In Reply to: Bali via KL posted by shak n chris on Wednesday, 8. July 2009 at 17:14 Bali Time:
even consider staying at the Royale Bintang, unless of course you like staying at dirty, poorly run 3-star hotels that cater to large groups of rude Chinese and Malaysian nationals.
I didn't see too many westerners staying here...and for good reason.
Our 'deluxe' room was filthy from top to bottom, mould all over the bathroom, stained dirty carpets,etc.etc.
For us though, the final straw was the appalling breakfast set-up. Not only did we have to wait in a queue for 20 minutes until a table became available, but the buffet itself was poorly run and the food was terrible...and no-one seemed to care when we wanted anything that they had run out of.
The moment we saw a cockroach run across the buffet we went back to our room, packed our bags and checked out.
Shak, you're on a well deserved holiday.
Spend $50- $100 more a night and treat yourself.
Traders Hotel is ranked #1 in KL by TripAdvisor and will probably cost you an extra $50 a night and I have heard good reports about the Melia, Parkroyal, and Istana which are all stones throw from the Golden Triangle.
I have stayed at the Westin and the Ritz Carlton and they are both superb, but maybe $200-$250 per night.
My pick if you were really watching the pennies would be Traders Hotel.
But please, please don't stay at the Royale Bintang.
Hope this helps.