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Its Superior Hill View Room isn’t as good as other stays in its price range. But for staying with kids or hitting the beach, this hotel is hard to beat.
The Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort and Spa, Singapore, is one of the most child-friendly hotels we’ve stayed in Singapore. There’s a kids’ swimming pool with water slides, an outdoor playground, a two-storey treehouse slide, video games, and scheduled daily activities. Oh, and direct access to Siloso Beach — it’s the only hotel of this class on Sentosa located right next to the beach. The catch is that its Superior Hill View Room isn’t as large or well-furnished as the other Sentosa stays in this price range. Comparing the rooms alone, we’d prefer the Wonderful Room at the W Singapore – Sentosa Cove and the Luxury Room at the Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa. But if we were staying with kids or hitting the beach, this hotel is hard to beat.
We review anonymously and pay for everything. All opinions expressed here are our own and all information is correct as of our last stay or visit and subject to change without notice.
Decked out in “contemporary resort style décor” [1] focusing on nature motifs, the 31m2 Superior Hill View Room is one of the smallest rooms we’ve reviewed on Sentosa — only slightly larger than the 30m2 Classic Room at Le Méridien Singapore, Sentosa — though we wouldn’t describe it as small. The floor space included a balcony with the hill view the room is named after — though because the trees were so close, the actual view from our room was mainly leaves and branches. The balcony also faced the hotel’s driveway which got a little busy at times and may be less pleasant for rooms on lower floors. While there wasn’t any furniture on our balcony, our bedroom included two armchairs and a side table small enough to haul outside. The work desk in our room was also separate from the TV bench, though this may have been more to accommodate the door to the connecting room next door.
The 40-inch TV offered 36 channels[2], with HBO and FOX Movies Premium for English movies. There were no pay-per-view or movie rental options however.
The complimentary in-room coffee and tea selection was basic: Nescafe instant coffee and Zesta Tea. However, that wasn’t all: the contents of the mini-fridge — fruit juice, milk, and soft drinks — were also free. For more options, the (non-complimentary) in-room dining menu included cocktails and single servings of spirits; a wine list was also available on request.
The bathroom felt a little tight. There was no bath tub, though we appreciated the extra space in the shower room. The toilet was placed practically behind the bathroom sink and its mirror, offering zero privacy. The toiletries — bath gel, shampoo, conditioner, and body lotion — were in-house Shangri-La products.
See our in-depth review and pictures of this breakfast buffet.
We felt the breakfast buffet at the Silver Shell Café wasn’t bad. We especially enjoyed the appam made to order and shamelessly snagged the French toast every time a batch came off the griddle. The chicken broth noodles and otah (otak otak) fish cake weren’t bad either. That’s just a small sample of the buffet which sprawls across not just the Silver Shell Café but also the connecting 8 Noodles and Casserole restaurants. The variety of food outstrips every other hotel breakfast we’ve reviewed and included an extensive selection of Malay and Indian food, a height-appropriate children’s section, and even a baby zone. There’s also a gluten-free section, though we must say it didn’t look particularly inviting — and not because it was gluten-free.
Tucked on the edges of the Dine on 3 restaurants, the Bubble Bar felt to us like a hideaway for adults taking a break from their children. With little in the way of shelter or fans though, our experience was left at the mercy of the weather. However, its drinks were relatively cheap compared to other hotel bars we’ve reviewed. The selection of drinks was extensive, though the wine list impressed us most — we just wished more of it was available by the glass rather than the bottle. The bartender’s choice list of cocktails also included a few unique drinks, mainly “by Charly” — mixologist Serhan “Charly” Kusaksizoglu, the Shangri-La group’s director of corporate projects overseeing all its bars. Cocktail enthusiasts may be interested in putting his drinks to the taste test.
The in-room dining felt a little uneven — we found ourselves enjoying its Singaporean food options more than the rest. Our nasi goreng (fried rice) came delightfully infused with stock and spice, just waiting for a coating of egg yolk from its accompanying fried egg. Our pan-seared sea bass however was starting to dry around the edges and its skin wasn’t so much crispy as it was encrusted with salt.
