My visit to Kapalai was arranged by the resort management. Prior to my visit, I have visited Semporna several occasions, but this visit totally change my perception towards it. After 45 minutes travelling from it's own jetty in city, I was greeted with it's breathtaking surroundings . The quality of its facilities, food and services is top notch. The package of offered by the resort, makes travelling to kapalai an enjoyable one. Pickup from the airport directly to the island. Also the staffs make us feel safe throughout the journey. Not to mentioned all meals are being take care of. Drinking water, water heater and 24 hours electricity available throughout the stay. Definitely will visit Kapalai in times to come. Kudos to the management team

Low Chai Meng

My visit to Kapalai was arranged by the resort management. Prior to my visit, I have visited Semporna several occasions, but this visit totally change my perception towards it. After 45 minutes travelling from it's own jetty in city, I was greeted with it's breathtaking surroundings . The quality of its facilities, food and services is top notch. The package of offered by the resort, makes travelling to kapalai an enjoyable one. Pickup from the airport directly to the island. Also the staffs make us feel safe throughout the journey. Not to mentioned all meals are being take care of. Drinking water, water heater and 24 hours electricity available throughout the stay. Definitely will visit Kapalai in times to come. Kudos to the management team

Low Chai Meng

My visit to Kapalai was arranged by the resort management. Prior to my visit, I have visited Semporna several occasions, but this visit totally change my perception towards it. After 45 minutes travelling from it's own jetty in city, I was greeted with it's breathtaking surroundings . The quality of its facilities, food and services is top notch. The package of offered by the resort, makes travelling to kapalai an enjoyable one. Pickup from the airport directly to the island. Also the staffs make us feel safe throughout the journey. Not to mentioned all meals are being take care of. Drinking water, water heater and 24 hours electricity available throughout the stay. Definitely will visit Kapalai in times to come. Kudos to the management team

Low Chai Meng

If you are a diver, this has to be on your short list of places to go. Sipadan is one of the best spots in the world to dive and Mabul has unbelievable macro. The dive guides are the best and you can do a sunset or night dive on your own at the house reef. It's easy to navigate and is full of marine life (Mandarin fish come out during the sunset dive). At the time we visited, there was almost no one at the resort due to the virus situation. We had a private guide for all but two days and those two days only one other couple joined our boat. Usually the resort is full and most guests are Chinese. The room was spacious and comfortable. You have a lot of privacy from other bungalows. Great view from the balcony and we saw turtles and stingrays just beneath us. There is no TV but we didn't mind at all. If you need entertainment, make sure you bring a laptop with some movies. Staff was friendly and accommodating, everyone was friendly. Food was served mostly buffet style and was good but nothing spectacular. Dinner is cooked Malay style so beware of bones and food is often not much warmer than room temperature. Even so, we enjoyed the meals and always had more than enough food. We spent six nights at the resort and it was just about right. We dived Sipadan twice which was great but were equally impressed with the macro in Mabul. Definitely worth the price, especially if you get the entire resort to yourself like we did. If you come in the next few weeks, you are likely to have the same good fortune :)

Michael M, Kihei, Hawaii

If you are a diver, this has to be on your short list of places to go. Sipadan is one of the best spots in the world to dive and Mabul has unbelievable macro. The dive guides are the best and you can do a sunset or night dive on your own at the house reef. It's easy to navigate and is full of marine life (Mandarin fish come out during the sunset dive). At the time we visited, there was almost no one at the resort due to the virus situation. We had a private guide for all but two days and those two days only one other couple joined our boat. Usually the resort is full and most guests are Chinese. The room was spacious and comfortable. You have a lot of privacy from other bungalows. Great view from the balcony and we saw turtles and stingrays just beneath us. There is no TV but we didn't mind at all. If you need entertainment, make sure you bring a laptop with some movies. Staff was friendly and accommodating, everyone was friendly. Food was served mostly buffet style and was good but nothing spectacular. Dinner is cooked Malay style so beware of bones and food is often not much warmer than room temperature. Even so, we enjoyed the meals and always had more than enough food. We spent six nights at the resort and it was just about right. We dived Sipadan twice which was great but were equally impressed with the macro in Mabul. Definitely worth the price, especially if you get the entire resort to yourself like we did. If you come in the next few weeks, you are likely to have the same good fortune :)

