Shangri-La's Rasa Ria Resort & Spa

Rooms

The rooms are decorated in a contemporary Asian design and all have a balcony or terrace, air conditioning, television, minibar and safe.

The Garden Wing offers 326 rooms and suites to suit both couples and families while the Ocean Wing’s 173 rooms offer a more luxurious, exclusive level of accommodation. The Ocean Wing has its own separate reception and check-in along with a pool exclusively for the use of Ocean Wing guests and exclusive use of the Oceano restaurant for breakfast daily.

Location

The resort has a secluded location on a beautiful, golden-sand beach, backed by rainforest. The adjoining nature reserve also offers great opportunities to learn more about the local flora and fauna.

There is a shuttle bus that does the 45-minute journey into Kota Kinabalu through the day and taxis are available costing around RM90-100.

Food and drink

With six restaurants, the resort offers a great variety of dining.

During the day, Tepi Laut is a poolside bar offering snacks and drinks while in the evening it evokes Malaysia’s traditions of street food stalls and open, shop-house restaurants with a variety of food “stalls”, offering a wide range of local and street food specialities.

Naan restaurant specialises in Northern Indian and Goan cuisine while Oceano offers authentic Italian recipes. Both restaurants are open for dinner while Oceano is also open for breakfast as an exclusive venue for Ocean Wing guests.

Also open in the evening only, Kozan serves classical Japanese teppanyaki where the food is artistically prepared and grilled on large iron hotplates in front of you by the chef. 

Finally the Coffee Terrace and the Golfer’s Terrace are open for all day dining.

Please note that sometimes in quieter periods, some of the restaurants may be closed, dependent on the hotel’s occupancy levels.

Families

Shangri-La's Rasa Ria Resort & Spa is an excellent choice for families, with something to appeal to all age groups. For children aged 5-11 there is a kids' club from 8am-7pm offering a wide variety of supervised creative activities such as batik painting, kite making, forest walks and ranger experiences.

Facilities and activities

The hotel offers a wealth of activities to enjoy including two large free-form swimming pools (one for the exclusive use of Ocean Wing guests) as well as a smaller children's pool and a choice of water sports. Complimentary water sports include sea kayaks, catamaran and boogie boarding, while there is also the option to book paddleboarding, jet-skiing and fishing for a local cost.

The hotel offers a range of activities in its nature reserve, which is home to a wide spectrum of Sabah wildlife. Although this wildlife can be harder to spot than in areas such as the Kinabatangan River or Danum Valley, you may see species of deer, long-tailed macaque, pheasant, civet, bear cat, masked musang, monitor lizard, water hen, porcupine, slow loris, pangolin, pitcher plant, fruit bat and many other species of bird. Please note there is a local charge for all nature reserve activities.

For golf enthusiasts, Dalit Bay Golf & Country Club is the resort’s 18-hole championship golf course. Bordered by the Tambalang and Mengkabong rivers, guests can tee-off with stunning views of Mount Kinabalu in the backdrop.

Environmental and social responsibility

One of the special features of the Rasa Ria is its Nature Reserve. The major focus of the reserve is wildlife conservation and the preservation of the delicate rainforest ecosystem alongside research, study and education schemes.

There is a Foster An Animal scheme that offers guests the option to adopt any of the animals found within the nature reserve.

The resort also offers a tree planting scheme originally set up in 1996 in response to the devastating effects of tropical storm Greg. The scheme is run in conjunction with the World Wide Fund and Sabah guests are encouraged to contribute to the reforestation effort by planting a sapling within the resort's 400 acre site.

Local excursions

Away from the beach there is an excellent choice of excursions that can be booked locally.

There are daily bicycle excursions to local villages or visiting nearby markets. The nearby Sea Gypsy community is also an interesting area to visit to appreciate a different type of culture. In the evening there are sunset cocktail cruises, as well as night-time fire fly spotting on a boat down the river.

It's also possible to book rafting excursions, trips to Mount Kinabalu National Park, horse riding and river excursions.

Diving

The hotel does not have its own dive centre although it can help guests arrange diving with a number of local operators. However, the diving in this area is not of the same quality as it is in many of our other regions.

Spa Facilities

The hotel boasts an excellent spa as part of the Dalit Bay Golf & Country Club with a number of treatment rooms. Treatments here include massages (including their Signature Rasa Hot Stones Massage), body scrubs, facials, manicures and pedicures.