Malaysia has many luxurious overwater villas that will make you feel like you are in Maldives, but without the hefty price tag. One of famous overwater villas in Malaysia is Avani Sepang Goldcoast Resort, which is conveniently located about 90 minutes drive from Kuala Lumpur City Centre, close to Sepang International Circuit. After hearing about the resort for so many years, we finally booked a 3 days 2 nights stay at Avani Sepang Goldcoast Resort on Christmas day last year. 

For those who drive here, complimentary self-parking is available in the private carpark outside the resort. The car park is located about 10 minutes walk away from the resort and there is no covered walkway to provide shade from the sun or the rain. 

There is also an option to park inside the resort compound, but you will need to a valet service at RM 25 per day and RM 10 per subsequent entry. Even though it is a little expensive, we still chose to park our car inside the resort compound because we didn't want drag our heavy luggage under the scorching sun.  All we have to do was to drop off our luggage at the lobby entrance, then hand the car key to the staff at the valet counter and head straight to the check-in counter.

The reception area is somewhat modest with only three check-in counters, which seems like a very small number for a resort with 392 villas. No one came forward to greet us or offer to take our luggage when we stepped into the resort. 

Checking-in was a breeze. Our room package included a guaranteed early check-in at 2 pm. We arrived at around 2.30 pm and were pleased to find that our room was ready. However, the check-out time will be 11 am instead of 12 pm because we check-in early.

After collecting our room key card, we took a buggy, which drove us right to the doorstep of our villa.

The resort offers 392 luxuriously appointed over-water villas that stretch out from the Sepang coastline, almost a kilometer into the sheltered water of the Straits of Malacca, forming the shape of a palm tree. Inspired by Polynesian and Maldivian architecture, blended with Malaysian interior design, all the rooms at Avani offer an unobstructed and stunning view of the sea.

Guests can choose from four room types, ranging from superior rooms to three bedrooms villas. 

Each villa are well spaced apart, giving ample of privacy from one another. The villas are all connected via wide concrete walkways and guests can get around by foot, bicycle or buggy. It will take about 15 minutes to walk from the reception area to the furthest water villas. Fortunately, there are buggies that continuously ferry guests down the "trunk" of the resort and out along one of the eight branches where dozens of villas are situated.  However, most of the time, we prefer to get around the resort by foot to explore the beautiful resort grounds. 

We checked into one of the superior room situated on the first and second floor of a building. The superior rooms are located nearer to the reception area, which formed the main "trunk" of the palm. There are 4 rooms in each building, and each of them has a very private and separate entrance.

The larger villas, on the other hand, are standalone with no upstairs, which offers complete privacy and space. Despite that there are 4 rooms in the building where our room is located, we had never bumped into our neighbors throughout our stay. It felt as though we had the entire building to ourselves.

Once we were inside the room, it was so silent that it made us forget that there is actually other guests staying next to our room. Measuring 52 square meters, the modernly furnished room is fitted with polished wooden floor, a large four-poster king size bed, a wardrobe, an en-suite bathroom, a safe to store valuable and a balcony. 

Other in room amenities included ironing equipment and a flat screen TV with only a limited selection movies-on-demand to watch. As we spent most of our time in the room, we would really appreciate to have more TV channels to watch. Complimentary Wifi is also available throughout the resort, but connection is really slow due to heavy usage. 

I love that there are plenty of windows so you will get plenty of sunlight and a nice view of the sea anywhere in the room. However, the room smelled a little musty when we first opened the door and walked in. There were also various stains on the bed sheet and comforter, which are really unsightly. The bed and pillows were also too soft to our liking, so we couldn't really sleep well at night. 

The bedroom and lounge area open up to a private balcony, set with table and chairs overlooking the sea.

The balcony is pretty big. We can spent hours sitting outside enjoying the fresh sea breeze while listening to the sound of birds. However, the waters in the Straits of Malacca is generally very calm, so you wouldn't hear the sound of waves crashing even on raining days.

Unlike Maldives, you are not allowed to jump into the water from your balcony. You wouldn't want to do that either because the waters isn't crystal clear or dreamy blue. Please note that fishing activities are not allowed within the resort grounds in order to preserve their local biodiversity fishing, Despite the "no fishing" sign that was being placed in the room, we still saw our neighbor fishing on their balcony a few blocks away. 

The attached marble bathroom is fitted with rain and hand shower with a frosted glass window that overlooks the wide open sea and allows plenty of sunlight into the space. Roller curtain can be drawn over the window for privacy. 

However, the rain shower was not working during our stay and there was also a drainage smell in the bathroom. Luckily, it was not overwhelming. Otherwise, we would have complained about it. 

The toiletries provided by the resort were very basic. There was no body wash and hair shampoo in the bathroom when we checked in because the housekeeping staff have forgotten to replenish them. I have to call the reception to request them to be delivered to our room.  Luckily, the housekeeping staff didn't take too long to deliver the toiletries to our room. 

