KL Trip March 2013 – The Crib Hotel Bukit Bintang

March 27, 2013 by cruiseoflife 2 Comments

I know that in my previous post I said we are ready to explore, but first…..these explorers must find a place to rest and have a good night sleep. As usual, choosing a hotel was another dilemma for me because I had so many considerations in my mind.

1. The location.

I must choose between KLCC area or Bukit Bintang Area. Most hotels in KLCC are four or five starts hotels (which are very expensive), but very close to Suria Mall, KLCC Park, Petronas Tower, Petrosains, and Aquaria KLCC. Since entering Petrosains and Aquaria are not cheap at all (and so we must choose one), so in my calculation we could visit all those places in just one day. And since this area is quite luxurious with branded shopping centers and five stars hotel, the food would not be cheap either or it would be difficult to find street food like what we wanted. The travel distance between this area to other places that we wanted to go is also quite far.

So finally I chose a hotel in Bukit Bintang, because it’s close to monorail station so it would be easier for us to travel here and there. It is full of non branded shopping centers which my parents liked so much (but there are also branded shopping centers like in Pavilion), eateries everywhere which would satisfy daddy’s appetite, and of course cheaper hotel with good condition.

2. Itinerary

Since our flight home was at midnight, so I planned to take lil boy to Berjaya Times Square Theme Park to spend 3 or 4 hours playing around, while my parents could do some last minute shopping and daddy could sit and relax in one the the cafes/restaurants. And BTS is in the area of Bukit Bintang, so it would be easier for us to walk from the hotel to BTS, came back to the hotel concierge to take our luggage in the evening, and went to KLIA using the monorail from Bukit Bintang Station.

3. Change hotel?

I thought of changing the hotel in the second day, from KLCC hotel to Bukit Bintang Hotel, but I cancelled this (thankfully) because I definitely hate to unpack and pack and unpack and pack again.

3. What kind of hotel?

The choices were:

• 1 big room in five stars hotel for all of us. Hmm……not too comfortable but saved our money since we only booked one room
• 2 small rooms in small hotel which is cheaper
• apartment style with 2 bedroom (still quite expensive)
• hotel with swimming pool or no swimming pool

For cost efficiency, I almost booked option number two with no swimming pool. But since this was going to be a relaxing holiday, we wanted to enjoy the hotel too. Lil boy would be disappointed if there were no pools in the hotel (he likes swimming so much). Although he would not complain, but I really wanted him to really enjoy his stay at the hotel. Small room also meant that we couldn’t stay long enough in the room (would get bored) and must went out very often to enjoy the day. For the first time, we agreed we would not going with a very tight schedule and would use the occasion to also rest and build family bonding.

So besides the budget constraint, we finally agreed to compromise with the budget and chose a condo style hotel with two bedrooms (which was a wise choice). After much considerations, I finally chose Premier Room with 2 bedrooms in The Crib Hotel. It costed less than S$350 for two days and three nights. Still cheaper than booking one room in five stars hotel, and the room was absolutely comparable to a five stars hotel. We really felt like home here.

If you’re a real tourist (not a businessman) and has limited budget like ours, it’s best to stay in Bukit Bintang Area. We found out that it was so easy to go from Bukit Bintang to KLCC.

The best thing about this hotel is the location. Located within walking distance to Bukit Bintang Monoral Station, Lot One Shopping Center, Sungei Wang Plasa, Berjaya Times Square, Pavilion Mall which has a bridge linked to KLCC, and other shopping centers. There are food courts and restaurants surrounding the hotel, and also not to forget Jalan Alor is very easy to reach from here.

Top pictures: view from hotel room. Bottom pictures: view from swimming pool

This is actually a condominium, so you will not find reception counter once you enter this hotel. The building is actually Bintang Fairlene Residences, so please do find the signs of Bintang Fairlene Residences and not The Crib Hotel. Bintang and Crib have different hotel management. Once you enter, the security guard will ask whether you are the guest of Bintang or Crib. Than you must call the contact number of the Crib Hotel Management (if you bought this hotel voucher via Agoda like us, you will find the contact number in the booking form). She will then come down to bring you to her office in 13th floor.

She will give you an access card to enter the hotel (you can enter until the lobby and can not get inside if you don’t have this card), and lift card to access the elevator to your room. So it’s very safe. The staff (Patrice) was very nice, friendly, and also very helpful. She let us did the early check in at about 10.30 am. The cleaning staff (a lady) was also very nice, polite, and helpful.

The room was (to our surprise): SPACIOUS…….clean and very nice. The moment my boy stepped into the room, he couldn’t stop admiring the room and kept saying :”Kamarnya bagus banget (the room is awesome)”.

Family room with sofa bed, shiny kitchen, and big dining table

Small guest room which leads to the second room and master bedroom with big closet to play hide and seek

One shower room and toilet which connected to each other but separated by a thick glass door

So after we had our lunch and arrived at the hotel, everybody (especially lil boy) refused to get out from the hotel room, hahaha…….Lil boy said he would like to enjoy his hotel room first by doing this:

Running around, playing hide and seek, and chasing daddy everywhere

So all of us (except lil boy) decided to take a nap for 1 or 2 hours. I had no idea what lil boy did while I was sleeping (probably playing around and watching TV). Do notes that they are no cable TV in here, but we still had fun anyway.

You see, that was why my plan to visit Petrosains was failed, because we chose to stay at the hotel than walking under the very hot sun outside. The best thing was, all of us really enjoyed this hotel and spent many time lazying around in front of the TV, on the sofa, or on bed. I was so glad that I actually chose this spacious room since there was more than enough spaces for all of us.

Drawing, eating, watching TV, relax on the very comfortable bed, playing with my iphone

The beds were surprisingly very comfortable and soft. For this trip, lil boy agree not to bring his ipad, so we were “ipad-less” during this holiday. So, since we had no ipad, we chose to play traditional games like these (which brought  a lot of laughter):

Main suit (paper scissors stone), main ayam (catch my thumb with your thumb), and guess what I draw

And the highlight of this hotel…….was of course the pool. Our own private pool, nobody was there when we were swimming.

Pools with breathtaking view, relax in the chairs while snacking on Beryl’s chocolates

Mommy teaches me how to swim……….(emak irit daripada diikutin kursus)

I LOVE SWIMMING

Thanks mommy for choosing a hotel with a swimming pool………really brighten up my day

At the end, we decided to bring our luggage to Berjaya Times Square to save time, and since the location was very near to BTS, it was easy and convenient for us to do that.

Patrice also gave us a late check out at 2 pm. What an enjoyable stay.