Arwana Perhentian Resort
Conveniently situated in the Pulau Perhentian Besar part of Perhentian Islands, this property puts you close to attractions and interesting dining options. Rated with 3 stars, this high-quality property provides guests with access to restaurant and outdoor pool on-site.
Announcements by hotel (1)
Due to Covid-19, the hotel will only be able to accept guest from local until further notice.Shuttle service
Breakfast [free]
Wi-Fi in public areas
Family room
Restaurant [halal]
Beach
Excellent”
Spacious room and very friendly staff. Good value for money, all in package -return trip from jetty, snorkeling trip and good breakfast.
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Spacious Room, Friendly Staff”
Room is very nice and spacious, got 2 king beds. The resort is newly renovated and the renovation is still ongoing but no noise at all. Breakfast buffet is okay. Pool is huge and nice but kinda dirty. The staff are very polite and nice and attentive. Location is okay because they have their own jetty and lots of restaurants along the beach. However the beach is not that nice, it's kinda "muddy" like the beach in Port Dickson. You can go island hopping and they will bring you to other beautiful beaches like the Long Beach etc. Overall I'm quite satisfied.
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Early mac 2020 trip”
We were there somewhere in Mac 2020. We booked 2 rooms and both are dusty due to the newly refurbish . However the staff came over and try to re-wipe&mop the dusty floor. Overall experience were ok. Nice scenary & food. Will come again to experience the full refurbish room.
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Very good”
No hair dryer provided . Otherwise room was satisfactory , food was good ,pool acceptable clean .
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Great hotel, not awful location”
Accomodation is very great. Huge and well furnished and decorated rooms and it has pool! Sadly, wifi is only in the lobby and mobile reception only digi and celcom. Staff is friendly but sometimes is not very helpful. They were able to solve quickly our issues with the room. But in regards to other requests - almost no help. We could not have lunch on arrival - their kitchen is closed till 2pm. Nearby eateries open only at 6 pm as they said. After 2 pm we found that buffet is only for private service and their cafe offers only rice and noodles with seafood/chiken + drinks on the menu. Nearby you get other eateries, some are closed till 6 pm, But some are open and we could have our lunch finally. Dinner we had also in some other cafe as you would guess. Our hotel could noot provide us with substancial meal. The beach and the sea - unlike other island and other beaches, this one does not fit for swimming. As the low tide, it is shallow with rocks, smelly and does not look clean.
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Newly renovated resort with good location of beautiful beach”
This resort had recently being renovated and very clean. It is located with beautiful beach. Being new, staff crew were fresh and facilities were undergone repair works. By May 2020, this resort should be able to offer good service and facilities
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Very good”
hotel did not provide toileties..remember to bring ur own..and no tv in the room..no wifi..n bring mosquito repellent..
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Great Island, not much to do”
No WiFi or tv in the rooms and with not much to do, it was too slow
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Very basic”
It fulfilled the most basic needs of a beach holiday with no extras. Food was not noteworthy and rooms were quite badly maintained
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Above average”
Under renovation, breakfast need to pay. In term of purchase. If breakfast is free. No available room for soft drink.
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Great location”
Nice and friendly staff
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Above average”
The pillows and the sheets smelled very bad. It took days to get used to it.
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Horrible ”
There is no pro. Cons as below 1. Very dirty swimming pool 2. Hot shower in room had faulty when check in and was not fixed properly 3. Horrible breakfast selection. I dont hv to elaborate. 4. Staff not briefed enough wit Covid 19 SOP 5. No room service and I had to sweep the room myself 6. Ridiculous expensive lunch @RM60/pax 7. No wifi in room 8. No TV in room 9. Very noisy room location
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Bad services. Room facility not complete. Poor and limited choice of food serve at restaurant. ”
Bad services, room facility not complete(don't have refrigerator, air dryer, shoes and towel can't change at counter), poor and limited choice of food that serve at restaurant. Breakfast food was bad. Will not recommend to go for this resort.
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Acceptable”
This was a total waste of money. I have been travelling for over 40 years and this is the worse place I have ever stayed in. No housekeeping. burners under food not on so food was cold, dead animal outside my room, awful smell of sewerage whilst sitting on the beach. receptionist constantly coughing (hope she does not have COVD-19), no mattress on sun bead but this may be due to covid-19 rules, surprised to see a buffet breakfast due to everyone then handling cutlery etc. no instructions on how to use shower - there were 2 and the one I used was cold. also in spa- I was asked to have a cold shower after a body scrub, no way I could get the scrub off my body. no ability to have a choice of food at lunchtime. dirty room, stains on table and large mirror not dusted. tea sachets and cups in room but no kettle.
