It is always nice to wind down at the end of the year, so we decided to go to Penang for a short trip. We booked Golden Sands Resort which proved to be a rather good choice.
1) Location
Golden Sands Resort is located in Batu Ferringhi which is famous for its beaches. Just venturing a few steps out from the resort will bring you to the beach.
2) Hotel room
The room was not carpeted and this was actually a plus point for me. Imagine if all the guests came back with sand and the sand got trapped in the carpet, that would be pretty gross. Good thing about housekeeping is that they stock up four bottles at one go, twice a day. This means you will not need to buy your own bottled water.
3) Food
The breakfast and/or food in general here is very average. There is a wide selection of food items, such as waffles, pancakes, nasi lemak, roti canai, cereal, dough fritters, muffins etc. We also tried the lunch selection which was ordinary.
4) Amenities
Golden Sands is very families friendly. Even if you didn't venture out of the place, there would be sufficient entertainment within the resort- swimming pools of varying depths, a lounge where there is a selection of books to choose from (although I've to say the selection was quite bad), games such as scrabble, gym, table tennis facilities etc.
5) Service
Service was a mixture of hits and misses, although leaning towards a series of misses. While we did get a few friendly "good mornings" from the housekeeping service team, the service standards from the rest of the staff didn't meet expectations- slow check in times, rude behaviour from the service staff are something that we do not expect from the Shangri-la brand.
6) What to do
There is a free shuttle from Golden Sands to the Traders Hotel in Georgetown at various timings throughout the day. Book in advance because some slots can be popular and you may not have a seat. The location is far away (around 40-50 minutes) from major attractions (Georgetown and Penang Hill).
In this area, you can visit the beach where there are many activities such as parasailing, banana boat etc. Be careful of the jellyfish if you intend to go into the water though. Also, a note on parasailing. I read that parasailing may not be necessarily safe in this area because many are unregulated- maybe observe how it's done for a while if you are new to it.
At night, visit the night markets where you can haggle for a good price.
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