Similarly, we enjoyed the char kway teow we ordered for breakfast which came infused with the smoky charred wok hei flavour prized in this dish. We weren’t impressed however by our Rasa Sentosa epicurean omelette — we wished there was more of the accompanying lobster meat and found the lobster bisque on the plate lacking flavour. From the list of breakfast sets, we ordered the Rasa Sentosa breakfast (continental and Asian sets were also available). We thought the scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese sausages, and hash browns weren’t bad and its muesli actually quite good — but we’d pass on the fruit salad swimming in juice.
The Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort and Spa, Singapore, was Singapore’s first beach resort — opened in 1993! — but it’s still immensely popular. It’s not hard to see why: this is one of the most child-friendly hotels we’ve stayed in Singapore. There’s the kids’ swimming pool with three water slides, the outdoor playground, the herb garden with well-labelled local fruit and vegetable plants, and scheduled daily activities. There’s the Cool Zone with a Toots Club[1] housing a two-storey treehouse slide for children aged 5–12 and a Fun Zone for video games, foosball, and table tennis. And if that’s not enough, there’s direct access to Siloso Beach where the Sea Sports Centre provided non-motorised water sports equipment like kayaks and paddle boats for rent.
For adults in search of quiet, the lobby level had a section called Chill on 5 furnished with armchairs and sofas to enjoy the ocean breeze. Chill of 5 also housed a reading room with books, newspapers, personal computers, and TVs, though there weren’t any complimentary beverages.
Next to the Chill on 5 entrance was the Rasa Shop which also sold swimwear and other supplies for a day out in the sun and water. To help keep swimwear and other clothes clean, each floor had self-service laundry machines.
If kids don’t love the swimming pools here, we’re sorry but they’re out of luck because we’ve seen few hotel pools in Singapore better than this for kids. There’s a 150m2 kids’ pool[1] with three water slides and an adjacent splash pad crisscrossed with water jets from below and tipping water buckets from above. A canopy even sheltered part of the kids’ pool to prevent sunburn. Then there’s the main 750m2 outdoor pool which was again divided into a shallow section for the kids and a deeper section for everyone else. That deeper section was larger than most other hotels’ but that didn’t keep the kids out. It could get a little crowded and noisy — not ideal for working out. Short laps were possible though in the adults-only area delineated by a rope cutting across the main pool, providing some — though not much — distance from the chaos. Kids aged 12 years and above could still enter the two unheated jacuzzi pools in the adults-only area.
The Siloso Beach Bar served food and drink poolside at relatively low prices compared to other hotels we’ve reviewed. The food menu was skewed towards finger food, which included satay, vegetable spring roll and samosas, potato wedges, fish and chips, tempura prawns, chicken nuggets, and chicken wings. The lack of pizza on the menu might be disappointing to some though and there was no dessert selection either apart from a Ben & Jerry’s root beer float. The beverage selection included cocktails and spirits — gin, vodka, rum, tequila, and whisky.
The 24-hour gym on the fifth floor — the lobby level — was on the same side of the hotel as the Superior Hill View Rooms. That meant the same view of leaves and branches — which some people may find relaxing, to be fair. The foliage at the windows did limit the natural light entering the gym, which we felt could have been brighter. Still, while the gym wasn’t especially large, it didn’t feel tight either.
A boarded walkway next to the ballroom and function rooms on the ground floor led to CHI, the Spa at Shangri-La. Its signature CHI Balance massage “to improve circulation and calm your senses” costs SGD171[2], as does its 60-minute wellness massages which include Swedish, Thai, acupressure, and mother-to-be options. A treatment also provided access to the spa’s steam rooms and jacuzzis. These weren’t complimentary for hotel guests without a treatment, though there’s the option of purchasing access at SGD18[3] per entry.
101 Siloso Road, Sentosa, 098970, Singapore
(65) 6275 0100
