The tricky second stay
I rarely visit a hotel for a third time. My second visit always seems to unearth issues with the room, the service or the food. We usually get the same room type and even travel at similar times of year, but it really takes a special hotel to make you want to visit it thrice.
Where is the Anatara (And the Desaru Coast)
The Desaru Coast is located in the Southeast of Malaysia, close to the Singapore border. It was named one of the Top 100 places in the World by Time a few years ago. A batch of hotels has been built over the last decade, including a Hard Rock hotel, a Westin, One&Only (I’ll come back to that) and the Anantara.
It’s around two and a half hours by car from central Singapore to the hotel, or you can get a ferry from Tamar Merah ferry port, which is located just below Changi airport. Due to timing (the ferry to the Desaru Coast sets off very early), we chose to get a taxi there, then the ferry back.
The Anantara is one of two luxury brands on the Desaru Coast. The second is (or was) the One&Only. In May 2025, this changed to the Mandarin Oriental, just five years after opening. The rooms and restaurants remain largely unchanged, but with a new owner.
How much did we spend
We paid a total of £2,993 for a five-night stay in a one-bedroom Lagoon Pool Villa.
That works out at £598 per night. That price is almost exactly the same as what we paid two years ago to stay in the stay room.
We booked the room directly with Anantara, as they had the lowest price. That meant the Avios we earned for this hotel were just 4,489 when we paid with an Avios-earning credit card.
By booking direct, we got 176 Anantara dollars that can be used to reduce the cost of our next stay. Over the years, we’ve stayed in a few different Anatara resorts. The Banana Island resort in Doha, which is on its own island off the coast of Qatar, is run by the company.
Anatara dollars are used when you check out to reduce your bill, rather than up front to reduce the quoted rate.
Checking in at the Anantara
If you’ve read my previous hotel reviews, then you’ll know that I hate slow check-ins, but I make an exception for luxury resorts. Their entrance process is usually designed to help you relax and feel at ease. It runs at a slower pace, and I’m accepting of that.
At the Anantara, staff members will meet you at the front of the hotel and will take your bags. You’ll be walked to the Observatory Bar, which is just a few steps from the reception area, given a cold towel, and served a welcome drink.
Staff members will go through the payment and signing formalities, the dining options and ask if you want the turndown service.
If you’re staying in a villa, then a buggy will take you and your luggage to your room.
The Villa
We had stayed at this Anantara before, in this same room type, so we knew what we’d be getting. We were excited to return, as we had a great experience in 2023.
The villa is set over two stories and includes a small private pool and a large deck featuring a gazebo with a sofa and chairs, a small outdoor dining table, and two sunbeds. The garden faces onto a lagoon, so it feels private, although you have other villas to the left and right of you that are partially visible.
The outdoor space is exceptional. You can laze by your own pool, or sit under your gazebo if the sun gets too hot. On an evening, you can sit out on the decking, with the high average temperatures on the Desaru Coast, which means that even at 11 pm, it’s very warm.
Within the villa, the bedroom and primary bathroom are upstairs. Both are large and spacious. There’s also a small storage room suitable for storing your cases.
Downstairs, there’s a single room that’s your living and dining space, and a small guest toilet. The front door leads you to the front garden, and a gate that then takes you to the main hotel grounds. On the back is a patio door to your back garden and pool.
All in, it’s a really good-sized villa, and certainly more than enough space for a couple. The problem with this room isn’t the size or layout, but its age and how ragged it looks. I’ll come back to this later.
The villa pool
Think of this as more of a large jacuzzi. It’s not big enough to swim in, but it is an enjoyable place to spend half an hour.
It’s unheated, but given how warm it gets on the Desaru Coast, the temperature will rise to a comfortable level once the sun gets onto it.
It also has some jets that you can turn on, although half of ours didn’t work.
One of my favourite things about the Anatara is coming back from dinner and lazing on the sun loungers.
Facilities inside the villa
This is a well-stocked villa, with a coffee machine, fridge (with complimentary soft drinks) and a lot of water. The fridge and the water are restocked daily, and the villa also comes with beach towels alongside the towels in the main bathroom.
If you’ve forgotten your hat, then fear not. There are two, complete with Anantara branding, in the villa.
The Bathrooms
Downstairs is a guest toilet, and upstairs you have the primary bathroom. It’s a huge space, with a large shower (and a seat) alongside a separate toilet room, two sinks and a full-size freestanding bath.
There are toiletries by the bath, the sinks and in the shower, and they’re Anantara’s own-brand.
