A Day to Remember at Desaru

Everybody celebrate love and happiness during the month of February. This is the month where we celebrate Valentine's day. Couples usually date together, giving red roses, chocolates, stuff toys, and many other things as a love present to their special one.

But as for me, I shared love and happiness to my wife and to our lovely son not only during this month but throughout the year. Well, to go with the trend, we went to a nearby beach resort to escape the busy life in the city. We went to Desaru Tunamaya Beach and Spa Resort at Kota Tinggi, Johor, Malaysia. Thanks to my Company as I was able to get one night stay in a 4-star luxury hotel. 

Experiencing Desaru Tunamaya Beach Resort and Spa

To be honest, this is my first time to experience beach here in Johor, Malaysia. The scenery was good. I like the hotel room including the amenities that they have. We booked a twin bed deluxe room. The room was clean and spacious for couples with a baby like us. The structural design and concept of the building and room was very strategic as you can see from the balcony the sea, waves, and the light brown sands of the beach.

I went out and stay at the balcony with my son to captivate the beautiful scenery. From our balcony, we can see the gazebo, the beautiful landscape of the whole resort, swimming pool, gym,  playground for kids, beach volleyball area, and the sunbathing area nearby the beach. To top all, it was very relaxing.

In terms to the customer service of the hotel, I would rate it 9 out of 10, why?, because, upon reaching the hotel, an energetic young Filipino approached us with a smile and with his scripted lines “Thank you for coming over at Desaru Tunamaya Hotel.” From this point, it already shows something positive about the branding of the hotel. Hmmnnn…  if I’m not mistaken his name would be Micheal.

The customer service skills of their front desk/ reception area was very accommodating as well. They assisted us properly and guide us correctly as to where to go.

Since we have our baby with us, my wife earlier requested for a baby cot for my son during the booking of our reservation. To my surprise, just about 10 minutes upon entering our room, the hotel receptionist phone called us and reminded us about our request.  It's great and very professional. The hotel staff really take good care of us. I have nothing to say but good job for hiring this people.

About the Resort:

We roamed around the resort and please allow me to say it was an amazing experience. The waves in the beach seems a bit wild but I think we went in a wrong timing- it is the high tide season. But nonetheless, I still love the scenery. I dip myself in their swimming pool while my wife and son just stayed in one of the corner at the kids’ pool and enjoyed the scenery.

On that day, there was a group of men who was currently having their batch reunion. They had really enjoyed the place too. They set-up a musical band with a complete musical instrument like drums, piano, electric guitars,  sound mixer/ amplifiers, and speakers and rendered them with old songs from the 80’s,  and 90’s hit song.

I would also like to commend their landscape designs especially their blooming flowers. My wife loves it. We took a lot of photos.  

Night Life:

Night life about this small town was very simple. We went out around 6 pm.  We went to Taman Utama Desaru. It is approximately 5 kilometers away from the resort. We went there for a short walk and tried their food. But since we are looking for an air-conditioned place for my son, we ended up going to KFC and it seems that it is the only air-conditioned fast food in this area (I’m not sure about it).

This small place is also available with food places like Malay foods, mamak shops, auto-electrical shops, grocery, shopping places for clothes, and even for haircut shop.

I also took the opportunity to have my haircut to one of the haircut places ('kedai gunting rambut' in Malay term) at this place. The barber who is an Indian guy (sorry didn’t get his name) did my haircut and it was absolutely amazing as he was able to cut my hair nicely. FYI, I only paid RM11.

Complimentary Breakfasts At The Hotel:

Their complimentary breakfast was remarkable. It was located at the Panawar Restaurant inside the resort. The complimentary breakfast was a mixture of bread, chocolate muffins, nasi lamak, butter, milk, fruits, juice, coffee, sausage, boiled eggs, omelettes, and other Malaysian food. It may be simple but I like the way they presented the food. 

Going to this place:

I may be wrong, but I never seen a public bus that goes straight from Johor Bahru going to Desaru.

Going to Desaru Tunamaya was approximately 73.3 kilometers from our place at Pandan Area, JB via the JB East Coast Highway/Ruta 35 at Lebuhraya Senai-Desaru E22 highway. As a foreigner, I used waze to help me navigate how to go there.

The toll fee was RM9.90 per one way which I paid to Senai –Desaru Expressway Berhad. Using a toll needs to have the Touch’ Go Card because nowadays, cashless payment system is being implemented (in Malaysia).

The most especial thing about this route was the bridge that helps shorten the distance somewhere from Taman Lebah Kelulut Kongkong, Masai and Masjid Kampung Felcra Sungai Layau.

For our fuel expenses, I utilized an approximately RM23 per one trip with a fuel rate of RM2.30 per litter.

Bus chartering for special occasions likes wedding, company team building, reunions, school activities and others at this resort, I can recommend you to use Causeway Link Holidays.  Their customer service number is +607 360 2244 extension 2351.

Causeway Link is known as the yellow Smiling Bus that goes cross-border to and from Singapore and Johor Bahru (JB) and has also their own local routes that goes to different attraction places around JB area. And one more thing, they have a lot of different type of buses which you can choose too.