For those who seek for a close-to-nature vacation spot, Casabrina is an incredibly great choice! This is a hidden gem secluded within a 150 million year old rainforest with the most beautiful views you can imagine.
Casabrina is a luxury retreat situate in the lush green forest surroundings of Raub district in Pahang, just an hour’s drive to the north of Kuala Lumpur.
Casabrina currently comprises two villas set (Villa Amertani and Villa Aranya ) in lush jungle, fish ponds and water lilie. Definitely for nature lovers seeking a peaceful retreat to recharge and not for a family seeking theme park activities. Casabrina’s rustic timber interior and its beautiful infinity pool facing into the vast canvas of greenery makes it alluring and comforting at the same time.
It is about an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur. The route to Fraser’s Hill on the eastern side takes you past Bentong, on the way to Raub (in Pahang). After turning into the road leading to Fraser’s Hill, it is just a short drive in the fresh, cool environment before you reach the resort. Upon arriving, we had to drive up the narrow tarred road up the hill to the villas. The climb was easy, although at times the slope was quite steep.
Villa Amertani has four bedrooms and an infinity pool while the two-bedroom Villa Aranya, comes with a swimming pool and jacuzzi. There are two fish ponds on the way up to the villa, one on each side of the winding road. The villas even offer helicopter transfer from the airport.
We stayed for one night in a room in the main villa (Villa Amertani) which stands tall with tibre pillars. Teakwood balconies bring you closer to the tree line and panoramic views of distant mountains, while an emerald horizon pool reflects the sky and horizon.
The bedroom and bathroom were super spacious and luxurious with one’s own private veranda to observe the surrounding jungle and birdlife. The refreshingly cool infinity edge pool overlooking the jungle is a delight. The nearly attached sauna kept us refreshing all the time.
The thing I loved about the place is that each room and bathrooms were designed completely different with different theme in mind. For example, the Heliconia suite offers a terrazzo bathtub with rain shower with nearby private sauna facilities while the other bathroom came with modern bathtub facilities with breathtaking panoramic view of the tropical forest. Imagine awaken to morning mist covered rolling hills and watch mystical sunrise through fading mist and leafy openings of the jungle’s canopy.
Although the resort does make arrangements for guests to go for a wide range of activites (eg forest canopy walk; white-water rafting at the nearby Jeram Besu Recreation Park; adventure at Kuala Gundah Elephant Sanctuary; lakeside fishing; picnic at waterfalls; visit to Orang Asli settlement; helicopter ride over ancient forest and eco-sites; and many more), we decided to spend most of the time at the villa, to immerse ourselves in the pristine air and endless greenery, and to enjoy the in-house facilities – the sauna, jacuzzi, and swimming pool.
For those who wants to spend some quality time in board games or just casual hangout, they do have a game room with large round table at the main lobby and we did spend the half of the midnights over there playing games and recalling the old funny memories.
The food they served were mainly basic local cuisine, but it was fantastic and we absolutely enjoyed it! Keep in mind that you should buy snacks and drinks while coming over to Cassabrina. I will not advise to drive out at night as the inner road is dark and with the haunted feel J
The only downside is that the place is bit old, less maintained and pricy. A night of that villa costed us nearly RM4,000 although we were 3 different families thus the pain wasn’t the much. If you do want to rent a suite only is possible too but you will not have the complete privacy as the suits in the villas are very near to each other.
The 2nd drawback is that the place is currently closed for their expansion plan to a 9 different themed villas as well as due the this pandemic situation so keep an eye for them to open back soon.
In summary, this is an unusual resort in the lush Malaysian countryside close to KL. It suits couples and families wanting to get back to nature in an intimate and luxurious environment.
Written by Afnan Zafar
