Downtown Kota Kinabalu Holidays from £747

Very helpful and accommodating staff, lovely rooms and breakfast.

We had an amazing time at Gaya Island Resort. It is a luxury resort with great food and drinks, comfortable rooms, and incredible views/proximity to the ocean. Worth noting is that this is in a nature reserve, surrounded by jungle and ocean, and the resort embraces and supports this, which means coexisting with wildlife. You can walk out from the resort beach to their own protected reef and swim with dozens of species of beautiful fish (equipment is available for free). We didn’t see any snakes, though we watched for them constantly over 5 days and participated intently in multiple jungle walks. The activities were an absolute highlight - a deeper snorkeling excursion, walks, mangrove kayaking, and more available. I had booked it confident that the family members who prefer to lounge by the pool would be well-served, but they ended up coming on the excursions and having a great time. Definitely worth 4-5 days if you can swing it.

Everything was just as we expected

We stayed in the 2 bedroom cabin for 3 nights. First night, rats were running around between the bathrooms and bedrooms so we called the front desk and they sent 2 maintenance guys and they laid multiple mouse traps. Over the next 2 night, every night we caught one (large size rat) and the whole cabin stinks with rat urine. I understand this is a wood cabin and we are staying on a Island with expected wildlife. But unfortuately my wife and daughter could not tolerate it. The daily room service barely cleaned the rooms, there were rat droppings everywhere, including chewed up sugar packets and other trash the rats dragged in from outside. But the worst part of all is the urine smell, one of the bathroom we couldn't even step inside due to the smell.