How to pick a hotel to stay in Tawau?

If you are wondering what hotel suits you during your stay in Tawau, well depending on few things

1. What's your budget? Basically there are budget hotel ranging below RM100 and better ones between RM100 and RM200.
2. Location - do you want to stay at the town area where you can just walk around.
3. Breakfast. You like hotel which provide breakfast or you like to find your own breakfast. I had tried most of the breakfast at local hotel and not much special.
   
4. Ur here for vacation? or business stay? There are hotels which cater for businessman and travelers which provide different facilities.
   

New hotels in Tawau?

Lately there are many new hotels coming up in Tawau, Sabah.
I will post the pictures and more info soon....

MB Hotel

MB Hotel or known as May Blossom hotel is the new hotel in town. This 3 star hotel is situated at Jalan Haji Karim in the center of the town. It has 123 rooms and the room price range from RM80-RM150. Now opening to guest !!!

Kingston Executive Hotel

Kingston Executive Hotel is a newly opened hotel in Tawau. The Hotel is situated just next to King Park Hotel. The Hotel is situated right in front of a small roundabout. mmm.... what a feng shui.

You probably find it difficult to stop right in front of the main door entrance because you cannot stop in the middle of the roundabout. Anywhere there is a door at the back for easier drop off and pick up of guest. Again it is situated in the middle of town at Fajar area. There are few shops besides the hotel (actually just beside the main entrance of the hotel). There are KKDC (KK Diamond Center) selling jeweleries, a boutique selling clothes, a barber shop (Ken's Hair Salon) and also a sundry shop.

Monaco Hotel

Monaco Hotel is another shoplot hotel situated at the center of Tawau town in Fajar area Jalan Haji Karim. The hotel is actually just across King Park Hotel. For info on the nearby area you can check my King Park Hotel review. This hotel has been here for quite some time compared to the newer hotels at the same block.

Monaco Hotel rooms rate are Standard RM80, Superior (King Sized Bed) RM90, Superior (Twin Bed) RM 100 and Deluxe (Twin Bed) Rm 120. All Room for two persons only. Additional RM10 for extra bed/person.

The color of the hotel is yellow which makes it easy to be spotted as you pass by Fajar Complex area (Jalan Haji Karim). Because of the area is at the center of the town area with many offices and shoplots, parking space are kinda hard to find here. If you're looking for a budget hotel then this is a good one with the good location. The room might not be as good as Hotel Emas or Marco Polo Hotel. The good thing is you don't have to worry about getting food to eat at night or supper. Everywhere restaurant and food shop are just within walking distance.

King Park Hotel

King Park Hotel is another hotel situated right in the midde of the town area (Fajar) Haji Karim Road. This hotel has 100 rooms comprise of 5 types of room (standard RM98 nett, superior RM128/138 nett, deluxe RM148/155 nett, king/queen suite RM288 nett and duke suite RM388).

Good things about this hotel is that there are many nearby supermarkets (Milimewah), convenient stores (24 hour shop), pharmacies (Wah Choi, Hope Pharmacy) , bakeries (Multibake, Southern Cake House), entertainment centres (karaoke and pubs), Malaysian Airlines offices, Airasia office, travel agents, government & corporate offices, banks (Affin Bank, CIMB, Maybank, EON Bank) and food outlets are all within convenient walking distance. There are restaurants selling chinese food, western food (Olive) and specialties restaurant such as Japanese Restaurant (Eido Ichi), Sabah Chicken Rice, Jade Ocean Restaurant and Pizza Hut as well.

The hotel provides guests with the convinence of free and unlimited wireless boradband internet on all floors of the hotel. King Park also have function rooms avaliable to cater for various kinds of meetings, workshops, seminars and events. Other facilities include 24 Hour Reception, 24 Hour Security, IDD Telephone, Satellite Television, Coffee & Tea Making Facilities, Complimentary Local Newspaper, Room Service, Laundry Service, Luggage Storage Service, Airport Transfer, Meeting Room, FacilitiesBusiness Centre Service, Free Internet Wi-Fi Access, Safe Deposite Boxes and LockerWake-up Calls, Inter-Connecting Room, Priority Parking Slot, In-Room Fridge and Hot & Cold Shower. If your tired you can also try the Health Center providing massage and sauna inside the hotel

For more info pls visit the official website here

Hotel Emas

Hotel Emas is an established 3-star hotel for quite sometime in Tawau. It is considered one of the best local hotel here.Hotel Emas is a subsidiary company of local listed company Teck Guan Holdings. Eventhough the hotel is quite old but recently all the room are renovated back to provide better service for their guest. It has 126 hotel rooms and suites include a premier floor. The hotel also has a Health center providing massage and sauna. It is situated at Jalan Utara and about 30 minutes from airport and 5 minutes to the main town area. The hotel also provide shuttle service to airport for their guest at RM15 per trip.

Nearest food stall or restaurant would be a Malay stall situated in front of the hotel selling smoked fish and rice. Also beside the hotel is a Malay restaurant and if you prefer KFC, it is walking distance about a block away. Beside the KFC also you can find many food stalls selling vaious local foods such as nasi goreng, mee goreng, soto, satay, sayap (BBQ Chicken wings) and also fresh juices. If you need to online, KFC and also Sedap corner (another restaurant beside KFC) are providing free Wifi for their customers. If your bored or want to catch the latest movie, u can watch movies at STAR cineplex situated above KFC. The movie ticket cost about RM8 per entry.

