Macalister Mansion, Penang

[Keith009]

The OH and I stayed at Macalister Mansion during a visit to Penang over Easter and highly recommend it for anyone visiting Penang and would like a great design-oriented hotel experience.

Like many establishments of the thriving boutique hotel scene in Penang, Macalister Mansion is a refurbished century-old colonial era building.

The exterior belies the ultra modern interior. The sole member of Design Hotels in Malaysia, Macalister Mansion is a style-high, haute minimalist, and hip modernist gem in the middle of all that's of yesteryear in Penang. It manages to blend cool design with faux-vintage furnishing which makes things just that little bit fabulously quirky and interesting.

We were welcomed into the cute little lobby thumping with the beats of Euro club music, and were served mocktails whilst our check-in was processed. The place had very little staff as it's such a small hotel and the front desk seemed to double up as both concierge and check in. Very good service on the whole - everyone was super nice and very knowledgeable about the local area.

 

[Keith009]

There are only 8 rooms in this hotel. Each with its own individual design. As part of the booking process, you can select a specific room. We loved the look of room 4 and certainly weren't disappointed. It is also one of the more generously sized rooms. Wifi was free but the wifi signal in our room was almost non-existent - a chance to truly disconnect when on holiday I suppose!

Bathroom amenities were by H2O Plus.

Especially welcome were the separate shower and bathtub.

We especially liked the little turret that is unique to room 4.

 

[Keith009]

We didn't eat at the Alice in Wonderland-style French restaurant on site as it seemed overpriced for what it is - they claim it's fine dining but it's really upscale casual stuff. There was also a cafe for lighter bites.

We did however had a pretty good time at the on-site wine bar and the whisky den. Given the nightlife in Penang seemed rather lame, most of our nights were spend working through the extensive wine & champagne list, coughtail selection and an educational journey of whiskies from all parts of the world. If you're a fan of whisky like the OH, you can also ask for a bespoke whisky flight. They're also in the process of introducing whisky pairings with food.

The expat bar manager from Birmingham was a laugh. Unfortunately the rest of the staff were rather hit or miss with their boozemanship. For instance I was served room temperature champagne and a corked glass of wine - which mortified the manager and swiftly replaced and/or comped.

The whisky den:

Wine/coughtail bar (you can choose to have whatever in either room - we preferred the coziness of the whisky den):

Standard check-out time is 11am. But subject to availability, if they're not expecting an arriving guest for your room, you are free to extend check-out till 6pm. We had a late flight with MI but simply whiled away the time working through the massive 50 page wine 'bible' and whisky list... had a GREAT sleep onboard that evening!

 

[TomVexille]

Looks nice. Will definitely consider if I'm ever in Penang. Thanks for sharing.