Another of my Sentosa escapade to experience another Far East Hospitality property, thanks to a friend’s generous donation of his Amex Platinum voucher. Excited to find out what does a hotel which caters to only 16yo and above offer heh.
Address – 10 Artillery Avenue #03-01 Palawan Ridge, Singapore 099951. Website.
Contact (Central Reservations) – Tel: +65 6722 0801 / Email: info.toh@fareast.com.sg.
Location – Located within the Far East enclave of hotels on Sentosa near to Oasia and connected to Village Hotel, the hotel is the designated adult fun / romantic spot within the compound where guests can enjoy some much-needed tranquility, though it ends once you step outside the main lobby to the shared facilities with its sister properties. With no direct access to a monorail station, getting to the nearest mall means walking out to where Oasia Hotel is and hopping on the Sentosa monorail to get around the island, or getting on to their shuttle service (more on this later).
Price – with the voucher, I paid $190nett for a Deluxe Room (room-only) using the Amex Platinum voucher which I thought was a steal! A dummy check showed $300+ for my stay dates so yayyy.
Pre-arrival – I had to reschedule my stay to a few days later than originally booked and the process was like pulling teeth. I emailed to request for a date change – and got no reply. After 6 days, I called in to no apologies – but my change was confirmed over the phone verbally and I was told a revised confirmation will be sent shortly – but nothing came. I emailed to follow up a few days later (and by this time my actual stay dates were getting closer) and was simply told the change has indeed been effected in the system and to present my original confirmation for check in – noting at this point no revised confirmation was forthcoming. I pushed back to ask for assurance that I will have no issues presenting a confirmation with expired dates for check in – and finally the revised confirmation came. Getting a revised confirmation should not have been so difficult!
Not quite the ‘exclusive’, ‘stylish’ start I was hoping for.
Check In – The drop off point for the hotel is located at the carpark of the property which may feel odd for some. A small staffed welcome desk is there to assist with luggage – I was warmly welcomed and invited to proceed to level 3 for check in.
The 2 check-in desks at the smallish lobby was occupied when I arrived but I was quickly asked to take a seat before being attended to quickly. Check in is a seated affair here with the staff faultlessly polite with no issues redeeming the voucher. The lobby is actually quite pretty and has a somewhat Barracks feel to it.
While seated, I was presented a refreshing welcome drink made of green tea something but I found it quite hilarious that they only gave literally 2 sips of it leaving the pineapply copper cupware largely “for show”- surely they can afford to give more?? I asked to add on breakfast at $35++ ($40++ for walk in) as well and was invited to book a timing from 5 stipulated slots (with some timings only 30mins long) which I thought was odd as I’d only seen that during COVID times where safe management was necessary – I really prefer not to be limited to fixed timing! Enquired and was told it was for crowd control purposes – whatever that means.
Part of the check in formalities also includes customizing your own set of welcome snacks – the staff led me to an entire drawer of snacks to pick 5 – I thought this was quite a fun gesture!
Room – I was told I had been given a Deluxe Room (24SqM) with a seaview (versus a pool view). My room, 407 (24SqM), was actually super nice and I can completely see the romantic vibe that the hotel was going for. Everything was clean, tastefully designed, and seemingly in high quality finishings which is always nice to enjoy.
A narrow hallway opens up to be everything non-bedroom for a start, with the open concept wardrobe behind the door panel (wonder if this is part of being “romantic”) – those bathrobes are really comfy!
The length then leads on to the sink area with the amenity kits with limited countertop space.
…..with the last section of this length being your mini bar containing a nespresso and other necessary stuff – shoutout to the classy cupware!
Opposite this area is your toilet (got bidet!) and a generous standing shower space equipped with toiletries from the Appelles brand. You know you are in a nice spot when even the toilet paper is wrapped in a hotel-branded cover.
Drinking water in the room comes in a form of a tap at the sink area offering “premium drinking water” – no wrestling with bottled water needed here.
The bedroom space is a cosy square of a semi-firm king bed facing a smart TV (got chromecast!), bedside tables though limited space to put your barangs, and a (maybe) 2-seater couch equipped with a mobile desk which turned out to be super useful for my tabaos. I liked very much the bedside lamp design which illuminates the space just nice in a non-blinding way.
The “seaview” I got was hindered by fauna on a growth spurt but okay I spotted some bits of sea. This view can also be moderated with day and night blinds if you wish.
Facilities – Because it was an absolutely blazing day, I quickly hopped past their pools to take these obligatory photos (website)
Pool Deck / Pool Bar (level 3 – same as lobby level) – open from 7 am – 8 pm, this is a shared facility with Village Hotel so do not expect the same adult-only theme here. Plenty of fun pool corners to navigate for everyone.
Sky Pool (level 7) – open from 7am to 6pm for hotel guests at no cost, with cover charges from 6pm onwards – presumingly for guests who are partying there and really needs that soak.
I also spotted these Social Pods in the level 3 space and found it quite amusing – little booths to sit and chat in in an alfresco setting. Now, where are the anti-social ones?
Their Fitness Centre is a further walk down the level 3 route and is rather perfunctory.
Breakfast – served from 7am – 10:30am at Sol & Ora located on level 7, there is actually no signage to tell guests where breakfast is once you exit the lift – you just have to meander along the corridor until you find it – some sort of signage won’t hurt! The space is actually quite nice with spacious seating in different permutation, all decked in resorty-shades of brown and grey.
The spread itself….is quite sad. I mean, I’m 100% an advocate for hotel breakfast and not having to head out for the first meal of the day but the quality here is the first hotel in Singapore which makes me question the choice. At $35++, it is undeniably overpriced for the offerings (they even messed up bacon!) – cheap catering quality stuff with no egg station. Do yourself a favor and drive out if you can. Boo.
Service – great service throughout from front desk, housekeeping, drop off point – all smilely efficiency and I was even proactively asked if I needed any help while waiting for the lift on one occasion. Great proactiveness!
Shuttle service – guests have access to a shared shuttle service with Village Hotel which makes it way to Beach Station on the Sentosa monorail before heading to Vivo City and looping back to the hotel – it runs almost every half hourly from 8:00am – 9:30pm (except 11:30am and 7:00pm). No reservation is needed, just wait at the shared carpark’s coach bay. I found this super useful as it enabled me to squeeze in some shopping time as well as get home on public transport (!).
Check Out – Painlessly done at 1230pm on a weekend as all charges were settled at check in.
In summary,
a great price to check off this property – would not pay regular rates for it though. And please skip breakfast if you have to pay extra.
And as always, since Far East properties does not offer any loyalty programmes, you can check out Klook for any deals! (affiliated links included).