Desaru getaway at One&Only resort

IF the grass is always greener on the other side, the same could be said about sand. Addresses in Thailand, Bali and the like are the District 9 of beach resorts, while Sentosa is a sandbox in a Yishun playground in comparison. And then you have Desaru — a forgotten memory of dodgy seafood eateries and Tioman’s ugly cousin — but not any more. Thanks to a fairy godmother named Khazanah, this Cinderella by the seashore now has Singaporean sun suitors seeing it in a new light.

The Malaysian sovereign wealth fund’s Desaru Coast leisure and tourism project already has several established names there - Anantara, Westin and Hard Rock Hotel. But it’s the latest, One&Only Desaru Coast, that has emerged as the most exclusive - with just 45 keys sharing 128 acres of real estate.

Singaporeans are a little late in discovering the ultra-luxury resort which opened in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, but have been making up for lost time - accounting for some 40 per cent of guests since the Causeway reopened earlier this year.