We spent four days and three nights at this Resort belonging to the YTL group. Like all of the resorts in this chain, the service is impeccable! The staff from the porters, at the reception, dining and room service all wore smiles and besides being most attentive to your needs, addressed you by name! The Resort is situated between Brinchang and Tanah Rata, being closer to the former and sited opposite the Cameron Highlands Golf Club with very nice views of the matured 18-hole golf course and the hills beyond.
Our room was spacious. The toilet is rather cramped, but it had all the luxurious amenities. As mentioned in most of the reviews on this resort, the traffic sounds can be quite loud and distracting as the vehicles tend to speed along the stretch of road in front of the hotel at all times of the day and night. There’s no air conditioning, but a silent ceiling fan served to circulate the air in the room. The room was made up twice a day and complimentary bottles of drinking water were provided. Thinking about the noise problem, I wonder if double-glazing the glass doors and windows, in addition to placing several road humps to slow down the traffic, might effectively reduce the noise levels complained by almost every other guest and improve the sleep experience!
The food is very good albeit a small range of items, and there is a fair range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. As to be expected from five star establishments, prices tend to be on the expensive side. At the Gonbei restaurant, there’s Japanese cuisine besides having steam boat. However, this restaurant is not open every night. The gym is opened 24 hours. Wi-Fi is available at certain areas only and this was rather inconvenient, as one has to get out of the room every time to access the Internet.
Spa. The resort features a unique Spa Village with signature treatments using the restorative properties of tea. A complimentary 50-minute spa treatment is given to guests of the resort, but as we were not the spa going types, we omitted this experience.
Taxis are available at a cost of thirty Malaysian Ringgit per hour for a minimum of two hours if you wanted to visit the various tourist attractions like the strawberry farms, tea plantations, cacti and rose farms, the butterfly and insect farms Incidentally, a fee of between four to five Malaysian Ringgit is charged per person to enter these places. The resort provides experienced guides for jungle trails for the more energetic who want to explore the flora and fauna of the highlands.
On the second day of our stay, we mentioned to one of the staff, Wunny, that we were at the resort to re-visit the Olde Smokehouse Inn where we had our honeymoon 42 years ago, and that it was our wedding anniversary. We opted not to stay at the Smokehouse Inn after reading reviews in TripAdvisor. Much to our surprise, on her own initiative, Wunny arranged to have an anniversary chocolate cake presented to us after our dinner that night. When we returned to the room after dinner, our room was decorated with towel sculptures, rose petals and a gift box of chocolates! Thank you Wunny!
The weather was cool around 18C to 19C, so it was most comfortable and refreshing.
The Hotel lacks grounds to walk around, and if you wanted fresh air, it’s either sitting on the balcony or taking a walk along the main road. But still, definitely a resort to recommend to friends for it’s location, service and comfort.