Which Shangri-La???

E

e-mum

Registered User
I'm looking at the following hotels:

Shangri-La's Mactan Island Resort & Spa, Cebu
Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu
Shangri-La's Rasa Ria Resort, Kota Kinabalu

I have 3 kids aged 5yo and twins at 2.5yo.

1) Which of the above is the easiest in terms of travelling to the resort i.e. direct flight, no transit or connecting flight etc.
2) What are the facilities like for kids for 5 and below?
3) Which resort has lots of restaurants outside of the hotel which are within easy reach of the resort?

Thanks in advance.
 
Shangri-La Rasa Ria is far from the airport and also from the centre of town. It is a nice hotel with a big beach but I would recommend it to people who like to stay at the resort. They have a nature reserve with baby orangutans but I am not sure if young kids are allowed.

Tanjung aru is a 10 minute drive from the airport, has a kids club, a small beach and you can take a 10 minute boat ride from there to the islands. It is close to town and has restaurants close by. There's a great spa as well!
 
I've stayed at 1 and 2, visited 3. At Mactan, oldest was 4y9m, twins were 2y3m. At KK, oldest was 5 1/2, twins a little over 3.

Mactan was very good when it comes to service, nice beach, not much to do around the hotel though (however, they do offer shuttle service to Cebu). We had most basic room, which was fine given the price we paid, clean, but a little bit tired (you could opt for Ocean Wing if you can get good rates, we had 2 connecting). Very easy and good babysitting service, had service every night for about 5 euro an hour. Highly recommend the resort.

Tanjung, close to KK (had dinner there too), close to airport, nice rooms (bigger than Mactan), can do island trip (boat pier is next door), day trip to Rasa Ria. Beach is pretty much worthless, very small and could be jelly fish season. Service was good, not as good as Mactan in my opinion. Food was also better at Mactan but still good at Tanjung. The outside bar is lovely with great value for money deals on drinks and satay. They wouldn't do babysitters for children under 4 and/or only 1 per child (so would need 3?!), which would add up close to US$25 per hour (that's what I paid in NYC one night, and I asked for night time), very difficult.

Rasa Ria, a little bit further from the airport (about an hour), beautiful beach but empty due to sand flies. Bigger, less cosy feel than Tanjung, but felt more kid-friendly in terms of slides, kids menu (more variety) than Tanjung. Cannot comment on the rooms.

They're all good, it depends on personal preference, check Tripadvisor as well. Service definitely best at Mactan, and also the easiest, but you won't leave the hotel much, but that's OK. We did 5D/4N (with morning flight out, and evening flight back). Feel free to pm.
 
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I have stayed at 1 and 3. In addition to comments above - The beach at Cebu is lovely. My eldest son was 3 at the time and loved putting his goggles on and 'snorkelling' right at the shore. Fish galore! A definite highlight.
 
I've been to Rasa Ria - our 4 year old loved it - watching the orangutans etc but our 20 month old was a bit lost.. There were sand flies and jelly fish so beach was out which was a shame so if you choose Rasa Ria do check before booking!
 
Have stayed at 1 & 2 with the family and agree totally with
Mom2Sofie&Twins. I might be wrong, but I remember the beds being much bigger in Mactan --2 queens put together instead of a king and it was great!!

Also, check out Shangri-la's Value Vacations package. With kids, this was simply the best choice for us: Free laundry service, free b'fast and dinner buffet, etc. Food at Mactan definitely better. Mangoes galore! Our kids enjoyed the beach. The resort has bread baskets that you can bring over to the shoreline to feed the fishies, which swim around your feet, sometimes nibbling at your ankles. It was quite a fun experience. :)
 
I have been to Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu.they pick up at airport.around 10 mins arrive in resort.they has nice restaurants.breakfast and dinner buffet.bbq.western food.bar.spa.little shop and children's playroom.the playroom is quite good for kids,for different age.also has internet for them and wii.outdoor has children playground.
they has big grassland.people play tennis.football..also has gym room.beach.few swimming pools.you can also order a taxi from resort to zoo.then taxi will wait you back to resort.quite nice service.nice place.
 
