Our visit to the Shangrila was a special treat by hubby for a special birthday treat. This was our second attempt at booking a room as the first time it was fully booked. We were not disappointed. Upon arriving at the hotel we were shown to our suite with a view that brought forth a remark – “I can stay here for a week” by me. The view is so spectacular, it will take your breath away. With views on the 3rd floor spanning from the marina and the islands right in front of you, you can see the boats coming in and going out to the reef. Surprisingly, with the doors closed, you can barely hear the noise from the marina. This is important as we have specifically requested for a more quiet room which the hotel had arranged specially for us. (Tip: the rooms near the boarding for reef trips seems to be more quiet as the nightclub on the other end does have loud music at night). We were nicely surprised by the bottle of bubbly waiting for us to toast the birthday girl with a nice note from the general manager to congratulate me. I cannot rave about the room enough as the view is not the only best feature. The size is equivalent to about 2 rooms with the windows stretching out to capture 3 sets of windows to stretch from the Marina to the city and mountain views in the distance. If you like space like us, you will love this! This is the first time I ever felt I would love to stay in our room and order room service but sadly the room service menu was rather limited and not cheap although you can get food till late. The toiletries were L'occitane so you can pamper yourself as there is also a spa size bath tub in the room. The spaciousness can easily lead one to think what it must be like to live like a celebrity! The only complaint we had was we were surprised to see that the bed was badly make with what looks like a queen size bedsheet on a king size bed so there was a gap at the end of the bed! Another feature we love was Horizon Club. It was a welcome refuge from the heat and also offers a little bit of luxury on your holiday where you can have wine and spirits between 5 to 7pm. The selection is not big but has a hot/cold section. There were about 4 hot canapes when we were there and a special mention of the little very meaty beef balls we love! The cold section were mostly a nice selection of little cakes that were delicious. We always believe that a sign of a 5 star hotel is how they rise to fulfil your expectations or better still rise over and above that. Min Kim is the very friendly and helpful host of the club. When we mentioned that we are rather partial to the strawberry mousse cakes which have disappeared quickly he went to the kitchen and took out another plate of cakes and asked us how many we want? As you can guess, we were very grateful to him! We also like the fact that throughout the day you can get some light refreshments so that it is a relief to be able to go there and have something to eat and drink when you come back from shopping or after the pool. We hope the hotel would put more reading materials there like magazines so one can sit there quietly and enjoy the space. It is certainly worth it to pay for the Club as it is an added special luxury to your weekend. Hubby was quite impressed by the food at the hotel so he thought we should try the restaurant seeing we were overwhelmed by the choice of restaurants (the hotel backs on to an area called the Boardwalk which offers a whole string of restaurants with a few Asian style eateries as well). (Tip: you can just stay there and eat at any of the restaurants without having to even go to the city). Not sure how the prices compare overall but I think eating in Cairns is not cheap any way. We were rather disappointed on initially checking out the restaurant to find that no one even ask to help us or show us the menu. We made our way towards the back and saw the wonderful view of the marina in front of us and decided it would be very romantic to eat there anyway. We weren't disappointed as the food was delicious and reasonably priced although portions could be a bit bigger. I would recommend the butter poached chicken with the pea risotto (chicken nicely done but a tad dry) which the waitress also recommended but hubby said his swordfish with the paw paw salsa was better. The salsa was very yummy and I had to pinch hubby's share the whole night! Another dish worth mentioning is a side dish of truffle mash (Tip: if you have not had truffle oil before approach with caution. It has a mysterious taste of nothing you have ever tasted before as it was also our first time to try it. We felt in love with it after the first forkful as it was smooth and silky with a very earthy tone).We think the waiting staff could have been a bit more friendlier (though our Irish waitress was very nice) as it was difficult to get their attention let alone their service! We agreed the food was good enough to go back there irregardless as we are serious foodie and would only go back to a place if we feel it is good enough to warrant it. (Tip: don't sit near the entrance/outlet to the Boardwalk at the back as the passers by tend to walk right next to you throughout the night – the hotel should block this area with more plants to offer more privacy for the diners).We did not come across the cheap menu items as reported by some of the reviewers but upon asking, we were told by the manager they were in the process of changing the menus and will be coming up with some new menus soon. We certainly hope they will continue to provide affordable dining as high quality affordable meals at some of the hotels we stayed in before were the reason we prefer to stay at the hotel and eat without having to go out. The buffet breakfast offers quite a big selection with a small Asian section with congee and miso soup. It would have been nice with a bit more condiments for the congee as it is a favourite menu item for me. There was also a rather spicy fried noodles dish too to cater for the Asian palate. The breakfast team headed by Illy was a welcome sight in the morning as they were friendly and efficient which is something you do not see much nowadays. We requested a late check out so we can stay and enjoy the hotel more. It was worth it as we had more time to enjoy ourselves. We are planning to go back there again so we can have some R&R. The combination of the view, food and service certainly got our votes so we hope they will keep up the good work!

Wanted a romantic week-end with my partner & the Shangri-La use to have nice rooms so got a room there for a week-end. Walked miles to get to our room, down a really grotty old corridor that looked like no-one has wiped down or hoovered in quite a while. I am not a neat freak can understand the tropics, mold & general wear & tear but this hotel room was grotty. The carpet had 3 cigarette burns in the carpet & the ashtray hadn't been emptied. The sofa was ripped, had stains on it & the room just looked like it had seen better days.
Will not stay there again or recommend to friends, when you compare it to the Pullman Hotel or even the Holiday Inn it just can't compare. The hotel needs to spend some money & renovate this place asap.

Got a great room rate thanks to trip advisor...
Room was lovely, clean and spacious, especially for a week long work trip. Service was attentive and thorough. Room service meals were nice but a little expensive when you add on the $10 room service fee.
The only down side was the constant interruption by housekeeping at around 3-4pm every day, first one for towel replacement, then 10 min layer for mini bar replenishment, then another 15 min later for rubbish removal and then still another for vacuuming/cleaning but this was rectified in following days by placing privacy notice on door... Or perhaps they're could schedule staff to earlier in the day when guests are still out and about...?
Valet parking of $15 per day for vehicle also seemed a bit steep but was informed that it is standard for most larger hotels in cairns cbd..

Loved my stay for 4 nights on business but $15/night for car parking is a bit over the top.