Having stayed in numerous 5-star hotels and resorts, I must say that the quality of the body wash and shampoo provided by Avani were bad. They were watery and I didn't enjoy taking a shower with the toiletries provided by the resort. The towels also didn't smell fresh and there wasn't any hand towels provided in the bathroom at all. 

Coffee and tea making facilities are provided in the room, but the resort is a bit stingy with supplies. There were only two coffee sachets and four bags of tea provided, plus three bottled mineral water. There were coffee stains on the inside of the white mugs, which was a bit gross. There was also limited or no cutlery (spoons or stirrers) in the room and we had to reuse the only plastic stirrer provided again and again.

We actually had to request for more bottled mineral water and coffee sachets on the second day of our stay since the resort did not provide us with any housekeeping service. Fortunately, the housekeeping team sent the replenishment to us soon after we requested for them. 

 

Overall, the room was comfortable, but it might need some minor refurbishment as it is starting to show signs of wear and tear. Cleanliness and maintenance of the room definitely needs to be improved.

All along the main "trunk", you will find a number of buggy stops where you can sit down and wait for a buggy. But most of the time, we would choose to walk instead to wait for one to arrive. The buggy drivers would usually call out to us when they drive past us, asking if we need a ride, and send us to our destination.

The resort boasts an infinity pool and private beach. There are various activities available for all ages at the resort.  The beautiful infinity pool with an attached kids pool is located at the Clubhouse, in front of the Bila-Bila restaurant. This is also where the spa center is located. 

The pool offers a sweeping view of the sea and an amazing view of the sunset. However, it is very small, so it was always crowded with people most of the time. Furthermore, being located next to a restaurant means that there is little privacy. It was really hard to relax at the pool, especially during breakfast and dinner hours when the restaurant is the busiest. 

The seemingly clean beach offers a variety of water sports such as sailing, canoeing, windsurfing and stand-up paddle boarding for all ages, under the guidance of expert instructors. There are several sun loungers on the beach for guests to sit and sunbathe and a small stall selling drinks and ice creams.

The beach is great for swimming because the water is usually calm. However, during low tide, the water will be way off the shore, so you actually have to walk a long way over squelchy sand to reach the sea. 

With five restaurants on the premise, the resort offers an impressive selection of dining options for guests to choose from. Guests can opt to eat at Sepoi-Sepoi for local flavors; the Bila-Bila restaurant for local and international buffet options; Hai Sang Lou for Chinese cuisine, the beachfront Perahu for local and western gourmet fare on the deck and the Pantry for light snacks and coffee. 

We find that it was actually quite a good deal. The restaurant offers a fair balance between local and standard international fares. There was a good selection of food with various live cooking stations. The highlight of the buffet would be the dessert section, which seemed to offer endless choice of baked goodness for diners to choose from.  The quality of food were pretty good and the staff at the restaurant were also fast at replenishing the food and clearing the plates. 

However, there wasn't much choice for drinks. The restaurant only offers complimentary plain water, tea and coffee during the meal. If you would like to have something else to drink, you can pay for an 3 hours unlimited non-alcoholic drinks option at RM 15 per person, which was a little ridiculously overpriced. 

On the second night, we decided to have a romantic candlelight dinner on a wooden deck by the beach at Sepoi-Sepoi. We opted for the four course set dinner consisting of an appetizer, a soup, a main course and a dessert. Our room package entitled us a 20% off for dining and we thought that we could use the discount at the restaurant. However, we were told that we were not allowed to use it because the four course set dinner was already considered very "cheap". It costs RM 98 per person including tax, which was reasonable. Even so, I felt a bit "cheated" because we were told that we were entitled to 20% discount at any restaurants we chose to dine in when we check-in.  

For dessert, we had Passion Fruit Brulee with Vanilla Ice Cream. Nothing really exceptionally about it, but nevertheless, they were delicious. 

After dinner, we enjoyed an impressive fire show at 9 pm at the beach. The performer had performed a series of flaming tossing and fire eating stunts that never failed to impress the audience. There was even a photo-taking session with the performer after the show, but I am not sure whether you would have to pay for it.

5-star resort? No, I don't really think so. I would give this resort a 4-star at most. The resort still has a lot of areas needed to be improved. Personally, I feel that spending two nights here would be enough as there are nothing much to do. Yes, there are lots of activities to do, but most of them are not free. Furthermore, the charges are not cheap either. It was also hard for us to get out the resort because there are nothing much explore outside the resort. The RM 10 per subsequent entry parking charge deter us from driving out of the resort. 

All in all, our experience at Avani Sepang is great, but not expectational, especially when we just returned from a stay at The Kasturi Resort. For anyone looking for a relaxing destination to unwind not far from Kuala Lumpur, Avani Sepang Goldcoast Resort would be a good choice.