Our 3 days 2 nights Activities in Shangri-La Rasa Ria @ Pantai Dalit, Tuaran, Sabah

We were happy to get to stay in such luxury and spacious room, but the kid is the one who were in jubilant mood, running into the designated bathroom, then into the balcony looking at the horizon, before digging into the mini bar and ask us for the potato chips she spotted.

And we really enjoyed the outdoor balcony. It makes a perfect scene to take Instagrammable photos, and the patio round rattan sofa is so relaxing for a unwind session while enjoying the breeze wafting our face. After the young kid fall asleep, I lay there, gaze at the horizon while being accompanied by random harmless insects and it felt so surreal to have such an escapade from the hectic urban life to this serene seaside.

If you feel like enjoying life to another notch here, you can engage the spa at the resort to prepare a bubble bath at the outdoor bathtub for a small token. Again, guess who was the happiest to indulge in the bubble bath? The enchanment of the bubble bath magic has been impregnated into our kid's mind till the day I am writing this article, as she is still playing with bubbles non stop during bath hours. 

Fret not about food choices in Shangri-La Rasa Ria even though the resort is located within a natural enclave. The only thing you should worry is about your stomach capacity.

One of the greatest perk of staying in Ocean Wing is that you get to exclusive visit to Oceano Modern Grill for their breakfast. It has lesser traffic, better choices and services.

Even better news if you are an early bird and someone who goes for heavy breakfast. You can enjoy your breakfast in Oceano Modern Grill first in the early morning, and head to Coffee Terrace for another breakfast before it closes at 10.30am or vice versa!

The exclusive breakfast at Oceano Modern Grill is provided on a la carte buffet style. You can order anything from the menu given in a limitless manner, and there are some other food such as waffles, churros, noodles and etc are available at buffet counter on help yourself basis.

Highly recommend you to try their Breakfast Steak, which is a pan seared Australian beef striploin 80gm and Egg Florentine! 

We were surprised to learn there is a Chinese and Oriental Restaurant - The Eighth in the resort. Usually Chinese food are offered in banquet and as a la carte dishes in hotel but The Eighth shines by serving Chinese dishes with a modern twist, and the seafood dishes here are must try as they get fresh seafood on daily basis. After all, the Southern China Sea is just within walking distance right?

One of the must order here is their Sabah Tiger Grouper Pot. The grouper is served in a pot along with superior broth, fried yam, mushroom, fish maw, red dates, wolfberry and ginseng, resulting a naturally sweet broth that is very appealing. Even our little kid can take quite a number of the soup! The soup becomes even savoury when it rains with chilling weather. 

Apart from that, the resident chef here, Chef Ng also carves his specialty dishes including Roasted Duck and Dang Gui Salted Chicken. Other worthy dishes here that we tried including Chili Lobster with Fried Mantou, Double Boiled Chicken Soup in Coconut and Yam Basked with Kung Pow Chicken. 

A very satisfying meal here at The Eighth that you should not miss.

The action packed Kozan Teppan-yaki Japanese restaurant in the resort provided additional fun to the dining experience. Over here, the chef will cook your food in front of you on an iron griddle, and perhaps fire up the dishes for you to witness the jaw-dropping moments. Seeing every dish prepared specially for us is so satisfying. 

Over 4 different types of Teppanyaki set is offered here, namely Kaze (Wind), Ten (Sky), Umi (Sea) and Kozan (Mountain). The price range starts at RM 207 nett per pax for the Kaze set to RM 388 nett for the Kozan set. We can tell you it is worth the price, considering we are served Hokkaido Scallop, Sabah Slipper Lobster, French Foie Gras, Australian Wagyu Beef Eye and ended with a garlic fried rice and dessert for the Kozan set. 

If you are a fish person, you can choose to go for the Umi set (RM 297) which we have tried too, featuring Hokkaido Scallop, Sabah Slipper Lobster, Norwegian Salmon and Black Cod.

A la carte dishes, wines and sakes are in the menu too. 

Tepi Laut is where we spent most of our dining hours. Does this mean we enjoy the food here? Yes we do, the food here is nice espcially the local dishes such as Tuaran Mee. Nevertheless, the main reason we frequenting Tepi Laut is the close proximity of the restaurant to the pool, so the kid can immediately enjoy her lunch or dinner after a fun time in the water. On top of that, the food in Tepi Laut is relatively affordable.

