Kuala Lumpur Trip: Staying at the New World Hotel

We stayed at the New World Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. It's located at Jalan Ampang and the hotel is a 10-minute walk away from Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC). Of course, when carrying a 3-year old, it can feel more like a 20-minute walk but that's beside the point.

New World Hotel is the 4-star sister of 5-star Renaissance Hotel (located right next to it). We chose the hotel upon the recommendation of Julie, my KL-based friend. She pointed out the nice pool (which we didn't get to use as we were so busy), the good location -- quite central but not as busy as an area like Bukit Bintang where higher-priced hotels like Regent and Marriott are located.

We were quite happy with the hotel. Service was good and efficient -- what with their tagline "delighted to serve." Response time for any request made (e.g. additional towels, sterilizing of feeding bottles, supply of bottled water) is about 15-30 minutes and someone always (and we mean ALWAYS) calls to ask if you got what you needed. The kids enjoyed the mentos candy which was always available at the front desk.

The hotel offers a shuttle service to KLCC at 11am and 6pm. If I remember right, they charge RM 2 (about P30) for adults and free for kids. We didn't get to use the shuttle because of the timing issue but when we came home, at night, from KLCC, the taxi I think charged us extra as he asked for RM 5. At that time the RM 2 didn't come to mind and I guess we were pretty clueless about taxi rates so we didn't argue. I suppose we were only too glad to be back at the hotel.

They have a pretty good breakfast buffet too at Tempts Cafe. The buffet has Asian specialties (Chinese, Japanese, Indian); a variety of cold cuts; regular breakfast items like pancakes, waffles, french toast, bacon, and eggs; fruits (e.g. very sweet watermelon, cut into cubes, no more seeds!); cereal (Adi always went for the koko krunch while Ali was happy with her fruit loops); and juices. The guava juice (the green variety) was very good - sweetish and slightly sour at the same time although in the latter days, it was replaced by the pink kind which hardly had any taste and seemed watered down.

It was a good stay for us and Adi says that he wants to stay in the same hotel if ever he goes back to KL. Another travel tip by the way -- when arranging things by package, please make sure that you check every detail in your voucher. I didn't. When we got to KL (1 hour delayed), there was no one to pick us up, contrary to what we had expected. We thought it was due to the delay but when we finally got hold of the KL-based travel agent, it turns out the wrong flight number was typed on the voucher. They had been waiting for us at 11am when our flight was still to arrive mid-afternoon. Even the Manila-based travel agent (my cousin) tried to get in touch with us saying that we were a "no-show" in KL. I then told him that the voucher had the wrong flight number. Oh well. We were picked up in about 30 minutes (after about 2-3 phone calls)and after some people tried to charge us again for the transfer so please be very diligent. I know I will. I will no longer assume that people can accurately copy flight numbers, dates, names -- as they were the ones who booked you anyway. Lesson learned. On with the trip...