Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre: a border crossing respite, weekend getaway

For any fan of the Holiday Inn brand it is particularly favourable to have one of its hotels adjacent to the Malaysian border crossing connecting with Singapore in downtown Johor. This newly opened Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre is directly connected to JB Sentral and the checkpoint.

335 well-appointed modern and spacious rooms await guests at this four-star hotel, equipped with everything one needs from a comfortable and modern hotel room and hotel, including flat-screen TVs, spacious bathrooms, and complimentary high-speed internet access enabling smooth work and connectivity. Add to that a lobby bar, an all-day restaurant, a gym and a rooftop pool!

And spending a night at the Holiday Inn – Happy Hour Asia can bear witness to – can be a very wise thing to do. Especially if you were to cross the border from Singapore, and if ending up in “rush hour” – which can, unfortunately, occur any time of the day. Then the effort becomes inconvenient, resulting in an elevated yearning for convenience to compensate for the ordeal! Then, this Holiday Inn is the perfect solution to wind down.

Cocktail in the Lobby Lounge at Holiday Inn Johor Bahru

For tourists it is also recommended to plan so that the border crossing is only done once, not including a return trip by land. When in Johor it is easy to continue one’s travel, including flying, to a number of other destinations. As for Singapore the common route out or in is obviously by air travel. But if departing from Singapore by crossing the land border to Malaysia in Johor Bahur, and having a flight to catch at Senai International Airport (45 min by bus from JB Sentral), it can be a quite nerve-wrecking experience that should be avoided. A stopover at Holiday Inn in Johor may then be the solution!

We should also note that significant improvement seems to be on the horizon: Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) have stated that manual counters across all passenger halls at checkpoints are to be replaced by some 800 automated lanes in the coming years (Woodlands Checkpoint in year 2028).

(From Johor, one can – by the way – also take ferries to and from multiple Indonesian destinations. From Berjaya Waterfront Ferry Terminal there are ferry services to and from Batam and Bintan Islands in Indonesia. From Puteri Harbour International Ferry Terminal there are services to and from Tanjung Balai Karimun (Riau Islands) and Batam.)

And many people living in Singapore know the border-crossing hassle all too well – in fact they plan for it: Johor weekend getaways – mainly for shopping – is an “institution”, and one that makes the shopping trip especially worthwhile (in particular with the high inflation affecting prices in 2023). Many come by car and spend one or a few nights at Holiday Inn or any other of the downtown hotels. During their visit they do extensive shopping, including of groceries, to bring back home to Singapore. Many of them intentionally come to Johor, for its lower prices.

Many people – it should be noted – of course also come to Johor for business, connecting to its industrial parks and areas.

Holiday Inn Johor Bahru: high-rise and shopping

Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre is situated in a high-rise building, sitting on top of Komtar JBCC mall. Another mall, City Square Johor Bahru is next door. And on top of the hotel its guests can find a lap pool with great views of the surrounding city and also Singapore across the channel. There are two entrances to the hotel and one can – while a bit confusing at first – access the hotel from within the shopping centre.

Bedroom at Holiday Inn Johor Bahru

As for the quality of shopping, it’s getting back on track after the long Covid-19 lockdown and border closure. Tenants at City Square Johor Bahru for instance include Decathlon, G2000, Giordano, H&M, Levi’s and Cotton On, upon this visit.

While the reception area is rather small for a hotel with this number of rooms, there is a comfy zone right next to it, furnished with, slightly curved, pillow-decorated sofas. There are also lower designer tables consisting in round transparent glass tops – which can double either as a table for drinks and laptop table.

A plus point is that the 6 lifts servicing the building are high speed.

‘Reliable accommodations, memorable experiences’ is the hotel’s tagline and here, the Holiday Inn one again proves how reliable it is when it comes to the quality of its guest quarters. Choose from, among others, Deluxe rooms and Sky suites.

Entering the foyer it has light brown wood flooring, and – following the recent trend – an open wardrobe and shelf above for clothes, and a cabinet. The ironing board is hidden in thin storage behind a wall – press and it will reveal itself!

Hidden behind wooden doors under a black-and-white veined marble counter is also a mini bar, while the bathroom comes with the same type of marble. Other beige tiles in the bathroom have a kind of wallpaper texture. In the bathroom a large, round mirror comes with a built-in white light frame. Quality bath amenities come in refill bottles to reduce plastic waste.

The bedroom has a stripe-patterned floor carpet in tone of blue, yellow and grey (the stripe pattern type is also the design for the guest floor corridors and also as framed wall décor. It is also accented by a mustard yellow office chair – which has a fairly straight back support and striped faux leather cover. The round work desk is big and made of blonde wood. By its side is a functional floor lamp that can be turned in any direction, for instance for reading.

The deluxe is also furnished with a sofa by window, facing both the bed and the large and wide flat screen wall TV. Decor pillows in woven-style come in hues of grey, orange, blue and beige. By the sofa is a mobile table – where the room serviced delivery is placed.

Bedroom at Holiday Inn Johor Bahru

Bedside, the light fixtures are all in transparent yellow glass: one hanging from the ceiling, one as reading light mounted on the wall, and one on an adjustable floor lamp.

The bed mattress is excellent and guests can choose between firm and soft etc. from a personalised pillow menu.

It also becomes noteworthy – as it is far from always the case –that the air conditioning is very silent!

Holiday Inn Johor Bahru’s in-room dining

Ending up dining late Happy Hour Asia opts for room service delivery from Dine @ EIGHT, Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre’s all-day-dining, with its family-friendly open kitchen theatre concept.

The choice falls on a Verdure Pizza (Pesto Cenovese based pizza topped with roasted egglant, roasted bell peppers, roasted tomatoes, onion, mozzarella cheese and cheddar), and which turns out to be a quite unusual and rather delicious pizza for a hunger traveller. With this pizza one can nod in agreement to the restaurant’s description of an ‘above and beyond food experience’.

Design-wise the restaurant’s floor has a very prominent marble design that takes centre stage: a very intricately layered pattern of inlaid, veined and polished marble in hues of black, creamy white, beige, cappuccino, dark chocolate and grey – made out of thin rectangular pieces to form a geometric pattern.

Verdure pizza, Holiday Inn Johor Bahru

A way to wind down upon arrival is also to have a few drinks, where the bartender offers both mocktails and cocktails at the Lobby Lounge, where there is plenty of bar seating.

For exercisinh, the well-equipped fitness centre with panorama views is open 24 hours. And then there’s the possibility of a rejuvenating dip in the rooftop poo. Daytime, be early to grab one of the sought-after daybeds in the few cabanas that come with twin daybeds with head support, green pillows, and with white curtains.

The breakfast is decent and, aside all the usual items, includes for instance ratatouille and Mac N Cheese. Kids up to age 12 eat for free as part of the ‘Holiday Inn Kids STay and Eat Free’ progamme.

A welcome respite is in store – at Holiday Inn in Johor!