Shangri-La Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu

The resort is located 10 minutes away from town at Tanjung Aru beach which has one of the top 10 sunset views. There is a small section of (private) white sandy beach only accessible via the resort.

From the minute you arrive you'll be greeted by the concierge who will escort you to the check in desk and handle your luggage all the way to your room. Check in took a while but at this time you are offered a welcome drink.

The first "sea view" room I was offered at the Tanjung Wing only "face the sea" but the view was nothing but the water play slides and everything. It should really be sold as a "pool view" room. I complained and got changed to a room with a much better view (front sea view). If you could get room number 243 you can watch the sunset from your own balcony.

The room is spacious, clean and well equipped. The bathroom has both bath and shower and is of high quality. It has a fridge and coffee machine if you get a Horizon room. You can order all kinds of services from your room using their app including a selection of pillows, free water, toiletries, laundry service and so on and they are usually delivered within 15 mins even at peak time when the resort is fully booked.

Breakfast has a wide selection of Chinese, Malaysian, Korean, and Western food. And if you fancy anything not on the menu all you need to do is ask and their chef will try their best to make it happen. The resort also has other in-house restaurants but they are all very pricey. It is a common sight guests ordering take out to be delivered to the resort.

There is a shop selling souvenirs, some beach wears/toys, and local delicacies. The bar at the lobby has entertainment daily till midnight but it is open plan and is not air conditioned. The game room is fun and has plenty of activities to keep both kids and adults going. The infinity pool has a great view and the few water slides next to the main pool are a popular choice in the Malaysian heat. There is also an outdoor ping pong, two tennis courts, and an air conditioned fully equipped gym.

You can book a boat trip to 3 different islands which are popular for water sports, and it costs around RM70 to go to one island.

Comfortable stay at the beach.
Gorgeous view of the sea, islands, Mount Kinabalu. My 16-month old likes Kid Zone & children water-park. Staff are professional, friendly, helpful. Food, coffee, dessert, wine was amazing too!

It's a lovely hotel with spacious rooms and fantastic view of the ocean. Breakfast buffet and Saturday night buffet were good. Restaurant staff were very responsive and helpful despite the huge crowd. They looked a little understaffed with room cleaners looking tired - they didnt empty waste bins and also the bathroom didn't look like it was well cleaned. Overall a pretty good experience.

(Have not stayed at hotel)

Very nice looking hotel. We were only passing by, but needed to pray and were able to use the prayer room. We really would have liked to stay here but it was a little out of our budget. However, this place looks fantastic and is an excellent location next to a clean public beach, only 5min walk. Excellent views and pristine sand. Our kids loved playing here and the sunset was out of this world.

Nearby there are beach stalls around 10 to 15min walk. The location is a little far from most malls and shops but as we hired a car, this is extremely convenient if you want to have the sun and beach nearby. Verdana Park is only a 5min or 20min walk away.

Awesome place to stay. We stayed in the Kinabalu wing of the hotel. The hotel has a private beach that only guests can use. A live band was performing at the beachfront till late.

As it was Friday, the seafood buffet dinner was available, and we took it. It had a generous spread of food.
The breakfast spread was amazing too. Higky recommended!

We stayed here recently to meet family. From the moment of our arrival we had a wonderful experience. The rooms were excellent, the food was fantastic. The staff were the the most friendly, helpful and attentive group of people I have ever met. The special effort made to organize a special family function at short notice was exceptional and greatly appreciated. I was unable to find fault with any aspect of my stay. I would not hesitate in recommending this establishment to anyone wanting a relaxing enjoyable holiday. Five star plus.

The hotel is a very comfy stay. The room was big, quiet and had very good view. All the staffs were very polite and liked to greet us every time we walk past them. The breakfast buffet was great, with good variety of food options. And the hotel is near to the beach.

A resort that truly deserves its 5 stars.
You get both sea and Mountain View at once!

Love their poolside and sunset bar view, really astonishing!

Room is very comfortable and well maintained.
The service crew is really accommodating our requests. Kudos to the team!

Horizon lounge is only reserved for club members.
Overall, the food is good!

Our room allows us to have the Kinabalu Mountain View, truly amazing.
Would totally recommended.

Check in was seamless as I used the app. Over at counter I just needed to get my key and I felt lack of warmth coming from a resort. Have feedback this formally hence please take note. I was left to find my room given the resort is huge, no briefing of my package and suggestions of what i should do to book my island transfer or where to do my 1 hour non motorized activity.

Hotel facilities was great, rooms has hit and misses such as a very blurry tv (though it didn’t really matter as we were out) and not very cold fridge but otherwise we love the room space as we are a family with 2 young kids. Especially love the thoughtful drying rack at balcony and also ample of racks in toilet.

Dinner buffet at cafe tatu was great, breakfast buffet spread was nice just that it’s the same everyday. There is a great kids corner breakfast for little children which was thoughtful. Coffee machine needs a little improvement as it’s dispensing slowly and a long queue for it.

The ice cream bar was awesome and level of sweetness from the ice cream sandwich my kids ordered was really great. Less sweet is really more! Slides were great, baby pool was less chlorinated and great bigger pool for adults.

I would recommend coming back surely if not for the lovely sunset view.