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Very satisfied (zeer tevreden)”
The reviews did scare me, however we wanted to visit the Perhentian islands and we had no alternative. I must say the the resort was wonderful. Let me start with the room (we booked a superior room in the main building). The beds are more than ok, however the shower and toilet (both in the room and the one are the reception) could use some updating and that's an understatement). The breakfast is for malesian standerds very good. You can get toast, all kinds of pastry, fruits, cereal, and Malsian style breakfast. Moreover, you can order eggs (prepared in all ways: omelette, scrambled etc). The menu of the restaurant has enough choice. We also had lunch in other places, but I must say that the restaurant in Arwana was very good. The chef (Abdulrazak) is very kind and even gave us some Malaysian chicken saté. For diner they also have a very good bbq or fish steam boat. The best plus of the resort is the swimming pool. It is cleaned every morning. It is a shame that they do not invest in a good filtering system (you don;t need to clean the pool in the morning so in the long run saved you money and the pool isn't dirty in the evening). This is the largest swimming pool on the island. Is very useful if you have small children (and indeed for adults :-). The hotel has also it's own small pier. This is very handy if you need to carry luggage. You don't need to drag this over the beach to you resort. Another big plus it the diving school at the facility. For people that have no experience...the pool is very handy for learning the basics of diving. We took lessens and found are very satisfied...other schools go to shallow water witch is very hard due to the waves. Finally, the staff is very nice...although I believe this hold for most people in Malesia. I also took some din
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Pleasant Stay but Let Down by Dirty Beaches”
My family & I went for a 4-day stay at Arwana Perhentian Eco Resort (Family Deluxe room). Access to the resort is via speedboat from Kuala Besut jetty. Return Boat Transfer is arranged by the resort as part of the room package. In terms of appearance of the room and general facilities, it would help to align expectations that this is a simple resort with a rather spartan appearance. Although the resort has a spa center & karaoke room, I’ve never seen them open throughout my 4-day stay. As for the swimming pool with a waterfall feature, I’ve not seen any cleaning done during my stay. Consequently, expect quite a lot of dead leaves/debris inside the pool. Nevertheless, it’s not too dirty and my kids still had a great time swimming around. In the room, there is no TV, minibar, complementary mineral water or wifi in the room (WiFi is only available at the lobby area). Normally, it wouldn’t bother me not to have TV/WiFi, since I’d usually be outside exploring the locale but in this case, there really wasn’t much to see or do along Pulau Besar beach especially at night. Therefore having a TV and/or Wifi in the room would have been helpful. The shower heater can only be set at either ‘cold’ or ‘scalding hot’. Toiletries provided are at the bare minimum (just shampoo & body shower; no shower cap, toothbrush, sewing kit etc.). That said, the basic necessities are more than adequate for visitors whose sole purpose to Perhentian is for diving/snorkelling & not to relax in the resort. The resort has water dispensers at the ground floor, an essential amenity as drinking water is an expensive commodity in Perhentian. Customer service-wise, this is actually the best aspect of Arwana Perhentian, in my opinion. The staff are generally courteous and accommodating. You can ask them to arrange snorkelling activities for you. During one of those long & boring nights, you could also ask the staff to play some movies using the projector in the lobby. You could even request the hotel rest
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Very good location of the hotel.”
I can say I like this place very much, staff was amazing - they were always smiling and helpful, I like also staff in the kitchen and their really fabulous chicken curry. You can refill you plastic bottle with drinking water - it is for free just behind right corner of front desk. Pool is great but often there was a lot of people, if you want swim in the sea - the best place is on the right side of the beach. There are two tracks thru jungle - one 15 short but steepy and one longer 30 mins in more flat terrain and you can get to the other sides of the island. Be prepared for thousands of mosquitoes in the jungle! Snorkeling trip arraged by hotel with two funny guys was also fantastic - we saw really huge turtles and small sharks :) I can recommend this hotel to everyone. One more thing - the office providing transportation for hotel from Kuala Besut to Perhentian Islands is located very close to the pier in Kuala Besut.
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Perhentians are incredible”
i've stayed here twice and love it - first time was in the older, low priced fan rooms in the back, second time was in a new room with a/c in the front. i was very happy either way - to be honest, you don't really need a/c at night, most of the time, a fan is just fine. it's hot during the day in the perhentians, but you aren't going to be at the hotel during the day, you're going to be hiking or snorkelling or lounging on the beach. this hotel is conveniently situated in the middle ofthe island, so you're about equidistant to the beaches on both sides (maybe a 3 minute walk in either direction?) really nice staff. the monitor lizards and monkeys are no extra charge :)
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Good hotel full of service with a smile”
the hotel staff was friendly. as soon as we arrived, we were given welcome drinks. the person at the reception explained the hotel policies and services provided in detail upon check-in. what i really like about the staff is that they wear a smile in their faces whenever you see them. this maintains a warm and welcoming environment within the hotel premises. the room was spacious and the bed was comfortable to sleep on. it also has a balcony (used mostly by our friend who smokes) with a view of the forest. a tv was provided but you cannot really watch anything as the channels are not in english language. upon arrival, we were warned that when there will be a 5-minute power outage when they switch generators, but it was not bothersome as it was a 5 seconds outage. the building structure is old though. the flooring was squeaky. i was not a fan of the bathroom. it has a hose-looking bidet and the shower was giving out little water. the only good thing is that hot water can be set in the shower. the location was great as it was situated in the bigger island of perhentian. it has a long stretch of white beach and you have the beach to yourself as the there are few people in this section of perhentian.
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