Why the Lotus Desaru resort is an excellent choice for a family holiday in Malaysia

Desaru beach is a fantastic family-friendly destination in Malaysia. At only around 100km from Johor Bahru and Singapore, it’s an easy long weekend trip from either place.

The beach is lovely, there is plenty to do, and you’ve got a handful of nice resorts to choose from.

We stayed at the Lotus Desaru Beach Resort & Spa, a huge family-friendly resort on the beach. It’s definitely one of the best places for families on a budget to stay. We got a two-bedroom apartment with a small kitchenette and living area, which was ideal for us. Those with a bit more to spend can check out the Westin or the Hard Rock Hotel a little further along the beach.

Read on to learn about what’s on offer at the Lotus Desaru and how we enjoyed our stay!

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The Lotus Desaru beach resort waterpark

The biggest drawcard for families to stay at Lotus Desaru is the resort’s waterpark.

The star feature is what they call the lazy river, which is more like a long, slow, winding slide. It’s broken into sections with a little whirlpool in between each one.

There are no height or age restrictions, so it was awesome that we could do this as a family.

Luckily, the lazy river is only open from 9 am-12 pm and 3-6 pm every day. Otherwise, it may have been impossible to get the kids away! We did a decent lazy river stint for four days in a row ?.

The waterpark is open from 8 am until 8 pm every day. It also features a water play playground with slides, a large pool with a waterfall, and a huge splashing coconut.

If you find the waterpark too busy, the resort has two other large pools that are much quieter (or just don’t travel on a holiday weekend like we did) ?

Other things to do at the Lotus Desaru

Aside from the waterpark and pools, there are tons of other things to do at the Lotus Desaru.

? The resort is located on the beach, so you can swim or try one of the watersports available. Examples include parasailing, jet skiing, and banana boat rides.

? Drop the kids at the kids club for a couple of hours. For 20RM, they can do sand art, read books, play with toys, watch a movie, and do puzzles.

? Other activity options include archery and paintball

? The people at the front desk can arrange tours for you to see attractions in the Desaru area and beyond. They’ll also book you taxis to places like Legoland in Johor Bahru.

? The Lotus Desaru has an on-site spa, perfect for a bit of pampering when the kids are busy with resort activities.

The resort also has four restaurants, including Thai, Chinese, Western, Malaysian, Indian, and Korean cuisine. So it’s really easy to stay a few days and simply enjoy all that’s on offer.

Other things to do in Desaru

There are plenty of things to do in Desaru if you want to head outside the beach and your resort.

Usually, we would have done other things, but the main purpose of our trip was to see my sister and her husband, so we just moved between their resort and ours!

Additionally, most of the other popular activities are animal-based tourist attractions, which we don’t normally support unless we’ve carefully researched them (and most I personally decide against).

We arrived a day earlier than our family, intending to go to the Desaru Coast Adventure Waterpark. However, we decided against it in the end, based on the price (150RM per person) and the fact that the girls were happy with our resort’s waterpark, so we really made the most of that!

We were also told that we wouldn’t find it any better than the waterpark at Legoland Malaysia, which we have an annual pass for.

Some of the other things you may wish to check out in Desaru include:

*The Desaru Fruit Farm
* The Desaru Ostrich Farm
* Els Club Desaru Coast Golf Course
* The Teluk Sengat Crocodile Farm

Visiting other parts of Malaysia? Make sure you check out these top things to do with kids in Penang and KL.

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