Buffet dinner is available on certain days at Tepi Laut, where different stalls counter in the restaurant will be operational and churning out delicious dishes. The restaurant is brimming with actions where chefs are busying rolling the dough and baking pizzas in the big oven, frying the wok to prepare the delicious Tuaran Mee after you select the ingredients, or slicing the sashimi to serve on your plate.

We always thought staying in a good hotel is a luxury because we ended up letting the luggages "sleep" inside the room and we spent most of the time exploring the cities or other places. Well, we changed out thought after a well spent 3 days 2 nights here as the resort offers a series of activities that we essentially found time is passing too fast here.

We had no idea what is E Foiling until we were introduced to it at the resort. Apparently, it is one of the coolest and latest water sport craze globally and therefore is one of the must try water activity when you are in Shangri-La Rasa Ria. As of the time penning this articles, E Foiling is exclusively available in both Shangri-La Rasa Ria and Shangri-La Tanjung Aru in Sabah in the entire Malaysia. 

Basically, E Foiling is an electronic surfing board that allows it to "fly" on top of water while you are on the board. It was fun and thrilling, with no prior experience needed as the trainer will give you the basic training that will make you succesfully stand on it. After all, balancing and water confidence are what you needed, thought we did swallow a few round of salty water before manage to succesfully "surf".

Don't miss the fun whenever you are here. Sign up for the E Foiling and you would not regret the experience lifelong. It cost RM 120 for 30 minutes and RM 240 for an hour session. 

I did not regret waking at 4.30am to join the Borneo Sunrise hike as I was rewarded with one of the most breathtaking sunrise with the sight of majestic Mount Kinabalu. The hike was made better as there are 2 experienced rangers tagging with us, detailing us the wonders surrounding the natural reserve and helping us to spot the rare animals such as bearcat, civet cat, reptiles and many more. 

The hike was easy as it was only a 98m ascending hill and will take probably 30 minutes. As we reached the top, beautiful sunrise awaiting us along with some delicious food. You may go for the premium package that comes with a bottle of VCP Champagne serve to you on top of the hill if you decided to splurge like us. It cost RM 565 nett per couple  for that (RM 158 per couple for light refreshment) and otherwise RM 45 nett per adult just for the guided walk without food. 

Other natural related activities offered in Rasa Ria Reserve including Canopy Walk, Night Walk with or without night vision goggles, ranger experience (for children above 4 who wants to learn basic jungle skills), bird watching and stingless bees experience.

Bringing a kid to a vacation could be a daunting experience if there is no activity to keep them entertain at times. Fret not at Rasa Ria Resort as there is a kids club with different activities such as treasure hunt, beads making and many more planned at certain time of the day so you can provide your kids with a fun filled vacation.

On top of that, the Cool Zone Club is like a mini playground for the kid to enjoy. Our kid was busy playing puzzles here while the mother has gone for a short nature walk in the adjacent Rasa Ria Reserve. 

Meanwhile, the adventure zone is another small playground to keep the little one engaged in physical activities, so they may have a great sleeping time later!

As Ocean Wing's guests, we have exclusive privilege to access to the swimming pools in Ocean Wing. It is less crowded and bigger, so the kid has a quiet and relaxing time here. Since MCO has been lifted, the resort management has decided to put back the 2 giant big floats in the pool too.

We can access the pools in Garden Wings too. Over here, the pool has a slide and is more kids oriented, but it is relatively crowded too. The kid had a fun time taking the water slides but has to endure a bit of kid traffic here.

After having the kid settle down, it has come to time for us as the adult to unwind ourselves with a spa during vacation. After all, our muscles have been stiffen over time and it is time to get it loosen a bit. 

Thanks to Shangri-La Rasa Ria for hosting us and Firefly Airlines for flying us from Penang to Kota Kinabalu on a direct flight. The 3 days 2 nights at Rasa Ria Resort were well spent, and staying in a resort within a natural enclave is an enlighting and surreal experience. It gave us a much needed escape from the hectic lifestyle and restart our mind and physicall wellbeing.

On top of that, Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort has everything you need in a vacation here - fun, food and rest. Certainly a resort that reaches beyond our expectations and worthy for every penny spent here.