Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

If you’re going to stay in a city as busy as Kuala Lumpur, we always say, you may as well get the full megacity experience. (We’re always saying this.) If 571 rooms in the long, long shadow of the Petronas Towers sounds about your speed, then the high-rise Traders, a tastefully modern high-rise luxury hotel, is probably the place to hang your hat.

It’s rare that a city hotel has a side that’s so definitively the good side, but at Traders you’d like to be facing the Towers, at least for the sheer uniqueness of the vistas. But to be honest, any view of central KL is a stimulating experience. The interiors, then, are suitably minimalist, to provide a visual refuge from the view through the window, while the comforts are anything but minimal. And that view is front and center at the Sky Bar, a top-floor nightspot with what might be the town’s best view of the Petronas Towers.

Like a lot of big business-oriented chains, Traders offers a “club level,” a sort of first-class offering, which ups the luxury and exclusivity quotient — the latter quite literally, with a cocktail-hour dress code and separate Club Floor check-in and check-out. They’re at great pains, however, to position Traders as a leisure hotel as well — you don’t have to be here on business to appreciate the complimentary WiFi, the gym, the spa, the restaurants, and you certainly wouldn’t want meetings taking you away from the shops at Kuala Lumpur City Centre.