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What you get at One&Only Desaru Coast if you win our Malaysia competition

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We are currently running an excellent competition to win an ultra-luxury trip to Malaysia, including business class flights and a stay at One&Only Desaru Coast.

If you haven’t entered yet, all you need to do is complete the form at the bottom of this article.

One&Only Desaru Coast

Exploring One&Only Desaru Coast

We haven’t covered One&Only Desaru Coast on Head for Points before because it’s a brand new resort, opened on 6 September 2020. However, we suspect it is simply a matter of time before it becomes a firm favourite with readers travelling to Malaysia.

(You can’t redeem loyalty points for it, unfortunately!)

The One&Only brand is regarded by many as the pinnacle of ‘ultra-luxury’ travel. Resorts are located in some of the most beautiful locations in the world, are stylishly designed and offer a high standard of hospitality and service. One&Only Desaru Coast is the first One&Only property in Asia and looks very much up to the same ultra-luxury standard.

Designed by the award-winning Kerry Hill Architects, the architecture firm behind the Desert Palm in Dubai and the Datai in Langkawi, One&Only Desaru Coast is designed to be a modern interpretation of the traditional Malaysia ‘kampung’ or village.

A Junior Suite at One&Only Desaru Coast
A Junior Suite at One&Only Desaru Coast

Comprised of 42 standalone Junior Suites and two expansive two-bedroom Grand Suites (nothing as boring as a basic room at this resort!), all with their own private plunge pool and shrouded in lush greenery, all accommodation offers true seclusion and privacy.

In addition to the suites, those needing accommodation for a larger group can book ‘Villa One’, a four-bedroom residence, situated in its own enclave and featuring a private spa treatment room, courtyard garden and 27-metre private swimming pool.

Dining at One&Only Desaru Coast

One&Only Desaru Coast offers four dining options to guests.

Ember Beach Club is barbeque-inspired cooking. Helmed by renowned chef Andrew Walsh, the Ember Beach Club offers up mouth-watering options such as Grilled Baby Lobster cooked in its shell and basted with rich brown butter and a home-made XO sauce, and tender Wagyu Ribeye with kampot black pepper sauce and shallot jam. A beach club unlike any other in Malaysia, it is expected to become a popular venue for stunning sunsets, live music and social events.

For a more intimate culinary experience, Hoshi is One&Only Desaru Coast’s signature restaurant and offers traditional Japanese cooking alongside modern culinary expertise.

For those seeking some traditional Malaysian cuisine, local specialties are available at Essential, a pool-side daytime dining option and Ambara is a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant that showcases produce from local farmers and the resort’s own garden.

Making the most of One&Only Desaru Coast

One&Only Desaru Coast has been designed to be an ‘escape from city life’. Given its location on the south-eastern shoreline of Malaysia between lush rainforests, an expansive white sand beach and the South China Sea, yet also just a few hours’ drive from Singapore, it’s easy to see how this is true.

Making the most of the beautiful environments on their doorstep, One&Only Desru Coast has created a number of excursions for guests from tree-climbing experiences to deep sea fishing trips. I particularly like the sound of a jungle trek to hear the calls of the White-Handed Gibbons in the nearby Panti Forest Reserve. Accompanied by the resort’s resident naturalist, you can hope to see some of the forest reserve’s residents, such as Dusky Leak Monkeys, Pig-Tailed Macaques and Oriental Pied Hornbills.

As you would expect, the resort itself offers plenty of ways to keep yourself busy too, including the Chenot Spa, a state-of-the-art fitness studio, specialist pilates studio and beachfront yoga pavilion.

The serene Chenot Spa One&Only Desaru Coast
The serene Chenot Spa

Families can take advantage of KidsOnly, activities and experiences designed to engage children with the destination, such as EcoLab, where kids can learn about the local ecosystem and The Fisherman Hut, a pond for fishing.

For teens, there’s tons of activities on offer at One Tribe including bicycle riding, sports facilities such as basketball, foosball, archery, badminton, football, volleyball, tennis with certified tennis coaches and golf lessons.

Win a holiday at One&Only Desaru Coast

We are delighted that the lucky winner of our competition with Malaysia Airlines to win Business Class flights to Malaysia will also be able to experience the ultra-luxury standard of accommodation that One&Only Desaru Coast offers. Quite frankly, the HfP team all wish we could enter the competition ourselves!

If you haven’t entered yet, there’s still some time – the competition closes at midnight on 10th October. You can have up three entries per person and with a prize like this on offer, it’s worth trebling your changes.

You get your first entry by filling out the Gleam app at the bottom of this article (or by clicking through to the Gleam website here if it doesn’t show on your device) and giving us your name, email address and (purely for validation purposes if you win) date of birth. 

You will get an optional second entry to the competition if you sign up to Malaysia Airlines’ newsletter.  To get the second entry, simply tick the relevant box on the entry form to sign up to their newsletter.  You can unsubscribe at any time.

Finally, for one more entry, follow the instructions on the competition page to get an easy entry if you visit the new Malaysia Airlines Instagram page especially for the UK.

Good luck and a huge thank you to Malaysia Airlines and One&Only Resorts for providing this truly fabulous prize.

Comments (9)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Crafty says:

    “it is simply a matter of time before it becomes a firm favourite with readers travelling to Malaysia.”

    “(You can’t redeem loyalty points for it, unfortunately!)”

    Sadly, given the concept and name of this website, one is likely to preclude the other!

  • marcw says:

    Let’s hope MH doesn’t go under…. Apparently liquidity is very very low….

    • Tom says:

      I think they are fairly likely to be bailed out (again). However, I could well foresee a situation where someone wins this competition and MH doesn’t honour it (assuming they are footing the bill and not O&O). Hopefully not, as this is a great thing for HfP to have organised.

      I also note O&O is suddenly ‘the pinnacle of ultra-luxury travel’, which it clearly is not. At least it’s closer than the bizarre claim HfP made previously that Four Seasons was “generally regarded as the best hotel chain in the world”, though!

      • Rob says:

        FS is the best hotel chain of scale in the world.

        I gave O&O some leeway 🙂

      • TGLoyalty says:

        I can’t think of a better global luxury chain with a fair number of properties than FS

        Smaller more niche groups in certain regions or countries might be better but no where near the FS footprint.

        Anyway often the best property in a particular area is the one that meets your personal requirements rather than the brand over the door.

  • Polly says:

    Still wouldn’t turn it down if we won it.. might be worth a visit when we finally get back to Asia…there will be deals..currently 2 trips, Nov and Feb now cancelled, sadly…

  • Mark says:

    £15 for a cocktail. Is this London or Malaysia?!

    • Blenz101 says:

      A cocktail in a similar class of hotel in London would easily cost more than £15. The same is easily true of Singapore.

      Whilst parts of Asia are cheap there are plenty of resorts across the region which charge ‘western’ prices which their target audience is comfortable with.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

      I was all set to agree with you, but it looks like 65MYR for a signature cocktail at the bar, which is only about £13 with tax. I’d expect to pay 50-60myr at somewhere like the Datai or the Mandarin Oriental so it’s not too out of line with the market.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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