We went there on our honeymoon and stayed four nights. The staff went above and beyond to make our stay special. The food in a Fisherman Cove restaurant was fabulous with beautiful views. Accommodation was lovely with wonderful sunets. Would highly recommend
I cannot fault this hotel! It was just what we needed at the end of our tour round Sabah and a welcome bit of comfort and relaxation.
The rooms were beautifully furnished, clean and spacious with an outdoor balcony area with a sea view.
There was a great range of foods available at the buffet breakfasts and dinners to suit all dietary needs and preferences. The lunchtime menu had a good choice but one course is definitely enough as the portions are large.
There are plenty of activities available to enjoy, some free and some at an additional cost. Our sons enjoyed the meditation, mangrove kayaking and wildlife sessions which were all free. The sunset cruise was worth every penny with stunning skies to enjoy.
It is just as easy to do absolutely nothing and simply enjoy the pool, beach and sea, chill out with a good book on your balcony or in a hammock. Drinks can be ordered and bought to you pool/ beach side.
Sadly my sons and I were ill for part of our stay but the hotel staff were so helpful and nothing was too much effort, this made our recovery so much more bearable.
The staff at this hotel were absolutely fantastic, they are welcoming and are very attentive, keen to help make your stay as enjoyable and memorable as possible. I cannot thank Raj on the front desk enough for the kindness and hospitality he showed to my family, particularly when we were poorly.
I cannot wait to go back to this island of paradise!
Starting with the positives ... the staff at the hotel are great and when our travel arrangements changed at the last minute the hotel arranged a boat at midnight to pick us up. The rooms are spacious and comfortable. We enjoyed our stay on Gaya Island - which was good for some post rain forest hiking rest and recuperation. The hotel reef is OK for snorkelling but we arranged a snokelling trip (booked by the hotel with Borneo Dreams) which was a great day out. We also enjoyed the Tapanyaki restaurant. But two or three days is probably sufficient time at this resort.
Less good aspects:
- the rush for sunbeds pre breakfast (the pool area gets crowded and there appear to be insufficient sunbeds for all guests which leads to 'European sunbed claiming practice');
- most villas are on the hillside - you will get a sweat on getting to and from your room. In 32/34 degrees the steep hills/steps are no fun. Yes there are two minibuses but you will wait 20 mins to get one. Why no electric buggies circulating round?
- there are boats during day time to KK but not in the evenings - so you have to eat at the hotel. It would have been nice to go for an evening meal in KK in the knowledge that you could get back to Gaya;
- main restaurant - service a bit chaotic but plentiful food choices even if the quality of products is at the cheaper end of the spectrum;
- The poolside bar was not well staffed, and is quite substandard in terms of chairs and tables, so the lunchtime snack and sea view cocktail experience is not great;
- Expect quite a few children in quite confined areas (restaurant/pool).
Strangely this hotel has quite nice rooms (though these will need refurbing soon) and poorer quality public areas (pool, pool bar, restaurant, sea front). They appear to have plenty of space and could have a second pool, more sunbeds (...perhaps even create an adults only pool). With reasonable investment this hotel could be a really nice destination 4* hotel rather than just somewhere for 2-3 days.
We had some a nice stay of 5 nights at Gaya Island Resort (GIR). However, the overall conclusion was that it did not entirely live up to our expectations.
Pro’s:
- Location at the sea is lovely with easy access to the ocean. Water is fantastic when it is not packed with plastic waste.
- The Resort does a great job trying to keep the water clean. They have many people cleaning up the ocean and the beach.
- Pool area is nice with (not enoguh!) sunbeds and plenty of pool towels.
- Lunch restaurant was OK
- When we preferred to eat outside instead of sitting inside the restaurant, they made a special table for us outside. This was very nice.
- The private beach reachable by boat was nice.
Con’s:
- The resort allows people to reserve sunbeds from early in the morning. So if you show up at 10 am, there will be loads of sunbeds with only pool towels on them, but only people on approx half of them. It is extremely annoying. The resort should put a stop to this and just remove all towels. This towel-execise does bring a mediocre feeling to the resort. It is certaintly not something a truly luxury resort would allow.
- My husband and my son wanted to scuba dive. Due to a cancellation, they were able to go for half a day, but everything else was fully booked. It would have been nice to know that booking in advance was necessary to secure a spot.