Michael M, Kihei, Hawaii

If you are a diver, this has to be on your short list of places to go. Sipadan is one of the best spots in the world to dive and Mabul has unbelievable macro. The dive guides are the best and you can do a sunset or night dive on your own at the house reef. It's easy to navigate and is full of marine life (Mandarin fish come out during the sunset dive). At the time we visited, there was almost no one at the resort due to the virus situation. We had a private guide for all but two days and those two days only one other couple joined our boat. Usually the resort is full and most guests are Chinese. The room was spacious and comfortable. You have a lot of privacy from other bungalows. Great view from the balcony and we saw turtles and stingrays just beneath us. There is no TV but we didn't mind at all. If you need entertainment, make sure you bring a laptop with some movies. Staff was friendly and accommodating, everyone was friendly. Food was served mostly buffet style and was good but nothing spectacular. Dinner is cooked Malay style so beware of bones and food is often not much warmer than room temperature. Even so, we enjoyed the meals and always had more than enough food. We spent six nights at the resort and it was just about right. We dived Sipadan twice which was great but were equally impressed with the macro in Mabul. Definitely worth the price, especially if you get the entire resort to yourself like we did. If you come in the next few weeks, you are likely to have the same good fortune :)

Michael M, Kihei, Hawaii

First and foremost, this location is unparalleled. You are literally in the middle of the ocean (the only "land" is a sandbar at one end of the resort that is only visible at low tide). It's a diver's paradise - stay extra nights just for the opportunity to dive Sipadan more than one day. A few things to note - there is a very bizarre "Instagram" element here. People literally come over for a day or two for full on social media photo shoots. It's weird. Also, the food is good, but not great. As long as you don't expect fine dining, you'll be just fine. The restaurant never actually closes, so we would grab a bottle of wine and watch the sunset every day (and corner our favorite outdoor table in the process). There is a CRAZY vulture-like component to the dinner buffet. The dive team is awesome. We ended up doing our Advanced Open Water course here and had a blast. We stayed 7 nights, which gave us 3 days at Sipadan (worth every penny). Sipadan has a strict cap on divers / snorkelers - 120/day, and only in the mornings (you get three dives in, and the resort has breakfast for you between dives). The wildlife and coral is insane. Green sea turtles, bumphead parrotfish, MASSIVE schools of jack fish, reef sharks, lobsters...it's incredible.

Alexis D, Boston, Massachusetts

First and foremost, this location is unparalleled. You are literally in the middle of the ocean (the only "land" is a sandbar at one end of the resort that is only visible at low tide). It's a diver's paradise - stay extra nights just for the opportunity to dive Sipadan more than one day. A few things to note - there is a very bizarre "Instagram" element here. People literally come over for a day or two for full on social media photo shoots. It's weird. Also, the food is good, but not great. As long as you don't expect fine dining, you'll be just fine. The restaurant never actually closes, so we would grab a bottle of wine and watch the sunset every day (and corner our favorite outdoor table in the process). There is a CRAZY vulture-like component to the dinner buffet. The dive team is awesome. We ended up doing our Advanced Open Water course here and had a blast. We stayed 7 nights, which gave us 3 days at Sipadan (worth every penny). Sipadan has a strict cap on divers / snorkelers - 120/day, and only in the mornings (you get three dives in, and the resort has breakfast for you between dives). The wildlife and coral is insane. Green sea turtles, bumphead parrotfish, MASSIVE schools of jack fish, reef sharks, lobsters...it's incredible.

Alexis D, Boston, Massachusetts

Sipadan Island

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