The room facilities include air conditioning, fully carpeted with unsuited bathroom & hair dryer, ASTRO Channels for all suites,
IDD telephone systems, remote control colour TV with in-house movies, built-in mini bar with refrigerator, rooms are affixed with security latches, complimentary newspaper, beverage making facilities, complimentary shoe shine for all suites and 24-hours room service

For more info pls invite the website here

Room rates info :

Belmont Marco Polo

Belmont Marco Polo is another old established hotel situated in Tawau, Sabah. This 3 star hotel has 150 guest rooms. The hotel is situated in town area at the junction of Abaca Road and Clinic Road. One good thing I like about this hotel is the big parking space in front of the hotel for guest to park cars.

There are one supermarket nearby (Servay/Parkwell Departmental Store) which u can do your shopping. Another place u should go nearby is a market called Pasar Gantung (Hanging Market). You can buy some souvenirs at this market such as crystals jeweleries, batik mainly from Indonesia and handicrafts. At night you can eat supper at the stalls beside the market selling cucur pisang (fried banana), sayap (BBQ Chicken wing and it's inner parts-eg buttock) :P ,terang bulan and murtabak.

Room Facilities provided include Coffee/Tea making facilities, Colour TV, IDD telephone, In-house Movies, Mini Bar, Air Conditioning and Hairdryer

Hotel Services provided include Ball Room, Conference Room, Business Centre, Health Centre, Laundry, Hairdresser and Sauna

In house dining include Venice Coffe House, Marco Polo Lounge (live band) & Kublai Chinese Restaurant. Major credit card accepted.

The Kublai Chinese restaurant provide steam-boat buffet and BBQ buffet are served at the Hotel carpark area every Friday night. The steamboat is quite nice with various types of seafood selection, desserts, local dishes and fruits as well.

Kingston Hotel

Update soon

Herritage Hotel

Herritage Hotel is another hotel situated beside Monaco Hotel. The hotel is quite new which start operating since 2006 and the rooms are more comfortable compared to those budget hotel in the same block (First Hotel and Monaco Hotel). U can refer to the map i attached in my King Park review.

The hotel has 88 rooms consist of 26 Standard rooms, 51 Superior rooms, 9 Deluxe rooms and 2 Suite rooms. The rate are Standard Room (King/ Twin) RM128.00, Superior Room (King/ Twin) RM158.00, Deluxe Twin Room RM188.00, Deluxe King Room RM208.00 and Suite Room RM478.00. I would recommend you get the superior room if you not in budget as the normal standard rooms are without windows. If you don't mind facing the 4 walls then shouldn't be a problem. :P All the rooms are also provided with split unit air conditioning, hot and cold shower, coffee making facilities, ASTRO (Satellite TV) channels, IDD, writing desk and hair dryer on request. Inter-connecting rooms are also available. There are also function room available for conference (big and small). If you're looking for big function then you might want to consider the limited parking space around the area. There are many restaurant (Pizza Hut, local food) and travel agents (Airasia, MAS) nearby.

There is a travel agent office situated at the lobby of the hotel providing tour and packages to Mataking Island situated outside Semporna area. The advantage of staying in this hotel is the location is right at the center of the town (Fajar). The lobby of the hotel provide free wifi service.

For more info pls visit the hotel official website here

First Hotel

First Hotel is budget hotel situated at the same block as Heritage Hotel and Monaco Hotel. The building was painted in purple lately and easy to identify when you pass by Fajar area.

The room rate for standard is RM70, single deluxe RM80, suite RM95 and connecting room RM120.

Hotel facilities included air-conditional rooms with attached bathroom, hot shower, IDD telephone, colour TV, in-house movies, laundry services & health centre.

The location of the hotel is good and easy access to nearby shops.If your hungry there is a Malaysian Chicken Rice shop just beside the hotel lobby.

Eastern Hotel

Coming soon in year 2009...
Now under construction

Upcoming soon in Tawau is Eastern plaza and Eastern hotel which is part of the Kuhara Point Project which includes the 182-unit Kuhara Court condominiums beside it. The Eastern Hotel will be above the Eastern Plaza complex. The Eastern Hotel will be an 18-storey business hotel with 171 standard rooms, seven superior rooms and two executive suites. Once completed it will also provide a big banquet hall covering an area of 23,138 square feet that could easily accommodate 100 tables. Think would be the boiggest in Tawau.

The new Eastern Plaza shopping complex will offer 146,520 square feet of net retail area.The lower ground floor, ground floor and the first floor will have anchor tenants such as departmental stores and supermarkets. It will provide covered car parking facilities for 650 passenger cars in addition to 49 surface bays. The shop lots are selling for quite a high price.

Eastern Plaza is situated at Mile 1, Kuhara Road which is not at the town area. This will avoid the heavy traffic in town during peak hours.

Grace Hotel

Grace Hotel Tawau is situated at the Tawau lama street or known as old Tawau town. The previous owner of the hotel was take over by Grace Hotel Management. It is now renovated and looks nice. Room rate between RM60-Rm120. Good budget hotel.