George Town, Malaysia

The Prestige Hotel

Price per night from$105.43

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (MYR499.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Must be magic

Setting

Unesco treasure-trove

The Prestige Hotel in genteel George Town is a white rabbit in hotel form, with many magician-worthy tricks up its sleeve – from floating beds to cage-style showers. Perhaps the rooftop infinity pool and gracious Glasshouse restaurant are the products of a successful ‘abracadabra’ or ‘alakazam’; we have the Ministry of Design studio to thank for the pearl-pale interiors and lashings of rose-gold. Beyond the windows, Penang’s cultural riches await, from time-worn temples to buzzing markets, languid beaches and bargain boutiques. Wands: optional.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A non-alcoholic welcome drink and evening turndown service

Facilities

Photos The Prestige Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

162, including 16 suites.

Check–Out

12 noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £90.18 (MYR539), including tax at 8 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of MYR3.00 per room per night on check-in and an additional government tax of MYR10.00 per room per night on check-in.

More details

Rates usually include buffet breakfasts and speedy WiFi.

Also

The hotel’s magical styling and ivory interiors come courtesy of award-winning architecture and interiors firm, Ministry of Design.

At the hotel

Victorian arcade with 12 curated retail and dining options; multi-use event spaces; mini gym with treadmills, cycles and weights; free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, minibar, Nespresso coffee machine, TWG Tea selection and air-conditioning.

Our favourite rooms

Fancy hopping in a shower that’s tricked out with a magician-style cage? The Premier Deluxe room is for you then. Deluxe King and Twin rooms are admirably spacious, each one featuring an industrial-style metal adornment that arches gracefully above and across the TV.

Poolside

Survey Penang Bridge, the port and the mainland from the serene saltwater pool, which occupies pole position on the fourth-floor rooftop. As if you needed additional reasons to pause here, there are pretty poolside gazebos.

Packing tips

Bring something modest for local mosque and temple visits; leave room in your case for made-to-measure threads courtesy of Penang’s tailors.

Children

Little Smiths are welcome, but don’t expect lots of family-friendly frills.

Food and Drink

Photos The Prestige Hotel food and drink

Top Table

They’re all rather lovely. If the main dining area is full, nip into the quieter overspill space.

Dress Code

Totally tropical taste: light white layers; citrus or spicy scent.

Hotel restaurant

The Glasshouse’s menu aces international comfort food, spanning soups and salads, a tempting pasta line-up – smoked duck carbonara, anyone? – and local favourites such as seafood stew and nyonya ulam rice (featuring roast chicken, salted egg, poppadom, anchovy crumb and shrimp paste on the side). Cheesy toast makes numerous appearances – and rightly so. Style-wise, the love-in with whiter-than-white walls, pops of pastel and romantic rose gold continues apace.

Hotel bar

There’s no bar as such; quench your thirst in the restaurant.

Last orders

The Glasshouse restaurant rustles up meals between 6.30am and 11pm daily.

Room service

Fancy a stylish night ‘in’? Order dishes from the Glasshouse’s menu and enjoy them in your room.

Location

Photos The Prestige Hotel location
Address
The Prestige Hotel
8, Gat Lebuh Gereja
George Town
10300
Malaysia

Naturally, the hotel occupies a prestigious George Town spot, perched between the banking district of Beach Street and the Weld Quay area. Many of the city’s highlights – shops, galleries, cultural treasures and co – are within easy reach.

Planes

Penang International Airport is 19 kilometres away, a 40-minute drive. Plenty of airlines fly here, including Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and Malaysia Airlines.

Trains

Half an hour away by car, Butterworth Station is on Malaysia’s West Coast Railway Line, which runs south to Gemas via Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur. Butterworth is also connected to the KTM Komuter Line, which connects Butterworth to Padang Besar on the border with Thailand, where passengers can transfer to Thailand Railway Services for travel to Bangkok.

Automobiles

You don’t need a car, as it’s easy to gad around George Town on foot or by public transport. That said, the Prestige Hotel is a few minutes’ drive from central George Town; guests with wheels can park up in the on-site car park.

Worth getting out of bed for

Penang puts ancient temples, lively markets, hushed museums, an enticing food scene, artful galleries, shops aplenty and sun, sea and sand at your fingertips…

If jetties could talk, we’d like to hear what the six remaining Clan Jetties have to say. Part of the Penang Heritage Trail, this floating village stars stilted houses, built more than a hundred years ago, belonging to various Chinese clans. Chew Jetty is the most tourist-friendly, boasting the most stilt houses, the longest walkway, a notable temple, plus plenty of photo opps. Continue the cultural kicks by visiting the 18th-century Goddess of Mercy Temple (aka Kuan Yin Teng), which is Penang’s oldest Taoist temple. Admirable architectural features include the sweeping roofs, the gigantic doors adorned with paintings of Taoist deities and the dragon-entwined pillars. On Sundays, Lebuh Pantai (also known as Beach Street) goes car-free for Occupy Beach Street market, with stalls a-go-go, live music, streetside football games, skateboarding and more. Peer into the past at the Penang Peranakan Mansion: a museum that richly showcases how the wealthy Peranakans lived in the 19th century.

Pander to your beachy side at Batu Ferringhi, popular for its scenic sprawl of milk-white sand and lively night market, or at Tanjung Bungah: a pretty seaside suburb positioned between Gurney and Batu Ferringhi.

Local restaurants

Top up your caffeine levels at Constant Gardener Coffee in the Chinese Chamber of Commerce Building, on Lebuh Light; or linger over lunch at sourdough-crazy Joies Cafe on the first floor of 32 Jalan Moulmein. Popular George Town dinner options include pasta feasts at Caze by Buu’s Kitchen on Lebuh King, and small-but-mighty Monsieur 85, for French fusion food at 316 Lebuh Pantai. 

Local bars

Toast the good times at The Canteen at ChinaHouse on Lebuh Victoria, which has a talented jazz band – and a bounty of other foot-stomping live acts – up its sleeve. Bonus points for pork-pie hats.

Reviews

Photos The Prestige Hotel reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this budget-boutique hotel in Penang and unpacked their magic wands and Malaysian snacks, a full account of their city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Prestige Hotel in George Town…

Unlike the film that inspired it, the Prestige Hotel does not star Hugh Jackman, David Bowie, Christian Bale and Scarlett Johnson; nor does it recount the tale of feuding Edwardian magicians dabbling in the dark arts. As magic tricks go, though, its wallet-friendly room rates make for a form of sorcery that takes some beating – and its rooftop infinity pool, Instagram-worthy interiors and indulgent Glasshouse restaurant make your average white rabbit look a little bit shabby. (We have award-winning architecture and interiors firm, Ministry of Design, to thank for that.) Factor in the prime George Town location, the on-site arcade with its retail riches, the glorious rose-gold touches and the handy little gym, and you won’t be needing a magician after all.

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Price per night from $105.43