Friday March 29th, 2024
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The World's Largest Hotel is a 7,300+ Room Funhouse in Malaysia

Is it a theme park turned into a hotel or vice versa? When you're at the First World Hotel in Malaysia, you'll likely be too overwhelmed to care about the difference.

Scene Traveller

The World's Largest Hotel is a 7,300+ Room Funhouse in Malaysia

‘There’s something for everyone’ is a phrase everyone loves to throw around, but there’s only a few places where you can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s true. On a once-deserted hilltop in Malaysia, the First World Hotel - quite literally the largest hotel in the world, with 7,351 luxury rooms - is one of those places.

It’s a hotel that encompasses everything that dreams are made of, from rainbow buildings to lush rainforests to extravagant casinos - honestly, we haven’t even scratched the surface. It’s 50,000 square feet of kid-core Las Vegas heaven. A theme park turned into a hotel, or perhaps vice versa.

Like two giant crayons rising from the grassy hilltop of the Genting Highlands, the First World Hotel offers unparalleled views of the surrounding tropical paradise that is Malaysian shrubbery - and it brings our maddest childhood fantasies to life. We advise that you bring the most colourful outfits you have for some serious Instagrammable content you’ll be “Take me back”-ing for years to come. To say nothing of the pictures you can take in the plaza’s own replica Times Square, with its own Statue of Liberty that will undoubtedly become your friends’ group chat icon (at least for an indefinite period).

Doubling up on the eco-friendly and efficient, the hotel follows a mostly digital interface, with automated check-ins and check-outs (think of how you’d use an ATM) and mobile app keys, streamlining your entire vacation and ensuring there are no forgotten-keys-at-2-AM incidents. Perhaps more remarkable than the two-towered giant is where it pools; a 50,000-square-foot plaza with various fully-equipped shopping malls, multiple restaurants/cafes and the best casinos around the country. It’s also home to an array of swimming pools (kid-friendly and otherwise), a golf course, tennis courts, a gym, a cinema and even a bowling alley, giving lazy fathers everywhere absolutely no excuse to say ‘There’s nothing to do around here’.

The most popular attraction, though, is the hilltop resort’s indoor theme park, with the fan-favourite heart-dropping roller coaster, and Asia’s first free fall simulator. To top it off, you can get a better view of Mount Ulu Kali by hitching a gondola down its mountainside, enjoying the lush greenery and crisp air typical of tropical Malaysia.

Rooms are easily bookable on the hotel’s website. However, if you’re not planning an overnight stay, the hotel allows you to book four hours in a room at a discounted price - while this feature is only bookable on-site, it does allow you just enough time to lose yourself in the hotel’s all-engulfing facilities.