Hotels Near Lebam River in Bandar Penawar

Good location at the main junction behind Petronas service station and new Bandar Penawar township, many restaurants around, 2km away from Cherating public beach

We stayed for 2 nights at the Sebana Cove Resort, it is hard to really measure the hotel and really depends what you’re looking for. The resort is fairly old (25 years old), but I would disagree that it is worn off, it just isn’t brand new and shiny. The staff couldn’t be more friendly / helpful, same can be said of the security guards. Parking is free and you can park close to your room, there are no lifts/elevators so book a ground floor room if this is likely to be an issue for you or your party. Wifi was fine for us, you get a 3-day token which is good for 2 devices, we were given 1 per person. For general surfing this was fine, I didn’t stream Netflix so can’t comment. I’m not on holiday to be glued to a device. The location is a long way from the main road / town, you really need your own transport to stay here, I tried (unsuccessfully) to get a Grab taxi to take us into town, have a willing and sober driver in your party! The Marina area and hotel grounds are very well kept, the swimming pool could do with some love, but on the whole everything is nice enough (keep in mind the room rate you’re paying). If you want the Westin in Desaru, stay there and pay the premium. For us, the biggest negative was the food, breakfast is charged at 35MYR per person, the offering is small and its first time we’ve ever had breakfast in Asia without fresh fruit. Don’t expect an egg station or any artisan bread / coffee etc etc. It is a simple offering… Lunch and dinner is a similar basic affair, around 7-8 local dishes ranging from 20-30MYR each, note that dinner stopped serving at 8pm, last orders at 7pm. Offsite there are restaurants but they involve driving, obviously you have Super Lobster and Jades Garden Corner for a wide selection of seafood within a 20 minute drive. To add, you cannot get Grabfood to deliver to the hotel….food options are limited. The menu does not reflect the photos you see in on the hotel website, if only they did! From the hotel you get a beautiful sunset across the Marina, sadly you won’t be enjoying sundowners with this view, beer (Tiger/Carlsberg) was the only alcohol available.

My son and I recently went to Lotus Desaru and it was really fun. I actually didn’t expect a lot of things from here, but it really surprised me. The room was spacious, with high ceilings and cozy lighting. We had a bedroom upstairs, which made it feel even bigger. It was clean and comfortable, perfect for the two of us. Their cable even had Nickelodeon, so that was a plus, and they also had some movie channels. They also have room service from one of their restaurants, it can take 30-40 minutes to arrive but the food was really nice and eating inside your own room has some perks to it. My son absolutely loved the water park, and I enjoyed the pools too. There were plenty of activities to keep us entertained, and a good variety of restaurants with both seafood and western options. The breakfast was great, and the fact that you can catch the sunrise near the beach was a big bonus for us (make sure to head to the restaurant before 8 am, which we did). The beach was also beautiful with white sand and much better than I anticipated. The only thing that made me think twice about going back to the beach was that there was a rope attached to a buoy of some kind. First, I stepped on it and got small cuts on the sole of my right foot, and then I hit it again with my left, but this time, I hit the top part of my foot, resulting in even bigger cuts. I had to buy two band-aids (which were available nearby at the souvenir shop) to stop the bleeding. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who had that experience. I thought the ride from Johor Bahru to Desaru would take long but it only took about 1.5 hours by Grab. The fare from JB to Lotus on Saturday morning was RM255, but oddly enough, the ride back to JB was only RM130. Not sure why, but either way, it’s really not far at all for families coming from Singapore looking for a beach getaway like this. We had an amazing time (aside from that injury), and we are actually booked to go back in October with my two sons and wife, who couldn’t join last time. I highly recommend it for families who want a short ride and time off from the busy Singapore life.

Overall the hotel is nice and suitable for kids for playing water or the beach. Restaurant: Nelayan Seafood restaurant just beside and walkable and very convenient for lunch or dinner. Other than that they also have a small beach bar Tmaya beach bar but if they have an event such as a wedding event they will be closed. Pawana restaurant starts from 6.30 am -11pm. Ombak bistro starts from 4pm -12am Friday &Saturday Facility: Gym room is closed early but they mention operating time until 11 pm but 9 pm cannot open light. The kids pool is nice . Service : Due to my room having two doors easily I will lock the front door and cannot open the front door due to using a back door walk to the beach. Lucky service quite fast to open my door back. The hair dryer is not working well and lucky they provide new hair dryer.

