Jun 22, 2009 11:08 PM
1605 Views
My mom and I stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Singapore for 7 nights this previous December over the Christmas-New Year period and loved it. We were in Singapore to relax, shop and have fun, and wanted a luxury hotel in a very central location that was close to public transportation. The Grand Hyatt fit the bill on all fronts. It's located right on Orchard Road(the prime shopping and eating hub of downtown Singapore) and is literally around the corner from the Orchard Road metro station(the red line).
The hotel is beautiful. Very unusual assymetrical entrance doors(we read later in the guide book that the lobby was redesigned a few years back on feng shui principles as the hotel wasn't doing well at the time, and since the redesign, it's been very successful!) and a kind of pre-lobby area you walk through with the main lobby located behind. We were staying in a deluxe room, which was very large. Rooms are ultra-modern in design - blond wood furniture, 37-inch wall mounted LCD TV, DVD player(which we never used) and a separate work area with a desk. Our room overlooked the pool but the view is just a standard city hotel view. Very nice bathroom with separate tub and shower stall. The beds are super-comfortable with very luxurious mattresses that make it hard to wake up in the morning!
As part of our room rate, daily breakfast buffet was included in the ground floor Straits coffee shop. Very lavish spread of fresh fruits, juices(they can make you a custom juice - my mom asked for a ginger and sugarcane juice blend, no problem!), breads, hot foods like eggs, pancakes, etc., and a custom omelette station. They also had a large variety of Asian breakfast food - miso soup, soba noodles, Malay curries, etc. but they all looked so rich, we never got up the courage to try any of those dishes! They have several nice restaurants but we were so busy eating out we never tried any of them. They have a super bake shop on site with lovely sandwiches, pastries and desserts in case you come back late and want a little snack but not a full meal.
Being a city hotel, there are no real gardens. However, they have an onsite Damai spa that offers lots of treatments, plus pool, tennis and a state of the art workout studio with lovely equipment. Have to work off those excess pounds accumulated from breakfast!
The two biggest pros are the location - when you step outside, you are surrounded by malls, cafes and restaurants and are literally a two-minute walk to the Metro - and the service. Typical Asian service, very friendly and helpful. All the staff speak excellent(though accented) English and are most helpful to make restaurant recommendations, book tickets to the zoo, etc. I believe the business facilities are very good, though obviously we didn't try them.
To sum up, I think it's a great hotel for leisure travel. The location, room size, amenities and service are hard to beat. One tip - the rack rate is expensive so see if you can get a discounted fare. We booked through https://asiarooms.com and they gave us a great rate with breakfast included, and at the maximum peak season.
