Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa Kuantan

Every year I'd plan a trip during my birthday. Unfortunately this year, it was cancelled - because the situation in Bangkok was uneasy. Plus my friend & I just got back from another trip earlier, and we were both busy with work.. bla bla bla.. So I opt to go somewhere in Malaysia, within reasonable driving distance. Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa Kuantan came to mind as I haven't been to the East Coast for quite some time. I need keropok lekor & nasi dagang.

Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa Kuantan

I booked my room earlier on Agoda so checking in was smooth, altho there were a slight of a crowd at the lobby. Oh btw, I love the lobby - it's so spacious and airy. A lot of seats where you can just chill out. We stayed for 2 nights, which cost us RM680.92 for a Deluxe Room including breakfast. The room was spacious & clean but the condition is a bit old. And if you plan to use the water heater, please check it out first because ours was rusty.

Our room 

We had ourselves a single bed each, and bed condition is only an "OK" for me. The bathroom was a bit small, tho. Bathtub can barely fit me in, not in width but in length - and I am short. 

The small bathtub

Sink

The toilet

It was about a 3-hour drive from KL in the middle of the day with the hot sun and all.. so by the time we checked in, we were starving! Since I was the only driver & was too tired to drive out for food, we had dinner at their restaurant - The Garden Terrace.

My western food - beef

Local nasi goreng

Food was awesome. No, it's not because we were super hungry but it was actually good. We had nasi goreng & some-western-food-I-can't-recall-the-name. Service was not so good - slow; but then again it was 3pm (after lunch hour) and I believe the staff are all tired. Let's just give'em a break, shall we? This cost us about RM70++.

Moving on to the beach. Oh before that - the walkway. Full of greens, it's so soothing to the eyes. And again, it's airy.

Green open field towards the beach

As for the beach itself, may not be as "awesome" as some of the other beaches in the area, but it was great for me. Mainly because it was not a public beach, so it wasn't crowded. The water is not so blue but a beach's a beach - and I take it as it is.

The beach

Beach activities

An almost-empty beach

Sunset behind the hotel

That night we had dinner at their Chinese restaurant - The Blossom. We had lemon chicken, dried chili chicken, broccoli & can't recall others, it was one of the dinner sets that they offer. And it came with a pot of chrysanthemum tea (with the flowers) & it's refillable. This cost us around RM80++.

Hotel lobby

After dinner we hanged out at the lobby. There's a flow of water, it was soothing & cooling - I loved it. It looked out to the beach, of course. Since it was night time, all we can see was lights from the lamppost.

Sunrise @ the beach

So anywho, the next day we checked out the sunrise. And after breakfast we headed towards Kuala Terengganu. Just because I missed Pasar Payang.

Terengganu is mostly occupied with Muslims, so on a Friday afternoon it was seriously deserted. We had trouble finding food for lunch, so we stuffed ourselves with keropok lekor & headed back to Kuantan.

Pantai Batu Buruk

Pantai Batu Buruk

We took the beach road, to get some scenery. Earlier my GPS directed us through a new highway towards Kuala Terengganu, which was such a turn off! So we had our stops - 1st was at Pantai Batu Buruk.

The beach was nicer here than in Balok Beach, Beserah (where the hotel is). I was the only one who went near the water. You know Malaysians, we have a lot of sun on a lot of days, so none of us wants to expose ourselves to the afternoon sun.

Shop along the road

Took a few snaps of pics & continued the journey. 2nd stop was at a shop by the roadside. We were getting hungry so we bought some sata. There was a small pondok behind the shop for us to sit, eat & enjoy the view and sound of the waves from the South China Sea.

My fav picture throughout the trip

Above is a picture of the pondok, earlier occupied by an old man who walked away as the kid in white & his family approched. It is one of my favorite picture from my entire collection.

Afterwards we drove again, but about an hour away from hotel, I started to feel dizzy from hunger. So we made another pit stop by the roadside where a stall was selling nasi dagang. A plate cost us RM3, a price you can never get in KL - but the portion was a bit small tho. Enough to just get me going again.

Later that night, it was time for room service since we were still hungry. (Yes, I could eat a horse & it can actually fit in my huge tummy). We ordered 3 dishes - Fish & Chips, Beef burger & Mee goreng. Plus 2 cans of Coke & it cost us around RM80++ if I'm not mistaken. Again, the food was excellent.

Random guy in the water

We spent the next morning in the waters before heading back to KL. It was a good thing that we checked out on a Saturday because the crowd was getting bigger. There were a whole lot more families with young children & there was a seminar for Petronas staff.

So all in, it was an OK stay. I may come again if there's no other places that I can go to. Much more suitable if you're bringing a family instead of on a couples/single trip.

Check out the Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa Kuantan website to get more details.