Grand Plaza Park Royal Reviews

Travel Date: February 05

Submitted in April 2005 by: Derek Rogerson - Plymouth

Operator: Other

This hotel is sold as a beach holiday but the beach was unusable due to lack any beach furniture and the polluted sea. This was made worse by the hotel not having any sun umberellas. Its position can only be described as urban.

The accomodation was go...

Travel Date: February 05

Submitted in April 2005 by: Derek Rogerson - Plymouth

Operator: Other

This hotel is sold as a beach holiday but the beach was unusable due to lack any beach furniture and the polluted sea. This was made worse by the hotel not having any sun umberellas. Its position can only be described as urban.

The accomodation was good apart from the hotel inability to be able to explain what a ";de-lux sea view room"; was. Food and service was good but spoilt due to the high cost of drinks (£5 for a lager) which left the hotel deserted in the evenings, a great shame as the quality of entertainment was excellent. Superb eating places outside the hotel, Jewel of the North, Fantasia and the very cheap Long Beach to name but a few.

Would not return to Penang as it is far too developed for our taste.

Submitted in February 2005 by: Paul Amanda

Operator: Other

This was our second trip to Batu Ferringhi in Penang, having gone in 2004 when we stayed in the Casuarina Hotel. We were so impressed then with the ease of travelling around that we decided to book flights and accomodation separately, which worked out cheap...

Submitted in February 2005 by: Paul Amanda

Operator: Other

This was our second trip to Batu Ferringhi in Penang, having gone in 2004 when we stayed in the Casuarina Hotel. We were so impressed then with the ease of travelling around that we decided to book flights and accomodation separately, which worked out cheaped than booking a package. So we decided to spend 10 days in Penang and 4 days in Singapore. The flights we booked direct on Singapore Airlines website, and the accommodation on the Asiavoyage24 website.

We flew to Singapore with Singapore Airlines, which was a real joy for a long haul flight. Over 60 on demand movies on the plane, complimentary drinks, great service, a little amenity bag, and this was just in economy! We then flew onwards to Penang and got a taxi to the hotel.

The Grand Plaza Park Royal was complete luxury, certainly compared to the Casuarina where we had stopped before. Lovely big rooms, towels in the rooms were changed twice daily, superb buffet breakfasts, lots of sunbeds that weren't broken (unlike the Casuarina), lovely free-form pool - you even got little flags to wave to attract staff's attention when lounging around the pool area. The location of the hotel was excellent, right in the heart of the night market (again unlike the Casuarina). The Javana Lounge bar area in the hotel has got to be the swankiest bar we've ever been in. Service in the hotel was excellent, the staff were attentive and friendly. We've done lots of travelling around the world, but this has got to be the best hotel we've stopped in. The only minor criticism is that drinks were on the expensive side, but that's the case in most hotels, and the air conditioning in the room was slightly noisy (not too noisy to keep you awake though).

Post-tsunami, we noticed that there was a significant drop in visitor numbers. The locals told us that the number of visitors had fallen by 50%. The whole resort was quiet, even though we went at Chinese New Year. Not that this bothered us.

Fave restaurants were the Kampung Restaurant (try the set meal - 3 courses for about £3.00), the Jewel of the North (Garlic Naan's to die for), and Ferringhi Garden Restaurant. The Boathouse was also a nice place to go for a drink or two on a night time and watch the world go by.

After chilling out here, we then flew from Penang to Singapore and got a taxi to our hotel there. First time in Singapore, and the first thing you notice is how clean and orderly the place is. The city centre is fairly compact and you can walk around easily enough (if you can stand the heat), although our preferred option was to take the air-conditioned MRT (their underground system), which was cheap and efficient and puts the Tube in London to shame. We were initially worried about the location of the hotel, but whichever hotel you stop in, everything's in close proximity to everything else. The hotel was nice enough, with again lovely buffet breakfasts, and a reasonable size pool which was great to cool off in the afternoons. Again the staff here were very friendly and polite.

We went to Chinatown and Little India, which were very colourful, and of course had to have a Singapore Sling in Raffles. For gadgets, the Funan IT Mall had everything under the sun, and Suntec City was just too big a shopping mall to explore in one day!

On evenings we stayed near the hotel and went to bars and restaurants at Clarke Quay and Boat Quay on the Singapore River. Boat Quay was a little livelier that Clarke Quay, a long strip of bars and restaurants with the staff touting for business. However the competition here keeps the prices down. Clarke Quay was far nicer, with no touts, but was slightly more expensive.

For lunches, the food courts you find in malls are great value for money, but be warned the portions are massive.

For shopping, Orchard Road was excellent, although tiring because it's so big.

We'd definately return to Singapore for a short stay again in future, and look forward to flying on Singapore Airlines again.