Hoteles en Papar con Bar

What a great, relaxing place this is! We booked our room by sending them a message in WhatsApp and had no issues. The location is around 15 km south from Kota Kinabalu airport which is great, because you get away from all the traffic noise of the city. You can hear the planes every now and then, but it is nothing like the noise in the KK center. For us the quiet surroundings were the really big thing. There are just a few sea view rooms and even when there were other customers, it was still peaceful and quiet. Sea view rooms have their own pool so most of the time it felt like having an own private pool just for us. The staff is friendly and helpful. They helped us to organise our next destination and also gave a hand when one of us got sick and needed to see a doctor. Their laundry service is great too: we gave a huge bag of laundry to them in the morning and got clean clothes back on the same day. Liza, the owner, is such a great personality and we had a great opportunity to taste a potential new sparkling wine with her. The restaurant is spacious with lovely view to the big yard and to the ocean. We liked their buffet breakfast, but on the last two morning they switched it to à la carte. For us it didn’t make a huge difference, because the food was plenty. It was pretty much the same as the buffet options but served to the table. The dinner menu has more western options than typical Malaysian restaurants. We tried spaghetti, lasagne and fish and enjoyed them all, but at the same time wished more local options. They do have surprisingly good selection of wines from all over the world. In addition to a few glasses of house wine, we ended up enjoying a bottle of Italian pinot grigio on the Valentine’s Day dinner.

The restaurant is relatively expensive compared to typical street food joints. Luckily, there is a really good local restaurant just a short walk away and we ended up eating there our last dinners. The Palm Square shopping area is just a quick Grab drive away and there you can find more local restaurants. Getting there costs 5 ringgits. Sea view rooms are clean and spacious. Shower has warm water, but sometimes it took a while to get it. Water pressure was weak but we managed with it. It is a really nice bonus that the pool is just few meters away from the room. Each room has their own decked terrace with a fan and two sunbeds. Like other have mentioned, there is a beach but it is not very good. They clean it, but the trash from the ocean piles up anyway. Annoying fact that affects so many beaches in Sabah. We spent five nights here and really enjoyed our stay. Highly recommended!