a nice playground with slides in the main pool suitable for the under 8’s and open to all guests.
One of the reasons to visit Borneo was to see the Orang-utans. This hotel has a nature reserve where they currently look after six baby orang-utans aged 3-5 years old. You can pay a small amount to walk up into the jungle to see them come down out of the trees for food. They were so close to us and it was such an amazing experience, we did it a couple of times.
Dining in this hotel is pretty good and there are varied options open to everyone. ‘Coast’ provided a la carte and was excellent though not a huge choice of menu. ‘Tepi Laut’ was really good fun and comprised a sort of ‘market’ with various stalls where you could pick and choose buffet style with things cooked to order. This was the only place we got stung by sand flies so apply the deet! There are also speciality Japanese and Indian restaurants and also a main buffet restaurant too. Prices are very reasonable considering this is a 5* hotel.
Entertainment is low key but the weekly tribal dance show was superb.
We were enjoying ourselves so much that we almost quite forgot about going on any trips, and it was only on the last day that we ventured out. There are four travel offices in this hotel offering a huge variety of trips. We booked a ½ day boat trip up the Mengkabong River which took us through the mangrove swamps and past several water villages. We were greeted at one of the water villages by a lovely chap who showed us into the community hall, where we enjoyed an afternoon tea provided by the local ladies. The cakes were truly scrumptious. He also invited us into his home which was as neat as a pin, but obviously so different from ours and gave us an insight into local life.
This trip was a complete eye opener for Lily (6) as she really had never seen anything like it at all and is a definite must for any family with children. We did some fishing on the way back and pulled out various creatures such as many coloured crabs and a baby puffer fish which thrilled the children!
The staff here are fantastic. They called our daughter ‘Princess Lily’ after she wore a glittery dress to dinner one evening which of course she loved. When we left, there were many staff members there to wave us off and we shared hugs and kisses: we felt very much like we were leaving friends.
Summary? The best family holiday we have had and definitely worth the long flight to get there. Stay a minimum of 7 nights and go for the premium ocean wing rooms if you can. Request ground floor!