Sutera Sanctuary Lodges @ Manukan Island — Hotel in Manukan Island

I stayed here with my two children, and while the island itself is beautiful, my overall experience at the resort was disappointing.||The resort is designed like chalets, and we stayed in connecting king and twin rooms.|| I received a complaint from a staff member, Amberly, about “noise” from my kids. When I asked her what exactly the complaint was, she couldn’t explain and I had to follow up myself. Eventually, she came to the room to apologize, but by then the mood of the trip was already affected.||It turned out the complaint was about stomping sounds from the next door room. In reality, the rooms have very weak floorboards—just walking normally sounds like stomping. I was upset to be held accountable for something caused by the resort’s infrastructure, not my children’s behavior. As a parent traveling with two kids, this was stressful, especially since my kids are generally well-behaved. It was the first time I’ve ever received a complaint against them, which made it all the more discouraging.||That said, I do want to highlight that other staff were friendly and polite. Check-in was also fast and smooth. Unfortunately, there were several issues that made the stay less enjoyable:||Facilities: The sink leaked at night while it was raining, and there were two 5-minute power shutdowns (one at 10pm and another at 10:30am).|Stain on bedsheets.||Wi-Fi: No Wi-Fi in the rooms. It’s only available at the reception and restaurant.||Food: Extremely expensive. A steak was MYR 96, while a nasi goreng cost MYR 50.||Activities: While snorkeling near the resort, I didn’t see any fish. It’s much better to go with a tour group instead.||Boat Transfers: The speedboat departs at a few timings. The jetty is near Magellan Sutera Resort, so I recommend staying there if you need to overnight before or after. Do note—do not leave your belongings on the boat. The staff will not inform you if anything is left behind.||Weather: September is not a good month to visit. It rained every afternoon and evening; only mornings were clear.||Overall, I do not recommend this resort for families with young or active children. The noise complaint was poorly handled and the facilities are not well-maintained .||It’s a pity this is the only resort on the island, because the island itself is...

On Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 00:35 Jas Ng wrote:|Sutra Sanctuary Lodges@Manukan Island Resort are so beautiful, spacious, clean, quiet especially at those Hillside villas. It offers magnificent sea view and the staff there are all so friendly, helpful and smiley all the time during our 4D/3N there.||The restaurant, Arang offers very yummy and tasty dishes with live band performance during dinner session and was a fantastic 3-man guitar band group!|The foods were all cooked with heart and joy as every dish we took for breakfast, lunch and dinner were so delish, thanks to the chefs and kitchen staff there.||However, there were 2 raining days during our stay and once it rains, the sea along the entire shore were polluted with garbages like food foam boxes, empty water bottles, plastic bags etc. and though it’s not from the Manukan Island itself. We believed its from the boatman who bought meals from the city and had them discarded into the sea so, when its raining, it will all start to flow into the resort sea shore by the strong waves.||So, the resort could probably, put up some protecting nets or something similar to prevent those garbages ‘swimming’ into the sea shore area and we also, noticed there are some small sharks near the shore so, maybe the Resort could also, put up those fish protecting nets to avoid any mishaps from the swimmers or snookers though were small sharks as unsure if it will bite if being attack unintentionally while swimming out there.||There is also, an hour (2-way) trail hike at the resort and was a very nice, refreshing walk where it will lead to watch the sun set at the end of the trail. However, the Resort park should consider putting up more lights along the entire trail as in Sabah, night turns dark pretty early around 6pm so, for those taking an evening walk there, will be better to have touch light with them if there are still no lights put up after my reviews.||Overall, our stay there was fantastic as loves the quiet, relaxing atmosphere, the comfortable huge resort villa there so, its a great get-away resort to re-charge oneself on the island.||Once again, thanks to all the staff of Sutera Sanctuary Lodge and will definitely return for my next Sabah get-away...

This is our very first stay at Sutera Manukan Sanctuary Lodge. Been to many islands before but this one is quite different as its located at a public island, so do bear in mind that it is quite happening from 10.30am onwards on the beach as the crowd from mainland starts coming in. It will only died down once the crowd goes away from 3.30 onwards. So if you are looking for a much more quieter atmosphere and privacy, you can check out other islands like Mantanani. We got the beach suite during our stay at Sutera Manukan Sanctuary Lodge, the rooms were quite clean and spacious, however they may need to vacuum the room floor as there is still sand on the floorboards. Wasn't convenient to walk around the room but they do provide slippers to walk inside the room. Bathroom was really clean too but our room was actually leaking water on the ceiling so it dripped on the bed. Still bearable and was able to sleep through it. If you just come back from the beach they have a tap for you to wash your feet outside of each rooms before you enter the room. Very pratical use.

Staff was also helpful and friendly especially at Arang. However we do find that the management of the resort can be a little bit unfriendly and need to be more courteous. Very selective of who they want to be nice to especially to foreigners who can spend more. I have been to many resorts before but do find that this kind of action won't look too nice on the outlook of the management especially if guests who would like to return to the resort for another stay. Receptionist was also quite unresponsive when we called many times. Not sure was it because the line was bad. But do need some improvements on this. Overall the stay was fairly alright, just management need to look into training of basic courtesy, mannerisms and communication for the leadership. This has to be look into unless the management is not looking for guests to come back for...