Introduction
We took a taxi from the airport, which cost us $10 one-way, because our driver had forgotten the day (more on that later.) If you pre-negotiate, it should be $5 only. On the ride, the driver kept pushing us hard to book tours with him although we told him we had already pre-booked tours. We arrived at the hotel in the afternoon and were staying for 2 nights, both on points as a Guest of Honor. The hotel’s location is SUPERB (it’s on the one main street in Siem Reap and is close to everything.)
Checkin
When we arrived, we were walked into the “Library” and was given 2 refreshing towels and drinks. They took our passports and credit card. After that, the rep walked us to our room.
Room
The room had a walkin closet, and so I thought I had gotten upgraded. I later learned that there are rooms with private pools (the real upgrade.) The wifi was spotty at times. They also gave us 7 bottles of water – 6 small ones and a big liter one. They gave us new small water bottles the next day, but not the big one. I had heard of mosquitos being in the room, but we only saw 1 mosquito (might also be because we didn’t go during the rainy season.) I remember the ceilings being really high, and while the A/C was on, it never got extremely cold, but it wasn’t hot enough where it kept me awake.
Breakfast
The Globalist breakfast is an ala carte menu, supplemented with a pastry station, fruits, and salad station. I suggest you try the khmer noodles at least once. I wasn’t a huge fan, but it was okay. I preferred the chicken noodles. Also – if you love Vietnamese iced coffee, you MUST order the Cambodian iced coffee, which is the same thing. It’s not on the menu; just ask for it. The fruit station was superb – great mango and passion fruit.
Fitness & Pool
The unique thing about the hotel is that it has 2 pools – 1 salt water and 1 fresh water. This was the first time I’ve seen a salt water pool. I didn’t get into it to try out though. The fresh water pool was pretty big. The fitness center was small but decent.
Conclusion
I had a friend stay at the Le Meridien, which although closer to the temples, was at least a $3 USD tuk tuk away from town. If you can splurge, stay at the Park Hyatt. Another protip – don’t take a tuk tuk from the hotel main entrance. Walk out the side entrance and waive one down and negotiate that way (a lot cheaper since I heard the PH pays some tuk tuk drivers to always be available for PH guests.
Pictures
@disqus_l7GXsYbTLi:disqus I’d suggest looking at the cash rates or paying with points through chase as I found the straight out point redemptions not the best value. When I stayed I think it was around $150 to $175/night so 15k hyatt points didn’t make much sense.
Can’t agree more with the review. All around awesome hotel for the area. Additionally, I found the service to be just impeccable.
I stayed here for 3 nights this past February. It was one of the best hotel/resort stays I’ve ever had. As a Diamond at the time, I was upgraded to a 3rd level suite when using my suite upgrade. We had our own pool. The breakfast was awesome– not as big as, say, the Andaz Maui, but much more interesting and overall better food (the curry noodle soup was great). The service was spectacular. You’re probably right about the tuktuks being more expensive next to the resort vs a block away, but in honesty, I had no problem paying $5 vs $2-3. Everything is so cheap and I didn’t mind helping out the locals.
Ah man, I heard some ppl got those suites with your own pool. Jealous.
I’ve stopped haggling for a few dollars here and there when I’m in 3rd world countries because I’m fine with paying more to support the local economy, but for some reason, I just didn’t want to pay the $5 vs $2-$3. Maybe it’s because I knew the PH was subsidizing the $5 and I didn’t want to help support that.
Great review. This looks like such a nice place to stay on a vacation. Looks like world of Hyatt points availability isn’t great, unfortunately.