Facilities at the Anatara
There is a lot to do in this hotel. Aside from the many places to eat and drink, Anatara run an extensive events programme. There are plenty of free options, and also some paid activities.
The Anantara app lists all of the things you can do, although this has now been replaced by the Minor Hotels app. You can also find a list of activities in the reception.
I’d love to give you an in-depth review of the activities, but this was an extremely lazy holiday and we did very little except eat, drink and laze around the pool, with occasional visits to the gym.
There are two pools at the Anatara. The main pool is big enough to swim laps in, and is sat next to the main hotel building and the Tumeric restaurant.
It has plenty of seating options around it, from sunbeds to cabanas. There’s even seating inside the pool itself, with beds floating above the water.
Food and drink at the Antara Desaru Coast
There are plenty of options for food and drink. Given that it’s a long walk, or a shuttle bus ride, to any other hotels or restaurants, you might – like us – end up eating solely on the resort for your entire trip.
On-site, the options are:
- 24-hour room service, which we used twice.
- Sea, Fire and Salt – the premium restaurant next to the beach. We dined here once.
- Tumeric – the more accessible restaurant in the main building. We dined here twice, and this is also the space where breakfast is served.
- The Observator Bar – light food and drink, with stunning views.
- Infinity Bar – more light food and drink, next to the beach.
There’s also a bar next to the pool that has a limited food menu and is open during the day.
Dining at Tumeric
On our first night, we ate at Tumeric. On busy, usually weekend, nights they operate as a buffet, whilst on other evenings it’s a standard sit-down restaurant with a menu. We got to experience both, and on the evening of our arrival, it was the buffet. It was hectic, but the standard of food was good, and the total cost for two people was £63, including the tip. It was an easy option for our first night.
The second time we ate at Tumeric, it was much quieter, with three other tables taken. It was a standard menu service, the food was excellent, and the service was great.
Sea, Fire and Salt
This was the most disappointing restaurant. We dined here twice on a previous stay and loved it, and we planned to visit it twice again on this trip. Our only visit here was so frustrating that we avoided going back.
Firstly, like some of the other restaurants, the menu in here isn’t the same as the one on the Anantara app. It’s a minor frustration, but it is annoying to turn up to a restaurant expecting to order a dish and it’s no longer on the menu.
I ended up ordering a fillet steak, but without the foie grois that accompanied it. When the waiter checked on us ten minutes later, I made sure to ask again if my steak was due to come without the foie grois. Twenty minutes later, it arrived with the foie gras. I know that making adjustments can be frustrating for the restaurant, but why accept the change if it wasn’t possible?
This restaurant sits next to the beach, alongside the second pool and the Infinity bar. It’s a great place to dine when the sun is going down, but that poses a problem, and that is the flies.
I understand that when you’re dining outside, you might attract some flies. However, once our steaks arrived, a swarm descended on us, and no manner of automatic fly swatters (those spinning things) would deter them. It was a grim experience, and the staff member blamed it on the time of day. They could have moved us inside the restaurant, but that option wasn’t offered.
I was really looking forward to the dessert, as they had the same deconstructed apple tart on the menu that I had enjoyed on our previous visit. Sadly, the flies won, and we just wandered back to our room and ordered room service.
The Infinity Bar
This bar/restaurant sits next to the beach, behind the second pool and to the side of the Sea, Fire and Salt restaurant. It has a smaller menu and is more of a bar than a dining spot, but it’s an attractive, large space with great views out to sea.
During the day, it serves as a poolside bar, and at night, it’s a really nice option for a cocktail.
It’s usually busier than the Observatory Bar, which has a much smaller footprint, and it’s the space the hotel uses for private events.
The Observatory Bar
We loved this bar. It’s on the same level as the hotel reception, but as the rest of the resort is two floors lower, the Observator Bar gives you great views across the grounds.
It has a colonial feel and is quiet and relaxing, with rarely more than a handful of people in there, and it’s often completely deserted.
We watched the sun go down one night whilst sipping delicious cocktails, which were served with complimentary snacks. It is absolutely my favourite place to have a drink at this resort, although service can be a touch slow, even when you are the only guests in the bar.
You can order food in here, though the menu is more limited and the service issues persist.
Room Service
Anantara’s always seem to have an extensive room service menu. We used it to order dessert after our failed visit to Sea, Fire and Salt, and then again to have a light main meal one night. The service was prompt, and the food was fine.
What went right?
The Spa at the Anantara Desaru Coast is excellent. It’s well priced, and we did three couples’ massages over our five-night stay. The staff here are excellent.
