About a year ago, I had a plan to venture out of Singapore to do more hotel reviews. Sadly, my passport got delayed for months and I finally had my hands on it back in August! The plan or vision rather, is to start travelling again so that my blog has the exposure in the southeast region rather than just focusing on the statistics in Singapore.
Of course, I had to start in one of my favourite cities in the world – Johor Bahru.
I love Johor. It always feels like home when I’m here. The people are great, the food is fantastic. The vibe here is just beautiful. Plus, it’s really convenient too! I always do my reviews on a weekday, so I don’t need to even worry about the traffic or human jam at the checkpoints.
For my very first hotel review abroad, I wanted a 4-5 star hotel with great views. I wanted a clean-looking hotel and possibly one with great facilities. There was a lot that I wanted to see and experience. After some intense research and reading up reviews everywhere, I settled on one – Thistle Johor Bahru.
Thistle Johor Bahru is a 4-star hotel, located just 10 minutes away from the checkpoint. Getting a Grab was super easy and only costed me roughly RM8.
When we arrived, the doors are opened by the attentive, welcoming bellman. The hotel lobby looks wide and bright but what I really loved was how the walls are all glass.
When you stepped into the lobby, you could almost feel like you’re in a resort. The trees and bright skies were visible just from the lobby itself, it was really beautiful.
The check-in process was really quick. As compared to Singapore, everything was spoken in Malay to me. Though I’m great and fluent in speaking Malay too, the experience of checking in was definitely different and unique. I like it. Though I had to ask her to repeat a few times just to catch what she was saying.
I was initially assigned a standard room for the review but literally when I was in the vehicle going towards the hotel, I received a message saying that I was upgraded to the Executive Seaview Room. Yay! I love being upgraded and it’s great for the blog too. I always want to show the best room available to you just so that your decision to book the hotel is well-informed and perfect.
For suites and executive rooms, a different elevator is catered. My room was on the highest floor, level 17.
The corridor outside my room was spacious and just gorgeous. The design of the carpet is just pleasing to look at! The yellow walls definitely complements the beautiful carpet flooring.
I didn’t had any expectations when it comes to the room because believe it or not, most of the reviews about the room I read online is really negative. But you know what? I’ve always been a risk-taker so I booked the hotel anyways.
The room was stunning! Just elegant. The colour of the walls is of my favourite too. Baby blue? Tiffany blue? Really pleasing to the eyes! Notice how the carpet blends really well with the colours of the wall too.
See? Don’t judge a book by its cover. Nope. Don’t judge a hotel by online, baseless comments!
Since the room is located on the highest floor, the ceiling seems high and elevated too. Not only does that makes the room looks huge, it feels really airy.
Bed was super comfy, I didn’t wanna leave the bed. Our plans kept delaying because I was busy snuggling on the bed. It was so good! Comfortably good!
Coffee and tea-making station is available in the room too. Brand was by Lipton and Nescafe. For an executive category, I would expect the room to provide a coffee machine but it was totally alright since breakfast was already included in the booking. Free-flow coffee!
Oh! And notice how the plugs in the room are all the universal ones. I really love that. It really is considerate for tourists who are travelling from other parts of the world. Gone are the days where we need to bring our own universal adapters! I bring mine anyways just in case cause certain hotels are still stuck to the past.
That was not even the best part!
Behold, the gigantic balcony that has a panoramic outdoor view of the Straits of Johor. I was stunned, shocked really. I knew we had a balcony for the room but I didn’t expect the balcony to be the size of the room, even more.
The balcony is shared between two rooms, so if you didn’t book the room next door, always remember to lock the balcony doors for the safety of yourself and your belongings. You could see the pool from the balcony! I am more into the clouds and skies, it was really mesmerising.
If there’s one thing I’d change, it’ll probably be the cleanliness of the tile flooring. While the room was unbelievably clean, the balcony wasn’t. It had algae forming on certain areas and when it rains, the algae became moist and disgusting. Certainly not a great look.
Unlike the room, the bathroom looks like it wasn’t revamped at all. That doesn’t mean it’s not great though. It was clean and practical. Everything was in working condition. The reviews I read before staying here was all negative. It was about dirty bathrooms, water heater not working well and even infestation of cockroaches.
It’s either I was super lucky or they managed to fix the issues quickly! Either or, kudos to the hotel for always finding ways to improve the guest experience.
My favourite part of the bathroom here or anywhere really, is the bidet. I don’t even have to worry when I book any hotels in Malaysia! Be it 3, 4 or 5 stars.. a bidet is always available when I need it.
Singapore, learn something from this!
Amenities from the room include the standard room slippers, bathrobes, a safebox, hairdryer and an iron.
Okay! Enough about the rooms. Let’s check out the other parts of the hotel. The facilities!
The oh-so-beautiful restaurant. Our dinner was sponsored during the stay and we were so blessed and flattered really because I wanted to have a sunset dinner somewhere, and here we are having dinner on the house.
The restaurant was beyond beautiful. Sunset was visible to where I was seating, it was very magical and stunning.
Since the restaurant walls are window glass, you could see everything from where you are sitting. And I can tell you, the view is breathtaking from any angle you look at.
The restaurant here also serves breakfast in the morning. If your booking doesn’t include one, you’re totally missing out!
The breakfast buffet here is extensive and huge. It’s probably one of my favourite buffet breakfast out of all my hotel stays.
Service was incredible, the amount of food is just enormous. I really had fun! The nasi lemak is to die for. The sambal? Ah-may-zeng.
The pastries were good too, I love pastries.
And omelette? I can never go without omelette for breakfast!
The hotel advertises itself as a resort in the city. And you know what? It felt exactly like that. Though I was only 10 minutes away from the city centre, the hotel managed to make it feel like I was somewhere far and relaxing, away from the bustling city.
It definitely has all my requirements for a good, leisure stay. Gigantic rooms, a scenic view, a pool with great landscape. The staff were all welcoming and nice. I couldn’t ask for anything more. It was really impressive.
Do I recommend this hotel to you? A million percent! I was thinking of celebrating my upcoming birthday here too actually. If everything goes well, I’m gonna try going for the suite room for my family. Would you wanna read a review on that?
The hotel is really prepared for operations. Everyone is on top of their game! They really made great effort to improve during the two years of inactivity. The hotel manager shared with me that they just installed fairy lights around the trees of the swimming pool and outdoor area, just for guests to enjoy the view and breeze at night.
I love to see efforts being made. The hotel does have potential, and it actually shows. Because of that, I will always keep coming back just to see what’s in store next.
And you definitely should too.
What’s your favourite hotel in Johor Bahru?
Aliff Daniel 