It seems to come down to management. I’m truly curious about the staff’s training because their professionalism is lacking. When we came in, the three ladies stayed seated “working on Facebook”, only after I tried to make eye contact did they look up. Later in our stay, a young man and woman in the resort uniforms cut in between our group going through a doorway. It was a little odd but I thought they might be other guests but then I saw they were employees. There seems to be no concern for respecting guests. I agree with the negative breakfast buffet feedback- yikes. It was a true waste of money when we could’ve done much better calling in our own food or preparing ourselves. The beach is dirty but quiet and that was nice for our young children.

Extended our stay... spacious and clean room totally worth the price... the staff's are very friendly, only thing u have to go to the lobby and inform directly can't contact via phonecall... Very quite place.. has small pool.... room service done well.... Air cond is very cold, just need to wait 30min++ in beginning to get cool, after entering... bathroom is big and clean too.... water pressure is strong good... tv had medicore SG channels.. kids and us enjoyed watching... Felt safe and Independent stay.. Best to buy snacks & food before Check in as shops are not very nearby if u plan to relax in room... if have own car best to stay here as u can drive 15min++ to kampung pengerang and get food there right near the roundabout malay restaurant food was delicious and reasonable price... the place is tricky to find.. can use waze to klinik pengerang gateway.. it is in the same row as well.. easier... we visited the mini zoo desaru nearby 13min++ kids & adults will love it.. Beach could not visit due to rainning weather... Will definitely come here to stay for our next visit...

Beautiful rooms and resort! The infinity pool facing the sea was gorgeous! Our room and toilet were beautiful! The private pool was great but the water can be cold. It would be great if there could be a heater for the pool. There were a lot of insects (but it is understandable due to being surrounded by rainforest) so if you hate insects, do not stay in the rainforest room. We took the ocean room and it was already quite much lol. Our stay was AH-MAY-ZING. It was so private and luxurious. The staff were all very friendly and everyone showered our baby with so much love! We were deeply impressed and if you asked if we were ever going to stay there again, i would say “in a heartbeat!”. Thank you everyone for the amazing stay!

In Trip.com, it has offered us 2 Queen size room with share bathroom. But when we arrived this budget hotel, they told us there is no shared bathroom room. Instead, all the rooms will need to go out from their room to use few toilets which IA shared for 10 units of room. So, this is really bad experience for us as we will not book the room if its toilet is separated from the room. Quite disappointed for this experience!

Year end means holiday time for my little family. Arrived here quite early in the afternoon. Being promised that once the room is ready, the receptionist on duty will then give us a call, yet do assume that due to other urgent commitment and / or poor telecommunication coverage, it was no avail. (Disclaimer : my spouse got SMS informing that Maxis coverage will be temporarily affected at the current location, yet I never get one, although utilizing the very same provider) Just trying our luck to check in an hour early from prescribed time and viola! our room was readied accordingly. Room was adequately kept, small stains detected at the duvet, bidet sprayer malfunctioned. Not to be so fussy, we do embraced the imperfect condition accordingly. The room allocated to us in which purposely selected for sea view was nice. The hotel do situated not too far from other establishment. there is a residential area situated approximately 2km from the hotel, namely Taman Bayu Damai, in which do contained shophouses and basic necessity, if need do arise. Yet we did getting our daily doses of foods and other necessity down towards the south, in which nearer to Sungai Rengit. The foods readied at the hotel (in our case breakfast) were less then adequate in quality, but got nothing to complained about. Due to the time we have, we did embarked on sight seeing walkabout at the premises. Some of the attractions were abandoned, might be due to the ill effect of continuous MCO enforcement for the past 2 years. The beach was nice, but due to the timing of Monsoon, it will be not advisable to dwell into usual sea and beach activities too much. My two boys enjoyed their time playing with the sands, with much cautionary steps undertaken. Hopefully, as per my title of this review, time will heal this establishment, thus will be then enable them to offer their best package to prospectus guest.

Most ever worst room I stayed. This is the second time we booked Lotus resort. Previously, we stayed Lotus beach reasort at Desaru. We are impressed with loft units and amenities. So this time round, we decided to stay another Lotus Resort at Pengerang. We have booked 2 rooms standard King for 2 days which claim as near to beach. One is for us at 106. Another's room will be 108 for my parents in law. We found big red ants over room 106 on the desk, floor, and toilet. Make complaint to indian receptionist twice. One technician came to inspect, spray anti-ant, and believed what we had complained. The Indian receptionist only allowed us to change room to 152, which is super far from my in-laws room 108. Claims that only room is available for standard King. My in-laws room 108 is worse than us. They found a brunch of earth worms in the toilet bowl after flushed. Complaint to receptionist about issues. The same thing the technician came to solve was the problem. We are DISAPPOINTED for what we paid. Not value for money to stay there. We prefer Lotus Beach Resort Bandar Penawar at Desaru.