We spent our last night in Kuala Lumpur at the Hilton near Sentral train station. Despite only holding Hilton Gold status, we were upgraded to an excellent room, with a large balcony.
We booked one night here along with our time at the Conrad Singapore to clean out the Hilton points bank once their most recent devaluation was announced. My other posts from this segment of the trip are a review of the Westin Kuala Lumpur and some of the places we visited in the area.
Hilton Kuala Lumpur
We checked in rather early in the afternoon, and I was pleased that our room was ready. I was even more happy with how nice the upgrade was. It seems there are only a few rooms with the large balcony at the property. That makes us 2 for 2 with nice upgrades at Hilton properties on our trip. Not bad for only having Gold status, but I’m content with my decision to clean out my Hilton account, and I’m not looking back.
The Hilton Kuala Lumpur is in a large hotel development near the Sentral train station. There are two towers, one housing a Le Meridien, and the other the Hilton. The towers are separate, but share a parking garage and a gym and are connected at the lower levels.
The lobby of the Hilton was under construction, so it was not really aesthetically pleasing, but elsewhere the hotel seemed modern and quite up to date. Thanks to Hilton Gold status, we were granted Executive Lounge access. The lounge opens at 6am for breakfast, has light refreshments all day, and evening cocktail service including alcoholic beverages plus hot and cold canapés between 5:30 and 8:30. There is an excellent view from the high floor lounge.
We also had access to free breakfast in the main restaurant in the lobby which is where we ate. This was an excellent buffet with many different stations, my only complaint was that it was overwhelmingly busy when we visited. It was crowded, and staff was hard to track down.
Garden Balcony King Room, Hilton Kuala Lumpur
The room itself was not particularly large, but was very nice. There was 2 single beds, which could be slid together into something close to a king. We would have preferred a king bed, but the free room upgrade was well worth that minor inconvenience.
The bathroom was quite nice with white marble around the bath and dark tiles on the floor around the shower. The Peter Thomas Roth products are pleasant.
When we returned to our room after some touring, I was surprised to see a welcome amenity.
The Hilton and Le Meridien share a large fitness center. It was very well equipped, and is bigger than my usual gym at home. There is also an excellent pool with a slide and some man-made caves and waterfalls.
Other than some snacks in the Executive Lounge and our breakfast in the lobby restaurant we did not dine on the hotel property. I was rather amused by this advert in the elevator. Anyone else find this to be NOT at all appetizing? With all of the tasty dining options in the city, I guess these hotel restaurants have to resort to gimmicks?
Final thoughts Hilton Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur was a nice stop on our trip, and the Hilton was better than expected, particularly the nice upgrade. After leaving KL, we headed back to Singapore and onward to the main destination for this trip, the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa.
