Hilton Kuching

One of the 5 stars hotels that they have in Kuching is The Hilton. 

If you are a brand cautious person, you may like The Hilton, 

BUT.... it may not be up to your expectation of a Hilton. 

You walk into a Hilton in US, the lobby or the feeling could be different. Even to walk into the one in Singapore is different. So please , do not think because it is a 5 star branding, that all Hiltons are the same. 

a view of The Hilton Kuching from another hotel in the city.

during this trip, I stayed in a Suite on the Executive Floor, however I looked at my friend's Guestroom, the room is OK, I mean acceptable with an acceptable size and facilities. 

However, just have a look at the room I stayed :

The view of the living room as you come into the room.  The room is big, its quite minimal in terms of furnishing but I kind of like it :) 

The bedroom. I love that big pillows you can see there. 

They have the big square pillows and the bed is nice and firm. 

For the Suite, the room has both, bath-tub and the standing shower. 

 The view of the living hall from the bedroom.

Since Hilton's location is quite great too, walking distance to everywhere, I have put up here some of the photos of the surrounding areas.

From my window, I could see the river, where the waterfront is. You may have seen this river, if you see the other posting of Grand Margherita Kuching. That hotel, is just by the river, but Hilton, just cross the main road.

 Just by the waterfront, it would be the main bazaar, where you can get souvenirs and some nick knacks of Sarawak.

The other side of the building, you can see another view of the city...and you can see the other hotel I have posted which is Pullman Kuching.

A huge complex of facilities, with 2 pools and a court. 

some of the activities at the river.....kind of cool

(but at times, the river could be smelly)

I took this picture from across the river, where in previous post, I mentioned that there are some local stalls and etc. But from here, you can also see The Hilton hotel. 

So, that's the Hilton in Kuching. They also have another Hilton property in Sarawak, but its a bit to far for me to go.

My thoughts on this hotel are :

1. The front office staffs, from the door men, the receptionist , they were very nice ! Very polite and attentive, and that made you actually feel important. So good job in that sense.
2. Great for families too. The facilities are great, esp with 2 pools, what a way to unwind your day after a hot day of touring Kuching and the surroundings
3. Location wise, is great too. Short walk cross the street to the riverside, opposite there are 2 malls, bazaar just walking distance, easy access for food too 
4. Great for corporate travellers too. I mean, we need to unwind after our meetings right ?

But don't have the high expectations of the Hilton, per se Hilton. But it is nice, to be able to say, when people ask you, where are you staying ? and your answer...

"The Hilton"

xoxo

360 Urban Resort Hotel Kuching

The name is spetacular isn't it ? Which is which ? with 360 panoramic view or the urban location ? Anyway, yours truly went to check out this place.  You can see from the outside...the building looks huge !!! but...its only like 1 part of the building, the other tower.

The below part is supposedly a shopping mall, but then since the place is fairly new, the shops were like.........BUT, if you don' mind taking a taxi , there is the biggest shopping mall in Kuching called, The Spring .....anchor tenant is Parkson. Somehow, in Kuching, they have few Parksons.....

Anyway, back to the hotel, I saw the 02 bedroom apartments. Price wise, it is very reasonable...( I have learned not to say cheap :D ) . Space wise as well, it is very spacious. Apparently this place was supposed to be apartments for sale, however, the developer decided to convert into hotel apartments instead.....oh well, why not make more money, isn't it ? :)

Let's have a look at the room :

as you enter, you would see the living hall.

on the right hand side is the walk way to the bedrooms

 another view of the living hall, you can see kitchen on the right

 The kitchen is spacious too and best part, you can actual do the real cooking .Pots and pans, spoons, forks etc are all provided.

 Master Bedroom comes with a Queen Size bed.

 2nd bedroom comes with 2 Super Single beds....

which I like !! because, you can also put 2 kids sleeping on 1 bed

 Spacious room, however, no in room TV. 

TV is only at the living hall.

 Swimming pool facility.

In all, don't expect much from this hotel....the lobby is fairly small, bear in mind that this place was supposed to be a residential apartment. However, if you are travelling with families and need space or staying for a while, to explore Kuching and Sarawak, it would be good if you stay in a service apartment hotels like this. Taxis are available most of the time, just that you have to negotiate on the price. They DON'T use the meter.

In my 2 cents worth of thought , I feel that :

1. Its a good family accommodation 
2. Not for corporate or business traveller ( its not really in the town centre )
3. Value for money 

So there....as I always like to state, all these are just my thoughts, you may like the place, you may not like the place :)

xoxo

Grand Margherita Hotel Kuching

Still in the Cat City....I went to stay at another hotel.....

