The Taaras Beach & Spa Resort — Hotel in Pulau Redang

Overall great stay at Taaras!

Rooms: We stayed here for 3D2N and booked a hillview 2 bedroom (adjoining rooms - 1 with king bed, 1 with two twins). It is quite a walk from the reception area to the room, but no issue because they have a buggy service that comes quite quickly at any time of the day. The only issue was that the heater in one of the rooms wasn't working very well. There was little hot water throughout our stay. We did give feedback when one of the staff came round to ask and they said they could have asked an engineer to come look at it, but it was already our last night then and we didn't want the hassle. Otherwise rooms are clean. Came with a fruit basket with bananas, grapes, dragonfruit! One of the rooms also had a sea view from the balcony because it was a corner unit.

Beware of monkeys though. They do warn you about them upon check in to lock your sliding doors. One morning we woke up and found a family of monkeys in the balcony next door.

Beach: Super amazing private beach!! The sand was soooo fine and water was very very clear. In the afternoon the tide was pretty high, but yet the sand bed was quite shallow (~1m) so we could wade quite far out and still be touching the sand bed. They have free body surfboards you can pick up to use as well.

Our stay came with a free kayaking voucher which we didn't use. Otherwise, the glass bottom kayaks are payable.

Diving: We completed a reorientation dive (recommended for those who have not dived in the past 6 months) and 2 morning dives with the PADI center run by Syafiq. The reorientation dive was conducted in the resort pool which was dubiously murky... The actual dives themselves were quite ok! Syafiq and Mad (the dive master accompanying us) were friendly and confident. They pointed out the various sightings along the way (we saw jenkins whip ray, blue spotted ray, white tip reef sharks). We also stopped by a nice snorkeling site in between dives where they also provided hot tea/coffee and some muffins.

Advice is to bring your own snorkel though, as they did not provide snorkels.

Activities: There is a whole bunch of free activities. Ping pong, pool, zumba, beach volleyball. Can entertain yourselves.

We also paid for ATV (RM350 for shared ATV which is not cheap) and was taken on a tour round the jungle, grasslands, and the beach. At the beach you get free reign to just zoom around but after a while I felt bad disturbing the peace and quiet of the other beach goers there. In the grasslands, they just take you round and round a few times. Jungle part was the most exciting.

Dining: We ate from all three restaurants at the area - ASEAN all day dining (breakfast buffet, ala carte lunch and dinner), Cove (western pizzas and burgers), Marenero (Italian + Indian). It's quite pricey, but expected for a resort that is not connected to the mainland.

At ASEAN all day dining, the mee goreng was really good when we ordered it on the first day. Though when we ordered it again the next day, the quality was a little different. Hit or miss. Other food like nasi dagang, nasi goreng, fried kuay teow -- all pretty good too.

Cove: peperonni pizza was really good!

Marenero: really really loved the butter chicken and palak panner with their garlic naans!! Ordered another round of naan just to mop up the gravy from both. We also got their carbonara (nothing to shout about though the duck bacon was surprsingly good), and bistecca di manzo (rib eye steak) which was good, but maybe too expensive for the portion.

Service: Very good! Everyone was very helpful and friendly. Our ferry operator also changed our departure jetty last minute from Taaras jetty to Kampung jetty and Taaras staff offered to get us to kampung jetty for free, no...

Why I gave Taaras 3 stars instead of 5?

First; When I arrived at the Taaras, we immediately check in by I understand we can only get our room latest by 3pm, if early then means we are lucky. I arrived there at 11am plus together with my 5 yo and 2yo kids. Once we checked in, they compliment us with the welcome drink and small towel to sanitise / clean our hands.

While waiting, to kill our time, we bring the kids to explore around the resort and we even managed to get our lunch (buffet at RM60 per adult) - here I have feedback about their food. I am not really a picky eater but I believe if we serve people food, it must be delicious and tender. The lamb I took is chewy and smelly. But some other food was ok. I really feel that BERJAYA have to do something about Taaras menu!

After had our lunch, we still didn’t get a call from the receptionist about our room so we walk around and try to occupy our children attention. Time is ticking and it’s almost 3pm when I approach the receptionist again and what surprised me is, they requested my details again and the conversation behind the deck is “there’s a room for this family just now, you didn’t check them in here? Now another family had taken it” another last reply “it’s ok we have this one here, empty.” It’s soooo disappointing to hear such conversations. I have two kids with me, I didn’t request to prioritise me, but at least be considerate.

