Malaysia Travels | Melaka | Staying @ Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences Melaka City

Despite living only 50 minutes away from Melaka City, we stayed for a couple of nights at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences here just to check out what's hot about this relatively new place.

I've stayed at the older hotel branch in Lumut before and have been to the one in Kuantan too but I feel this one is the best of them all just because it's new and embellished with modern arts and architecture.

Simple reception and lobby area

My sister got us a very good deal on booking.com, RM480++ for a 2-night stay in a standard room. Although this was excluding breakfast, it's still worth the money spent coz when we checked in, the room looked like it'd cost around RM500-600++ a night normal rate.

We stayed on the 22nd floor and I took a few photos as we were heading to our room;

Cool sofas at the lift lobby on our floor

View from the lift lobby on our floor;

We could actually see the ocean in the horizon but the sea ain't blue here ha ha

The pool, gym (rectangle building above the pool) and basketball court

Our room was conveniently located very near to the lift lobby. Here are some photos of the corridor leading to our room;

Modern wall lighting

A floor-to-ceiling corridor-wide window at the end of the hall; our room was the second door from the end (right)

View of UITM Bandaraya Melaka campus building in Graha Maju area of Melaka city from the corridor 

The interior is modern and cozy with a glass-wall bathroom; I mean, it's a you-can-see-your-reflection-on-the-bathroom-mirror-from-your-bed kind of thing ha ha get it?

I think this is the common new feature now in hotels coz I've seen this in a couple of hotels in KL. Of course my mom thought it was highly inappropriate but for me, I thought it's for solo travelers who just wants to catch up on the news while taking a shower ha ha :P You can always pull down the blinds anyway.

The room has wifi of course, however it's only limited for two persons/devices per room which was a turn off for me coz I brought along a laptop so I had to log off from my phone to connect using my laptop (my sis use the other login quota). Anyway, here's the rest of the room;

View from the working desk

So the bedroom is pretty standard for a hotel room of the same rate but I particularly adore 2 things about this hotel;

1 - the location that gave us such outstanding view of the infamous traditional malay neighborhood Kampung Morten and Melaka River from our balcony and the fact that we could explore the riversides just on foot from the hotel;

2 - the pool. 

Okay, that's more than 2 things ha ha but you get what I mean. Here's the view from our balcony;

There's a jetty to get on the Melaka River Cruise  near the hotel entrance

The Pines Melaka hotel

Another part of Kampung Morten; AEON Bandaraya Melaka mall was visible from this side too

This hotel is built practically on the river bank, giving you direct access to the boardwalk on the riverside. I know that the Melaka river is far from clean, but its historical and lined with mangrove trees as well as old buildings ^^

Later in the afternoon, we went out and  walked for a bit on the boardwalk right outside the hotel entrance.

Hotel entrance

Be careful of the monkeys on the mangrove trees though :P

Kampung Morten across the river

If you walk further along this river bank, there is a bridge to get to the village but we just stopped here and returned to the hotel, a very short walk indeed ^^

That night, we went out for dinner at a malay food  diner also on the river bank; about 100m from The Shore shopping gallery that's attached to the hotel building. We went on foot again and crossed this bridge in front of the mall;

passed by the Pirate Park Melaka;

and an old charming bridge before arriving at the restaurant.

There were a few shops actually

 The next day was #poolday for us wooot! But before that, we tried the breakfast buffet. For RM40++ per person, the spread was OK, I enjoyed it but I think they can do better. 

Part of my breakkie =D

There are two pools to enjoy; an indoor infinity pool and a huge outdoor pool right beneath a glassy (also classy) gym with a half basketball court on one corner and a tennis court in another. The pool is segmented into adult pool, kids pool and jacuzzi area on both ends of the adult pool.

We did just about everything; shot hoops, played in the mini water park in the kiddies pool, jacuzzi, sauna and of course swam in both indoor and outdoor pools. 

We weren't allowed to use the gym though because we didn't have trainers but providing a few pairs in the future for guests to borrow wouldn't hurt would it? Just wear your own socks.

There is an observation deck on the Residence (apartment) tower, you can access that at RM18 per person and enjoy the view from the highest observatory deck in Melaka but we didn't check it out. 

All in all, I love this hotel for the reasons stated above even though there were minor turn offs; you should check it out if you are looking for a comfortable place to stay in Melaka.

And for The Shore shopping gallery, despite being pretty small,  it actually houses an aquarium; worth checking out although I pity the animals in the tanks T_T. The mall also have a limited number of eateries for Muslims which I think is a shortfall.

Ps: in my very recent visit to Kuantan, I saw the new Swiss Garden Residences building just meters away from the old hotel, I'm guessing it would feature about the same concept and modern designs like this one too.