Review of The Banyan Tree Kuala Lumpur: A Luxurious City Retreat

Finding a good hotel that feels like a haven to come back to after a busy day exploring is part of the joy of travel for me. I don’t mind being uncomfortable exploring, pushing my comfort zone and taking difficult journeys, but I do love an oasis to come back to. The Banyan Tree Kuala Lumpur is, to me, a perfect urban oasis. So who wants to discover a luxurious city retreat with me?

Location of The Banyan Tree

The Banyan Tree is located around a 45 minute drive from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and the hotel can organise smooth and simple transfers from your arrival terminal.

The Banyan Tree is conveniently located just outside of the Bukit Bintang area in Kuala Lumpur city centre, around a 10 minute walk south of the Petronas Towers and KLCC Park. It’s attached the Pavilion KL mall, which makes it perfect for finding food at the end of a busy day as the mall offers over 100 restaurants to choose from. To get to the mall you need to go to Level 1, then instead of going out of the doors, turn right and head to the lift and stairs behind the Café which will take you to the mall access corridor at level 2.

The Banyan Tree is also a 30 minute walk away from the Merdeka area, home to the old Colonial district, china town and a number of markets. You can also easily take a taxi to other parts of the city within 30 minutes, including the Botanical Gardens and Thean Hou Temple.

Merdeka Square (L), Thean Hou Temple (R)

Accommodation at The Banyan Tree

The hotel occupies floors 53 – 58 of the building it’s located in. This means there’s no reception on the ground floor as it’s on floor 53. This can feel a little ‘soulless’ coming in to a hotel and it just being an empty lobby with one person directing you to the lift, but the moment you pop up on floor 53, all is forgotten because the accommodation is warm, inviting and a true city oasis.

The accommodation at The Banyan Tree is really calming. We stayed in a Signature Banyan Tree King room, which came in lovely neutral colours, with a warm stone bathroom, all looking out over the city. You could choose a Sky Retreat or Sanctuary Suite room, which provide the additional benefit of views out to the Petronas Towers from your window.

The room itself was spacious, with a huge bed, comfortable seating area, large desk area, and lobby entrance area including a mini-bar and storage. The room is made up daily, and there is also a turn down service which ensures the lighting is dimmed, curtains are closed, fluffy slippers are laid out, and incense is burning. A perfect calm oasis to come back to after dinner.

Seating area and view to the desk area

The bathroom also came complete with double sink, huge walk in shower, walk in closet area and separate toilet. But the star was the huge stone bath with city views. The hotel also offered a bath menu, where they would make up a bath for you with various options (e.g. rose petals, lavender scent, bubbles) ready for a time to suit you arriving back.

Double sink and walking through to the bath

Food & Drink at The Banyan Tree

The Banyan Tree offers a few food and drink options. The main restaurant is Horizon Grill, set on the 58th floor and offering panoramic views out to The Petronas Towers. It’s here every day that breakfast is served. Breakfast is included in the room rate, though the menu itself is quite limited. With this view, I didn’t mind at all!

Breakfast plates

In the evening, Horizon offers a large menu and some great wine options, including my beloved Whispering Angel wine. We chose to go non-Asian with our evening meal there (our only non-Asian meal of the week) and went with Surf n Turf. It was truly delicious. This was the most expensive meal we had in Kuala Lumpur, but was still reasonably priced for a top end hotel – expect to pay around ￡20pp for a main course and drink.

Delicious steak and prawns

Also on site is newly opened Torito (a Peru-Japan fusion restaurant), and Bake (a café serving coffee, cakes and snacks). Both of these are situated on the ground floor and we didn’t eat in either so cannot review them but Google ratings show me 5/5 for Torito so perhaps we should have tried it!

For drinks, The Banyan Tree offers something special. It has a rooftop bar called Vertigo which is just stunning with its panoramic views of The Petronas Towers as the sun goes down. Even better, hotel guests get a front row seat!

Watching the sun set

Amenities & Experiences at The Banyan Tree

Aside from the dining experiences, The Banyan Tree offers a number of amenities on site, the most impressive of which is the absolutely beautiful pool. Situated on the 53rd floor, the pool has a covered roof but with open sides to soak in the views. We spent a couple of afternoons reading our books here and had it to ourselves – so relaxing.

In addition to the pool, The Banyan Tree also offers a relaxing luxury spa, typical of the Banyan Tree brand. I had a deep tissue massage and it was lovely. Again the spa itself is soothing, with neutral colours, fragrant flowers and top service. After the massage they sat me in a room overlooking the Petronas Towers with a cup of tea – how very perfect.

Inside the spa

There is also a concierge who can help you plan trips to the local attractions, including The Petronas Towers, Thean Hou Temple, Batu Caves and many more. We visited these independently, so cannot comment on service here.

So what did you think of The Banyan Tree KL? We absolutely loved our stay, and felt the hotel is well worth its 5* rating. We truly felt it was an oasis in the sky in a chaotic, hot and humid capital city. I would definitely choose it again if I go back to KL.