We managed to get our third spa visit in on our final day, sneaking in one last treatment between breakfast and our ferry.
We couldn’t get a late checkout, but the hotel gave us access to another room so that we could take a shower and get dressed before we were driven to the ferry terminal.
We were deeply grateful that Anatara worked with us due to a transportation issue. Our transport was arranged via CarTrawler, but they cancelled a few hours before pickup. This was extremely annoying, and they made no effort to find us an alternative.
The team at our previous hotel, the excellent Pan Pacific in Singapore, worked with the Anatara to get us to our destination. That meant the Anantara had to get us a driver, on a public holiday, at very short notice.
The van that picked us up was high-end, with comfortable seating and complimentary soft drinks. We were very appreciative of how hard the staff worked to get us there.
The breakfast buffet
The breakfast buffet here is one of my favourites. The sheer breadth of choice surpasses that of any typical breakfast buffet, and they do a great job of covering local, regional, and Western tastes.
My favourite part of the buffet is the fresh local breads being cooked for you as you enter – I am a sucker for a breakfast Paratha.
The sheer scale of the options is so great that on your second or third day, you’ll end up finding more food options that you didn’t even know existed. They cram a lot into the space, and there’s food in places you didn’t notice.
There’s even a kids’ section for breakfast. The “no grown-ups allowed” wasn’t policed by the staff, and we ended up raiding the cookie jar (they were delicious).
Don’t judge me, but I did enjoy the bear pancakes on more than one occasion.
Away from breakfast, the hotel does try to make you feel special.
One evening, a complimentary gin experience from Botanist was delivered to our villa. This included a generous serving of Gin, mixers, snacks, ice and glassware. We sat by the pool and enjoyed the alcohol while the sun went down.
Finally, when we were relaxing around the main pool one day, the team came around with delicious complimentary ice pops. It was a nice touch on a hot day, and they also keep you topped up with iced water and cold towels.
The Beach
The far edge of the hotel touches the public beach. On our visits, it was quiet, with most people opting to sit by the pool. There are a couple of cabanas that are open for anyone to use, and as soon as you sit down, staff members will come over and set them up for you.
What went wrong?
There were too many minor issues during our stay.
Firstly, let’s talk about the villa itself. It’s a great space, and we loved the size of it. The terrace and pool are fantastic.
The problem is that everything is desperately in need of a refresh. Only one of the jacuzzi jets in the pool worked; some cracked tiles had been repaired, but it didn’t look like they did a good job.
The flooring in the villa itself is scuffed and marked. It’s just not what you’d expect for £600 per night. The shower is a great size, but the water will change from hot to cold in an unpredictable way.
Then there’s the service. Every member of staff is eager to help, but they lack the depth of experience to follow through effectively. An example is during the breakfast buffet (which is outstanding) where staff will take a hot drink order from you. Bear in mind that this is the only order that they’ll accept, everything else you have to get yourself.
The coffee conundrum(s)
Ordering and receiving coffee shouldn’t be this complex.
- At our first breakfast, we ordered coffee. Twenty-one minutes later (I do make very specific notes), our hot drinks hadn’t arrived, so we re-ordered. The original order had gone missing. Seven minutes later, they arrived.
- On the second day, my wife ordered an iced decaf oat milk latte. It arrived without ice, the milk did not taste like oat, and she questioned whether it had caffeine in it.
- On the third day, my wife ordered the same drink. This time it did have ice, and the milk was oat, but after double-checking if it was decaffeinated, they realised they had got this wrong.
- At our final breakfast, it was another twenty-minute wait for coffee. At this stage, my wife had given up on ordering coffee in the mornings.
The ordering issues continued beyond just breakfast. Twice, I ordered food in one of the restaurants and made some adjustments to the dish. This was accepted by the staff member, then completely ignored. One of those times I even double checked before the food arrived.
More food challenges
Then there’s the oddities. The menus within the Anantara app are all out of date versus the real menus in each restaurant, including the pricing. You turn up excited about a dish, and then find that it’s no longer available.
One night we ordered dessert to the room – I had the two scoops of ice cream, and my wife ordered the “frozen surprise” from the kids’ menu at half the price of my dish. My ice-cream was just a single scoop, as was hers (but on top of that she had marshmallows, and a miniature cone). It’s just strange that I paid double what she did, and got only half of what the menu said I would.
The wait time for a table at breakfast feels unnecessary on busy mornings. One day, we were sat waiting for 18 minutes, glancing at tables that just needed clearing. The staff at the hotel are polite and well-meaning, but it feels like, from a service perspective, they operate at 80% when it gets busy.
