In my 15 years of travelling, this was one of the best holidays I have ever taken. Borneo is a vast place to visit and we were disappointed that we wouldn't be able to see the whole region with little ones in tow, but the Shangri-La Rasa Ria was the perfect base to see the best of Sabah over two weeks.
In terms of rooms, I am a creature of comfort, and I found the rooms to be sufficiently luxurious, cleaned to a high standard regularly throughout the day, perfect temperature, well-equipped with modern cons, and spacious. The bed was very comfortable and with a firm mattress. My husband and I shared the queen size bed and the pull out sofa was more like a divan which was big enough for our two children (4 and 8 years) to share comfortably without being too cramped.
The facilities were fantastic - there were lots of activities to keep us busy throughout the day. The water sports were particularly good - we boogy boarded (free), water biked (free) and sailed the mini catamaran (free) and for a small extra fee went on a banana boat ride (about £8 per person for a 15 minute ride). The swimming pool was amazing - it had a massive waterslide and baby slide which was covered and so provided sun protection. There is loads of water provided throughout the day in rooms, pool side etc so one never risked being thirsty.
The beach was expansive - beautiful white sand but became very hot during the day! Most of the guests chose to hang pool-side, so it felt great to have the beach to ourselves most of the time!
I would also say that this was a very secure and safe resort. Children walked around freely.
The activities next to the resort were also amazing - the children loved the nocturnal jungle walk and got to play rangers to the orang-utans.
The food was also amazing - better burgers than I've had at nice gastro-pubs in London even! Catering to all tastes, palates and nationalities. A lot of western choices at the breakfast buffets and also the Malaysian fare at Tepi Laut restaurant was varied, delicious and fresh. We had dinner at Tepi Laut most nights over our 12 night stay and didn't get tired of it at all. If you like a little variety, then the Coffee Terrace restaurant has good international fare. The food is not expensive compared with how much it would cost a la carte at a comparable 5-star resort. The burger I mentioned came with a large side of chips and a salad and would have cost £20 elsewhere but was only about £10 room service price. Most dishes a la carte were about £10-12 for mains but I suggest you do half-board.
If you are staying I would suggest you take a few excursions outside the hotel. We did a visit to the base of Mount Kinabalu and went snorkelling to a few islands outside Kota Kinabalu centre. The snorkelling was amazing - up close to all sorts of fish, crystal clear waters, you could feed the fish even and it was very safe and shallow water that was well supervised. I felt completely safe with my 8 year old.
Finally, the staff were really friendly and Bethany) one of the managers was amazing at helping us relocate rooms when a large Asian wedding party that partied late into the night threatened our nights sleep.
All in all, a wonderful holiday and we can't wait to go back again!