This hotel was previously the Holiday Inn by the river, so I saw very much of Holiday Inn influence here. You can see it also from the pictures :

The green colour of Holiday Inn.

Longish room, but no extra bed allowed for this room due to limited space.

Pillow menu

The bed is typical Holiday Inn, with Super Single Bed for twin sharing. So if you have kids, it is easy to share even though you can't add in the extra bed.

I love the work desk....especially that Internet connection is FREE !!

The view of the riverside from the room.

Hotel is right smack in the city...it is just by the riverside, so you can just walk around the Kuching Waterfront, to either try the local food, or take the short boat trip across to the other side of the river. The other side of the river is the local village where you could get local foods from the food court there. Here also, you can purchase the Salted Fish , a very famous Sarawak delicacy, which is actually, nice. I have tried it twice and kind of like it... not too salty, which is just OK, if you are not familiar with salty food.

Then, if you walk along the waterfront, you will see the Bazaars along the road where you can get souvenir items. Shops mostly would close at 7pm or latest 8pm. So perhaps, you could do bits and pieces of shopping here, then walk over to the eateries for dinner.

Across is also a shopping mall. Nothing big and fancy, but at least, you can do a bit of therapy.... he..he..he... but then, the Bazaar alone is very fascinating that I, myself, spent like hundreds over there.

So basically the hotel, from my perspective , I would summarise as :

1. Great for both , leisure and also the corporate travellers
2. Location is also superb
3. Room rates could be quite good depending on the seasonality 
4. They also have bigger room but it is on the other block, which is quite old
5. With the modern looking from Holiday Inn time, it did a lot to support the hotel's outlook 
6. Kids would be fine here....there is after all a pool, a McD opposite the hotel and KFC at the side of the hotel. 
7. Another thing, i should add....the Pizza here is NICE. Check out the menu.

but again and again, this is just me....who knows ? you may just like it or don't  :)



xoxo

Pullman Kuching

Hello hello..... again, it has been a very long time since I blog...gosh, I actually have to learn how to phone blog, at least, I can load things much faster.....

Anyway, I am starting the blog this month for the hotels outside Kuala Lumpur....and the first one is in Kuching, Sarawak.

A new hotel hotel in Kuching, Pullman is actually under the Accor group, if you are familiar with the hotel thingy.  The other brandings are like Sofitel, Mercure, Ibis and etc, so being a normal human being, I am sure you expect the Accor services as well.

I stayed at the Deluxe room, which as you can see below, is very spacious. I like the room, I like the layout perhaps as normal hotel rooms, mostly are longish, where you go in the straight ahead, pass by the bathroom, pass by the wardrobe and so forth. Unlike this room where is, you enter, you can either go left, right and etc...

So as you come in, you will see this on your right :

I like the sofa part, where after the end of the day, you can just rest without interfering the bed,

some walking space around the room between the sitting area and the tv part.

and the bed....just *sigh*.....do you know about Westin's heavenly bed ?? 

YES, this is the same bed...but at Pullman.

 Flat Screen TV and that's the table where I did some work....1st hour Internet is complimentary then its chargeable...which is alright I guess

From the window , I can see a bit of the waterfront and can also see Hilton....
From the picture, it looks quite far right ? but.....it is so near to walk to the waterfront, like less than 8 minutes and to walk down is much easier as it is walking down the hill.

 First hotel that I have been to which offered a Yoga Mat and dumbbells . Cool right ? This is where the wardrobe is located

and the bathroom fixtures.....standing shower stall and also bath tub with a view of the Kuching city....

Below this hotel, there is actually a shopping mall, its called Hills Shopping Mall. Not many shops are opened yet, but they have some restaurants, so if you don't want to eat in the hotel, options are there. 

Also, the hotel is very near to a popular Seafood Centre which is called as Top Spot Seafood Centre.

It is actually on top of a car park, just 5 minutes away from the hotel.

Cheap seafood, a lot of varieties, also you can try some local food there. 

But talking about food, I had the best ever Macarons....

and it was from Pullman Kuching 

Look at these gorgeous pictures :

Yummy macarons......

I had to return to this hotel just to get the Macarons..... especially the Strawberry flavour.










I know, I didn't take the public area pictures, but yes, they have the pool, they have the kids playground which is covered, they also have nice restaurants.....

My 2 cents worth of thought for this hotel would be :

1. Perfect for both Leisure and Corporate Business ( they have ample conference rooms ) 
2. Location is great as well, not at busy street so noise level is minimal
3. Rooms are great, can add in extra bed
4. Families would enjoy the hotel too.....
5. The Staffs were very nice , the bellboy , restaurants

Oh well, again, this is just my 02 cents worth of thought.... you may have different opinion :)

xoxo