Here’s an opinion that might be unpopular. If you’re paying £600 a night for a suite you shouldn’t have to wait nearly twenty minutes for a table. A section in the restaurant just for suites, or even a pre-reservation service, could solve this problem.
A new, experienced manager was brought on to the resort a few months ago, so the hope is that they can turn this around. The service issues are deeply frustrating, especially given the resort’s excellence in other areas.
The Gym at the Anantara
There’s a small gym on the ground floor of the main hotel block. It’s open twenty-four hours a day, and is passable although some of the machines are a little old.
There are two running machines, two spin bikes and two benches. There are free weights, but like most hotels, there are some missing. Where do all these weights go?
Water is available via bottles in a fridge, and there are towels on offer. It’s not a bad hotel gym, just a bit small. Ultimately, it’s a perfectly passable space if you need to get in a simple workout.
Is this hotel suitable for couples?
This is the million-dollar question. Desaru Coast is a very family-friendly place, and the Anantara leans into this. During the week, we found it to be a good resort for a romantic trip. It was quieter and relaxing to dine at and walk around.
On the weekends, and the preceding Friday and the following Monday, it is a family-focused hotel, and that means kids everywhere.
This is not a complaint about kids; they (or more accurately, their parents) are paying for a room just like we are, but the hotel is a completely different place on weekends. The breakfasts are rammed, service is slower, and it’s a scrum to get food.
Getting to the Anantara by ferry
A ferry runs most days between the Desaru Coast terminal (less than ten minutes drive from the hotel) and the Tanah Merah port in Singapore (around fifteen minutes’ drive from central Singapore, and less than ten minutes to Changi Airport). The ferry service is run by Batam Fast.
The ferry goes from Singapore to Desaru in the morning (around 10am) and back to Singapore at around 5pm. The journey is slated as being 90 minutes, but it took us just sixty.
The ferry terminal at Desaru feels very new, and it’s much larger than what we expected. We arrived an hour and a half before the scheduled time, and after checking in at the Batam Fast counter, we were shown to an air-conditioned, but rather basic, room to await the boarding call.
The terminal itself has a small shop, a Forex counter, and a small restaurant that was closed. I assumed this was because we were travelling on an off-peak day.
About 45 minutes before the sailing time, they announced that we should go through security. This was similar to airport security.
Save some Malaysian Ringgits for the ferry.
Our cases and hand luggage were scanned, then we had to weigh our cases. The ticket price does not include suitcases, and these have to be paid for separately. We knew this already, but we did not know that the payment options were so limited. You either pay in cash or using an app that we hadn’t heard of. With cash, it has to be Malaysian Ringgit or Singapore Dollars, and in a cashless society, we had neither.
By luck, we did have some British Pounds, so we were let out of the secure zone to go back to the Forex counter to swap our GBP for Ringgit. Back through security again, we paid for our cases, then used the electronic passport gates to reach the boarding area.
After security, there is an underwhelming duty-free shop and a cafe counter that was closed. Thirty minutes before we were due to sail, they opened the doors and we could board the ship. In the end, it left port around twenty minutes before the scheduled time.
The ferry journey
It’s an enjoyable ride from the Desaru Coast to Singapore. It took just under ninety minutes, and as we had set off so early we ended up arriving up landing much earlier than expected
The ship was modern, with two seating areas. Inside the ferry, you have comfortable seating….
…and upstairs you have open-air seating. It was a glorious day, so we enjoyed the fresh air.
Once you get to Singapore, you’ll leave the boat, put your hand luggage through a scanner, go through passport control, and then pick up your cases at an airport-style baggage carousel.
The process is as fast as you can walk from the boat to the terminal. By the time we got through to baggage reclaim, our cases were there. The public area of the ferry terminal has its own restaurants and a convenience store.
We got a taxi to Changi, which took three minutes to arrive, and it was less than ten minutes to the airport terminal.
Ananta Desaru Coast: The Verdict
We’re already planning another trip to Singapore, and it’s highly unlikely that we’ll make the trip to the Desaru coast to return to the Anantara.
Our money and free time are just too valuable to risk on this hotel, given the niggles on this stay. We could overlook some of the problems, but all rolled in together they became a big disappointment. For £600 a night, we did expect more.
It’s entirely solvable. A refresh of the villas, and some staff training, and this would get back to being a very good resort, in a beautiful part of the world.
Anantara Desaru Coast Rating
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