Buckeroo said:
Have stayed at 1 & 2 with the family and agree totally with
Mom2Sofie&Twins. I might be wrong, but I remember the beds being much bigger in Mactan --2 queens put together instead of a king and it was great!!
Click to expand...

Depends on the room type, again we had most basic, but we had friends who stayed in one room and they had the 2 queens you described (probably family room). We always have 2 connecting, because we have 3 kids in big beds now (plus I don't really want to be stuck in one room with kids going to bed earlier, etc.).
 
Rasa Ria Resort

Hi
Would recommend the Shangri la rasa ria at KK. In a nut shell :-
1. Has a kids and baby's pool - suitable from 1-8 years of age with three different water slides all attached to the adult pool. This makes life really easy watching children and enjoying a swim yourself.
2. Has well sheltered sailed area over childrens pool and lounges
3. Has an excellent kids club with organised activities and an outdoor playground suitable for your aged children to use any time of the day, so a nice thing to do in the morning of afternoon to break the day up a bit.
4. Has an Orangutan sanctuary, only a two minute walk up a moderate steep Hill (my three year old at the time managed no problems) which is lovely for the children.
5. Although not usually my thing, it has some really good restaurants offering good dining variability - fresh cooked buffet (children are fee) which is cooked on the spot fresh for you; indian with a children's menu; Japanese (Teppanyaki always a hit with kids and easy) and their standard western food style restaurant. We ventured out on two occasions but KK as a town is pretty run down and average we thought, so we didnt bother going out of the hotel again.
The thing I would recommend is either a ground floor room in the older establishment - have sliding doors which run off onto the grassed area for the kids to play, or better still a new room in the ocean view newly built development (a bit further away from the kids pool though) where the rooms are less tired.
We also liked KK as it's flat and easy to get around (unlike Phuket, just got back from there and found it harder work).
The beach generally at KK is not great I think when compared to Cebu or Thailand. It has sand flies and the time of year we went which was May, it had jelly fish from memory? Also, the sand is so hot our little ones couldnt bear it! So you are really chosing for resort and not beach I sugest? I think KK is a great short break, I would find it a little limiting after a week.
Good Luck.
 
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I have stayed at 2 and 3 and Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu is closer to the town. But the kids club was better at Ria with the monkeys etc. Both were GREAT!

We stayed somewhere different at Cebu but have heard great things about SL there too.

Have a wonderful trip!
 
Stayed at 1 and 3. I think #3 is better for the kids, although, as everyone has said, #1 has the better beach. And none of them will be a bad choice.
Might want to let the airfares and flights decide.
 
We've stayed at all three and they are all good! We went to Cebu just over Easter with 6 and 3 year old and they both loved it! Staff was great! short flight and only 10 minutes from airport! Older one snorkelled and Jet Skied with dad. You can borrow life jackets (which we all did then "floated" out to the dock for fun!), sand toys, can rent the snorkels, kayaks, jet skis. the kids also loved all the fish! Staff would give you bread in the mornings to feed them. The pool has one water-slide and a smaller child's pool. They do have a playroom with the big slides in it but we were there for only 1/2 hour as kids (and mommy!) wanted to spend most of the time at the beach! They also have big mattresses for the sand that you can borrow and my little one napped on it under the umbrella!
The 2 in KK are both good also! Personally I wouldn't do the Rasa again as the long drive to get there to see the monkeys wasn't worth it.

Enjoy your trip! You can't go wrong!
 
i went to rasa ria before kids and will NEVER go back... not my idea of a good time (although, the orang utans were amazing).

i HATED being so far away from everything. hubby got food poisoning our first night there and spent then entire rest of the holiday in bed... i was left by myself and couldn't even go for a walk out of the resort!
 
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