Second; Once they handed to me the key, they asked me to wait or the lobby for the buggy to drive us to the room, so we waited there. And when the buggy approaches the lobby suddenly one lady staff calling another family with much bigger age to fill the buggy and ignored us. I assumed they treat the foreign tourist first then only us? My kids already tired, my daughter need nap. But the staff there have no sense at ALL! Again I am not asking to prioritise us, but I believe if we waited there first, they should offer us first! Not to allow guess to cut the queue. The service your front line offering is really not a five star hotel / resort service. No wonder YTL got better reviews! I really hope that BERJAYA will do something about this.

Third; After we had our lunch, I left the restaurant and forgotten to take my daughter’s hat. I went back to asked incase they did kept it for me but sadly no. They don’t even bother. 😪

Forth; We stayed at the hill view rooms where monkeys are everywhere. Yes, we didn’t even have a chance to sit at the balcony because of that. And another serious issue is, the monkey pees at the balcony too! We hope the management can make sure the room service always clean the balcony or maybe put the monkey repellent 😂

Fifth; Second day at the Taaras, one evening when I was enjoying the swim with the kids, I left my bag with my phone inside on the seaside, caught my eyes four young ladies trying to put their belongings next to my bag and around it, looks like they’re going to sit there so I quickly get out from the water and get my bag, but then they walked away. It left me feel insecure. Either they’re there to steal things or really just coincidentally? But they looks like an escort girls tho 🥺 when I chatted with other guess, they also noticed about this group of young ladies and have a same thought about them. I hope Taaras , you really need the CCTV around the beach and resorts. Seriously.

Lastly; I did enjoyed my stays at the Taaras because of the beach, but not the service. I am so sorry to say this but I really think you all have to improve the service tho. Me and my kids love watching the turtle egg hatches, thank you for the turtle lab! 😍 oh ya, forgot to mention that my husband found a bug in his...

We were taking a trip with our 4 year old after a long time and wanted an accomodation which would be safe and with a lot of activities to keep the kid engaged. I searched so many in Redang but somehow I wasn't conveniced with the facilities they provided against the price. I was contemplating on Taaras only because of the price as it was too high. Somehow finally we decided to go ahead and book the place (we usually as a couple don't do luxury travel but since we had a kid and this vacation was more to relax, we went ahead)

We booked our own Jetty as the one they were offering was almost double than what we were getting if we booked on our own. Once we reached the Redang Jetty point, an airconditioned van picked us up to take us to the hotel. its about a less than 5 min drive (cant walk though)

We were welcomed by one of their staff who was assigned to assist us. She took my number and immediately messaged me on Whatsapp to keep interactions quick incase I needed her help. They offered us some juice and a wet napkin to get ourself refreshed and paralelly did our check in process. We were told the check is is at 2 PM or 3 PM (don't remember) but we reached at 10 AM and requested for an early check in. She said she will check and let us know. In 10 mins she came back and allowed us to check in. Yaaayy !

A buggy took us to our room and helped us to take our luggage as we were on the 1st floor. The second I entered the room it felt so amazing. They are rustic, huge, clean have complimentary snacks and drinks in the fridge, have a huge bedroom, ample storage space, huge bathroom with a huge bathtub and the best part is they have two toilets, one in the living area and one in bedroom. I was really impressed by the room and the maintenance.

Next we headed for lunch. honestly the food at the accomodation is very very mediocre. I have seen amazing buffet spreads at 3* properties I have stayed in. I wont say it was bad but nothing amazing or to talk about. The varieties were limited, taste was okayish too. Same was for breakfast and dinner. On one of the day we had complimentary cocktail + evening scacks and that was mediocre too. cocktail was too light ! But what makes you forget and let go off this mediocre meal is the courtes staff. Each one is so polite, kind, friendly.

Now coming to the activities. We have snorkeling, Turtle point and kayak included. On Day 1 they took us for snorkeling but canceled turlte as the water was choppy. I was very disappointed and we could not even do the kayak. Next day was the same and they said we can only do snorkeling. Somehow I forced the captain and the staff to arrange for at least the turtle viewing if not the kayaking. They said it will be at our own risk and we were 3 families who agreed to go. The experience was surreal ! even the captain and the guide who took us for snorkeloing and turtle point were so friendly and chatty.

For kids they have a play area with some activities, u can take a free sand castle set from the recreation activity center, a beach ball etc to keep them engaged. My son loved the beach and was so happy and its a private beach which means nobodt from outside can come.

Their beach side bar / resto is open till 11:30 PM and its nice for a...