Price/value is totally off and feels like tailored to western tourists that don't know better.
- Food: too expensive for Malaysia standards. For example, beef rendang, costs 45 RM - which is 10 USD or 13 SGD. This is not very expensive for Europeans maybe, but here is some context: In Singapore, the most expensive country in the world, you can find the same dish for 4 SGD/3 USD in a hawker centre and lets not forget that Malaysia is considered a low cost country. In Mersing, the ferry terminal city to Tioman Island, my wife and I got a vegetarian omelette, chicken noodles and 2 drinks for 3 USD (!). In addition, there is really no other F&B/restaurant you can go to as you need to take a hotel boat to genting jetty to have more options or you walk 30 minutes through the beaten off paths through the jungle alongside the beach.
- Room facilities, esp. bathroom, is worn down a bit: Water running out of the toilet on floor, crooked sink, toilet flush not working properly (sometimes yes, sometimes not).
We ran into high season it seems as we paid ~375 SGD / ~270 USD per night for a basic chalet (including simple but tasty breakfast buffet). Read that again... and check what you get on Koh Tao (a somewhat comparable island in Thailand) or other places in South East Asia for that. Hence we came to expect a top-notch resort like the Buri Rasa on Koh Phangan (go if you can! it's a dream!). We left Melina Beach a bit disappointed for this unexplainable price strategy...
So if the price is 1/3 of what we paid, plus reduced food prices in the resort, I would recommend it. Given all above points though, we can't recommend this resort as much as this saddens us as the staff and vibe is amazing.
We are sharing this with good intent, as we believe feedback creates transparency and helps to improve, so I hope the owners of the Melina Beach Resort kindly accept the feedback.
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