Holiday in Lexis Hibiscus Port Dickson

For the last week of 2017, my family and I were thinking of a place for a fun, relaxing holiday. When we plan family holidays, we try to find a place that has activities for children and at the same time, fun for adults. My brother is 11 and my sister and I are in our early 20s so we needed to choose a place that was interesting for all 3 of us. Port Dickson was the perfect place since we adults wanted a relaxing holiday that included sunsets and the sea breeze. At the same time, there are lots of fun activities for children on the beach.

My brother was so cute when he requested that we go to a beach. He was like 'I want to go to the beach, I want to build a sand castle and play with the sand. I want to see the waves, I have not seen the sea waves for a long time.' Adorable little prince managed to convince mommy and daddy and the tickets were booked on the night he made the request. So, us lucky sisters were excited about this last minute end-of-the-year holiday. I searched for suitable hotels and resorts in Port Dickson with my mum who is a pro at finding the best places. We only did this booking a week before so options were limited and only a few rooms were left. Last minute plans are exciting when planned well. We went to Port Dickson in June 2013 before I went to study in the UK and I recently read that blog post again, it is so great to be able to read my previous holiday experiences. I have forgotten some of the bits and details already but reading this blog post rekindled many lovely memories. Here's the link: Holiday in Port Dickson 2013. When we visited Port Dickson the last time, Lexis Hibiscus was not yet opened. It only opened in 2015, 2 years after our last visit.



The overall experience in Lexis Hibiscus is absolutely amazing. It is a 5-star hotel and very luxurious indeed. There are two options, option #1 you can book to stay at the overwater villas which are shaped like a hibiscus flower and some floorings allow you to see the ocean water underneath you or option #2 you can stay at the luxury suites at the hotel on land. We went for option #2. All hotel rooms and water resorts have an indoor swimming pool and for the luxury suites, there is even a sauna. I do not personally like going into saunas but my dad tried it out and my brother enjoyed the indoor pool the most. Lexis Hibiscus won the award in the Guinness Book of World Record for the resort with the most indoor swimming pools and most overwater villas in a single resort. Awesome ;) If you are looking for a relaxing holiday by the beach with luxurious surroundings and tip top facilities, then this resort is for you. They can improve on some things like blocked sinks, making sure that enough towels are available at all times and reducing the price of water activities or making some of the activities part of the free facilities of the resort. They seem to charge for every single thing. Food price of the stalls by the beach seemed reasonable, not extremely over-priced. Apart from that, cleanliness is great, lots of activities can be done at Lexis Hibiscus that you do not need to go anywhere else if you are doing a short less than a 5-day trip. If you are staying longer, you can explore the other places in Port Dickson. They even have an Ostrich Park nearby.

The difference between the water villa and the luxury suite is that the water villa is slightly further away from the hotel. It is literally on the seawater so it is built slightly higher than the water level. You ride a buggy car to go to your villa. It is free of charge to ride the buggy if you stay live in the water villas and they drop you right in front of your hotel room. If you are staying in the luxury suite, then you need to pay to ride the buggy car. Breakfast is provided at the hotel so if you staying in the water villa, you would need a buggy to ride back to the hotel for breakfast. I recommend that you bring all your belongings for the water activities with you, otherwise, you would need to ride back and forth to your water villa and back to the hotel. The hotel is where all the activities are, the fire show, the hotel pool, the watersports, the food and literally everything. That is why my family found it more convenient to stay in the luxury suites rather than the water villas. Water villas would provide you with a unique experience, it's just the pain of going back and forth. And, at peak hours like check-in time at noon, there is a long queue for the buggy cars. To walk and not ride the buggy car would be a 10 to 20-minute walk depending on how fast you walk and where your villa is situated.

Activities you can do in Lexis Hibiscus

There are many water sports available. There is the Airhead which is RM35/person and the Banana Boat which is RM25/person, jetski and many others. There is the outdoor full day pass for the waterslides and kiddy pools and water games that they provide on the beach. You can pay separately for the individual activities but my brother and dad got a full day pass so they could try it all whereas my sister and I paid separately for individual activities because we wanted to try certain ones only. The pass even included kayaking! OMG, I just discovered something new and that I enjoy kayaking. I tried it out and it was so much fun! There was also a water volleyball sort of court near the beach that you can rent. Pretty expensive, around RM50 or so for a game. They also have flamingo and unicorn floats that you can rent to relax in the pool and take pretty pictures. I wore pink by chance, I did not know that had the flamingo float so here are some photos I took. Apart from those, you can rent a bicycle for 1 person, a bicycle for 2 people, a cute little car, a hoverboard, a scooter, electric scooter and many more. You can play archery, go to the indoor arcade, playground for kids, outdoor swimming pool, sunbathe and there were even ping pong and Chinese mahjong. On top of all those amazing activities, there was a CRUISE and a HELICOPTER! First of all, ok I can understand there is a cruise but wait a second, a helicopter? I was super surprised upon hearing this. The helicopter was super expensive, RM500 ++ per person for 6 minutes of a helicopter ride. The cruise I don't remember the price but if you just wanted to do fish feeding on the cruise it was RM30. There are so many activities available that if I were to do it all, I bet it would cost more than the hotel room itself. Every Friday at 8pm, they have a Fire Show and that includes dances and shows involving fire. They asked for volunteers. I was reluctant at first but when I saw that it was a dance, I joined with my sister and brother. No fire is included in the dances with volunteers so that was cool.
On the last day before we checked out, my brother and I wanted to walk along the beach even though it was 12 noon and super hot. To be honest, I like Malaysian weather and it is only hot for me in the afternoon and the temperature is great at other times. I am definitely a tropical weather person and I like the Sun. During our short walk along the beach, we found many seashells. Some were only 2mm long but still very intricate and pretty. You can see the pictures below. I have included some pictures. Uploading it here on my blog takes a lot of time and I have uploaded as many as I could. These are all taken using my Samsung camera only. The other photos taken using other cameras are not shared here as I have not transferred them to my laptop yet. I took so many and had full memory by the time I ended the holiday in PD.

Food
Breakfast was provided and it was a great selection. Buffets are exciting for those who can eat a lot and try new things. The buffet was great, there were different sections; Malay cuisine, Chinese, Indian, Western, Arabic then they had fruits and salad and the egg stall. The nasi lemak is excellent! I highly recommend it and kept coming for nasi lemak each morning I was there. They have coconut by the beach, my ultimate favourite drink. Coconut juice, no sugar, no ice. I like it natural. We had sate on the first night that we were there. I think they charged at normal price RM1 to RM2/stick. They even had roti canai for RM3 each, fried rice, maggi goreng, laksa and so many options. I had laksa for dinner on one of the nights. Outside Lexis Hibiscus, there is a popular place to eat called Cowboy Place. They have nasi kukus ayam panggang (chicken rice) and we tried that too. We had breakfast at the hotel, dinner by the beach and ate out for lunch. There are many seafood restaurants you can explore not far from the hotel.

On the last day of our stay, close to check-out time, there was a goodbye dance performance in the lobby. It was so cute and was a pleasant goodbye to this amazing resort. I would definitely want to come again. On our way home, we had durian and rambutan at a stall by the roadside. A great way to end this amazing vacation in Lexis Hibiscus :) Till we meet again, adios :)