Thistle, Port Dickson
Thistle Hotels http://www.thistle.com a UK chain recently opened a new resort in Port Dickson.
We're always on the lookout for close getaway places for the weekend, as a break for the parents, and enjoyable for the little ones. It should be affordable too.
One of the problems, is that most of the local places in the range of RM150-250, are usually not neat enough to be relaxing for me. Also a lot of the rooms tend to be dusty, with mungy carpets and air-conditioners. For a person allergic to dust, it results in having a weekend with flu like symptoms, rather than recovering from stress.
Thistle has none of this. Unfortunately is a bit on the high side, expect to pay around RM500/night in total with extra charges. Breakfast is included though.
Rooms
Clean, warm and cozy. The room is not too different form Hilton KL Sentral, with a 32in LCD TV and a cozy corner to read books. Little touches like tags promoting Malaysian latex mattresses shows attention to detail. The usual tea and coffee facilities are there also. It would be great if they had Milo sticks for the kids too. There is also Internet connection, but yeah right.. as if I'd pack my laptop for a weekend getaway. Didn't test it.
If you pick the sea view room you get lovely sunsets and a view of the pool.
Facilities
The pool is awesome, huge with two kid pools with water slides. Endless fun for the kids. There are also kids rooms, tennis courts and beach activities. The beach was clean, but being Port Dickson, it's not white sand and blue ocean as it looks like on their website. For those with older kids, the banana boats and kayaks rates were reasonable.
There are three restaurants, but we didn't try them out. The breakfast is great though and what we expected for the price, although it seemed at times the staff were overwhelmed. They have only been open for a month when I went there, and the for hire signs are still around.
Getting there
It's really easy, it's on Google Maps too. Basically it's North-South highway, Port Dickson exit.. then Port Dickson highway.. and at the end of the Port Dickson highway, turn left and there are ample signs letting you know that you're on the right track to Thistle. For me, it's a little over an hour and a half driving from Subang.
Overall, I would recommend this place. As mentioned before the only gripe is price, if it was about RM150 cheaper, it would be some place the family would go to more often.
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