- We didn’t get the snorkeling trip that was actually included in our package. We never quite understood why. We asked for an alternative activity instead and they promised us to look info that, but never came back to us with a suggestion.
- Food was ok, but nothing special and rather expensive
- We were planning on taken the boat to Kota Kinabalu to have dinner there. The boat transfer was outrageously expensive so we ended up going only once. It is obvious that they want the guests to dine at the resort.
- Rooms were ok, but a bit dark. Although I enjoy a big bathroom, it did take up too much room compared to the bed area.
We don’t mind walking so the hilly walks going back and forth were ok, but I can certainly see why this could be a problem to some people. The resort should consider electric buggies as a service to those who do not fancy a strenous walk in 35 degrees.
We stayed at Gaya Island Resort for 5 nights as part of a longer family trip through Asia. I want to maybe upfront be clear as to why the rather harsh review as the place does have a number of positives (as can be clear by the comments from other reviewers): this place markets itself as a ecologically conscious luxury five star resort/hotel and is not cheap by any means. By doing so, it sets expectations high and simply doesn't deliver. It doesn't mean it's not a decent resort, but if you want to go to a five star resort and are willing to pay for that, I simply wouldn't recommend this place.
Let's start with a few positives:
- Rooms are nice, modern and spacious and you can get connecting rooms if you are a family; there is enough wardrobe space, beds are good, A/C is effective although not adjustable, showers are nice; the only thing we find slightly annoying is the very confusing light switches...
- The staff are friendly and responsive and when there is an issue (in our case a restaurant reservation issue), they try to resolve it quickly and also make up for it
- Snorkling in the bay is great; our snorkling trip itself got cancelled because of a spotted crocodile and water quality, but the bay outside the hotel more than made up for it; our daughter spent hours floating around
- There is a descent amount of beach kit (paddle boards, kayaks, etc.) that can be rented for a small fee and given the bay is nice and calm (at least when we were there), it makes for excellent water activities
- The Spa is excellent and both my wife and I had a great 50min massage
- Buffet food is tasty and there is a good amount of choice; I had never had Okonomiyaki (a Japanese pancake) and it's one of my new favourites; the other two restaurants are good as well, both food and service
Here though is where things start to fall short, with not enough:
- Sunbeds and parasols: the single biggest issue with this place (and I guess amplified in high season) is that there are not enough places during the day to lie down; and in some places there are beds, but no parasols (which in 30 degree blazing heat is pointless); most guests figure this after a day and then the race of putting towels down at 7am (!) in the morning to mark your bed starts... and I expect that kind of sunbed behaviours at an Iberostar in Spain, but not at a five star resort; and while the place is space constraint, there is sufficient room to at least create more capacity + it doesn't cost the resort a lot of money
- Staff or they should be trained better: I can't fault the staff themselves for attitude, but there are not enough of them or they need to be trained to be more effective; some quick bar-food and a cocktail should not take 90min...
- Cool air outside your room: as already commented on by some other reviews, the main two restaurants do not have A/C, only fans; we were there went it was 30 degrees, I can't imagine what it feels like in there when it gets even hotter... you can't have a lot of guests sitting at the table with their own little fans to keep themselves cool while trying to enjoy dinner and having to gobble down their glass of wine quickly given it warms up in 5 min after being poured...
- Transport up the hills: most of the rooms are up into the hills of the island - and while everyone should be ok walking up that every now and then, it would be nice to catch a lift with an electric golf cart every now and then; the resort does have Toyota mini vans and you can request to be driven, but it's way more of a hassle and takes too long to find someone; it also feels odd that an eco-friendly resort uses diesel vans instead of electric buggies, which is what dozens of other resorts do...
The list can be made longer of things that are just too little, but I will stop here. One thing the resort does have too much of is rats, and unfortunately not in the places where you like them (the bar and the restaurant). Unfortunately the buggers are too fast too make a quick picture, so no photographic evidence, but they are massive and we were not the only ones to spot them. Now with open plan spaces and the jungle, these things are to be expected a little, but it is still quite off-putting and would expect the hotel to be more on the ball for pest control (because if we spot two in five days, I expect most of the staff know as well)
