Kuching doesn't have a "hotel strip" the way KL or Penang does — its best addresses are strung along the Sarawak River, or tucked into restored shophouses in the Old Town. That makes it easy to get burned by outdated blog posts recommending hotels that have since rebranded, closed a wing, or simply don't exist under the name people remember.

We went through the usual suspects — the international riverside towers everyone name-drops, plus the smaller boutique and heritage properties that rarely make it onto generic "top hotels" roundups — and checked each one's own website or a live booking listing before including it. Two commonly-mentioned names didn't survive that check (see "What We Left Out" below).

International Riverside Hotels

These are the big, full-service hotels sitting directly on or right beside the Sarawak River, mostly clustered along Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman and the Kuching waterfront.

### 1. Riverside Majestic Hotel One of Kuching's longest-running riverside addresses, split into the Puteri Wing and the newer Astana Wing, with 241 rooms and suites overlooking the Sarawak River. It sits directly next to the Riverside Shopping Complex (cineplex, bowling, shops), so it's a genuinely walkable base for both river views and city-centre convenience. Halal-certified kitchens run Café Majestic, River Palace Restaurant and Coca Thai.

### 2. Hilton Kuching Hilton's Kuching property sits right on the waterfront promenade on Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, overlooking the Sarawak River. Expect the usual full-service Hilton amenities — two pools, a fitness centre, an Executive Lounge, and River View Café for the daily breakfast buffet — plus Cantonese fine dining on site.

### 3. Pullman Kuching Perched on Jalan Mathies Hill in the Kuching Golden Triangle, Pullman Kuching offers panoramic views over both the city and the Sarawak River, and is within walking distance of the Kuching Waterfront and Sarawak Museum. Good to know: the hotel is in the final phase of a multi-year, phased refurbishment — the lobby, restaurants, fitness centre and 161 guestrooms are already done, with the Executive Lounge targeted for completion around October 2026. It's staying open throughout, but ask which room category you're booking if a freshly renovated room matters to you.

### 4. Grand Margherita Hotel Originally opened in 1976 as Holiday Inn Kuching — Borneo's first international hotel — the property was rebranded Grand Margherita Hotel at the end of 2008. Today it has 274 rooms and suites with Sarawak River or city views, sits next to Sarawak Plaza shopping complex, and remains one of the more historically significant riverside addresses in the city even under its newer name.

Boutique & Heritage Stays

These are smaller, independently-run properties — genuinely boutique in scale, not just marketed that way — mostly clustered in Kuching's Old Town and Padungan.

### 5. The Waterfront Hotel Kuching Billed as Kuching's first art-themed hotel, The Waterfront sits atop Plaza Merdeka with 208 rooms including 31 suites and 2 loft suites, and views over Padang Merdeka and the Sarawak River. It's a smoke-free property aimed at travellers who want boutique styling with full hotel-scale facilities.

### 6. The Ranee Boutique Suites A 24-room boutique hotel in the heart of the Old Town, rebuilt from two 19th-century shophouses on Main Bazaar. Rooms are individually designed and named after members of the Brooke family (Sarawak's "White Rajah" era), with river-facing rooms looking straight out over the Sarawak River waterfront — about as close as you can get to old Kuching without staying in a museum.

### 7. The LimeTree Hotel An eco-conscious boutique hotel in Padungan, about an 8-10 minute walk from the Kuching Waterfront, with 50 rooms, a Halal-certified café, and the LimeLight Rooftop Lounge for city and river views over cocktails. It's Travelife-certified for sustainability, which is a genuine point of difference from the bigger chains on this list.

### 8. The Marian Boutique Lodging House A restored 1885 hilltop mansion on Wayang Street, originally built by prominent trader Ong Ewe Hai and later used as an all-girls boarding house — hence the name. The 40 rooms span the poolside Chapel Wing and the main heritage building, kept in the original black-and-white colonial style with timber floors and vintage furniture, and several rooms have river views over the Sarawak River. This is the most "heritage" pick on the list, and it books out early for a reason.

What We Left Out

  • DoubleTree by Hilton Kuching — this name gets recycled in older "top hotels" lists, but Hilton's own site currently shows no DoubleTree property in Kuching; the nearest DoubleTree by Hilton is in Kuala Lumpur. We're not listing a hotel that doesn't appear to exist under that brand in Kuching.
  • Le Méridien Kuching — same issue. Marriott's Le Méridien portfolio in Malaysia covers Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu; we found no evidence of a trading Le Méridien property in Kuching. Easy to confuse with Le Méridien Kota Kinabalu, which is also a riverside/waterfront hotel.
  • Threehouse Bed & Breakfast — a well-reviewed heritage guesthouse in Old Chinatown and genuinely charming, but it's a shared-bathroom backpacker B&B rather than a boutique hotel, so it didn't fit this particular list.
  • Generic "promo" listings — several third-party booking sites advertise blanket "5% instant discount" codes on Kuching hotels; these are aggregator-side offers, not hotel promotions, so we haven't repeated them here as if they were official deals.

### Related reads - Riverside Majestic Astana Wing Kuching: 20% Off Weekend High Tea Buffet — a current F&B promo at one of the hotels on this list - 8 Family-Friendly Things to Do in Kuching, Sarawak - 8 Kuching Food Institutions Every Visitor Should Try (Sarawak)

*Image: Kuching waterfront at dusk, Sarawak River — photo by Marufish, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.*