We cousins (all girls) stayed at Bungaraya for 4 days and 3 nights. Amid the monsoon season, we were still blessed with nice weather during the day. Karl (Resort Manager) and his team were truly very helpful and accommodating. The resort has just reopened (May 2022) after the pandemic and there were some minor maintenance issues, canopy walk was closed, there are no WIFI in the rooms, room service had a service charge of RM25 per order, they had their valid reasons for the charges. Nevertheless, the team at Bungaraya does strive to make your stay as pleasant as possible. They are doing their best and we loved them for that! Friendly and caring team!! Its a beautiful secluded resort with well preserved flora and fauna. We will definitely be back again!
We (as a family of four) booked a short stay at Bunga Raya prior to a river and rainforest adventure in central Sabah. Private transfer from KK airport to the office to the boat to the island was all fairly seamless. We were allocated Villa 38 as we booked 2 bedroom accommodation. It was absolutely superb - I loved the Malay vernacular/Colonial style of architecture, and we were a short walk from everything with the beach just in front of us. The bedrooms were connected by a verandah, which was fine for us with teens. May not be so good if you have little ones. Some villas are also well up the hill in the rainforest and could well be a bit of a mission to get to - particularly if you are coming and going regularly. Being in a tropical rainforest, right on the beach, the climate obviously takes its toll on all the infrastructure. No doubt this was particularly so during Covid when the resort was shut up and empty. There is an enormous amount of work needed to get all the villas back to standard, and the resort is only operating at half capacity at present, if that. One restaurant is closed and all meals have to be taken at the Pantai restaurant. Interestingly, the architecture here is out of sync with the rest of the resort and the mirrors and arches seemed more like something from a Chinese restaurant circa 1970s. Lovely view though. The service was rather typically Malay (sorry to generalise) but you could be either over serviced or under serviced, depending on the day. The food was always tasty even if a touch expensive by Malay standards - it does have to be shipped in by boat of course. On more than one occasion though our meals came out at different times - once, two of us had finished eating before the others were served. Once we all decided to eat Asian style but after 20 minutes we were advised that the wok had broken and we would need to order European food; which then took another 40 minutes. All done with laughs though, and it wasn't like we were rushing to go anywhere. As a family we spent most of our time in the water. The reefs aren't great, and there are no big fish, but hopefully the reefs are recovering, and there are numerous species of smaller tropical fish including damsel fish, moorish idols, clown fish, parrot fish etc. We even found a resident lobster. I did get up early (pre dawn) one day, and noticed a Malay fisherman working his nets close in in the bay. As it got light he packed up and left - so I'm not hopeful of having any big fish return anytime soon. We had nice weather conditions the whole time, but the wind must have come up on our last night because the morning we left the whole bay was filled with rubbish. If we had arrived with it in that condition we would not have had a very good time. Apparently the resort has to wait for the rubbish to wash up which they then collect and ship back to the mainland. We did do the canopy walk but it was only half open - fairly underwhelming - and the zip line for which you have to pay extra. Hot and sweaty but helped prepare us for the jungle trekking we did in Danum valley later in the holiday. The resort itself has a lovely ambience and there is plenty of wildlife around - the kids loved the monitor lizards, the snakes, the Oriental Pied Hornbills, and the cheeky macaques that were always trying to steal food in the restaurant. Overall, if you are looking for an Aman or Four Seasons standard, this resort is not for you. If you can be a bit more relaxed about things, then the location is incredible (rubbish in the ocean notwithstanding) and the ambience is comfortable and relaxing.…
For check-in you have to download an app to fill out stupid covid-19 questions. Like: have you had contact to someone with covid during the last weeks. How stupid is that. In six weeks of travel not a single hotel did any covid stuff anymore. When we arrived on the island the bay was literally filles with rubbish. Floating islands of trash is nothing you want when spending over 200 € a night. The swimming-pool was unuasable because the water quality was disgusting. The area around the pool was not clean at all. Yes the rooms were very nice and comfortable, the restaurant was great. But even if it is not the faulf of the hotel this is not a nice place tp spend a nice vacation. The Shangri-La Rasa Ria whith the fantastic beach and bay is way better.
An amazing stay at a lovely resort in the rainforest, yet not too far away from KK. The staff are terrific and go out of their way to make you feel welcome at the resort. Thankfully we arrived the week after bad weather, so there was cleanup/fixing in progress, which is understandable. After seeing some of the other resort options near KK, we definitely were lucky to get seclusion/privacy and nature in abundance. Waking up/going to sleep with sound of waves, birds, cicadas, and watching the jungle come alive from your balcony is very special. To mention some memorable staff (and others were also friendly/helpful but I can not recall all their names, sorry!): Ellyrika, Cera, Eduardo, and Isaac (jungle guide with excellent English). Laurant, the French resort manager, does an amazing job at welcoming you, checking in regularly to make sure there is nothing you need and leaving personal notes/gifts to make the stay memorable. A big thank you to all at Bungaraya.…
Sincere compliments to all the dedicated staff of BungaRaya Island Resort in maintaining the resort, the bay area, the beach in tip top condition. It's a warm welcome upon arrival. All the staff are diligent, helpful, courteous and simply professional. The variety of food offered by the Resort is simply delicious by the creative experience chefs of the resort. We love the complimentary breakfast. Pastries, pastas, asian fusion simply great. There is a wine cellar with variety of fine wine to choose from as well. The rooms are clean, lovely, beautiful and comfortable. Complimentary toiletry sets are made of fine organic ingredients. The environment at this resort is so close to nature, gives one a zen feel, in perfect harmony with nature at the same time one can enjoy some complimentary activities offered by the Resort. In summary, it was a memorable awesome worthy of money 3 nites stay at BungaRaya Island Resort from 18Dec to 21 Dec. We definitely will come back. *Kudos to the dedicated staff of BungaRaya Island Resort*. Thank you once again for making our stay here so memorable. BungaRaya Island Resort equals to Rejuvenate recharge reenergise.…
We flew into Kota Kinabalu airport in Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia and took a taxi to the Jesselton Ferry dock about 30 minutes from the airport. We walked down the long ferry terminal with food stalls all along one side of the pier. We came to a small building on the dock with a sign for Gayana and Bunga Raya resorts. We waited there for a fast boat to take us at about 9:30 pm over to Gaya Island where we would stay for five days. We jumped into the plunge pool in our villa and looked out into the night wondering what we would find in the morning. As the sun rose, we looked out onto a sparkling power white sand beach and beyond a warm sea. As it happened there were only 4 or 5 other villas occupied as it was monsoon season. We love our stay. The beach and water fantastic. A lovely infinity pool. Great meals with choices of delicious regional cooking and some more international options. The staff working there were so very hospitable. It could not have been better for us. Animal life abounds with monitor lizards, monkeys, many birds, snorkelling, a friendly buffalo that rakes the beach each day. Also have a zip line, a canopy walk and wifi. Peaceful in the extreme…
What a gorgeous place. Set on a white sandy beach surrounded by jungle. The staff were a delight, always smiling and helpful. The villas were well equipped and extremely comfortable, with a completely separate sitting room if you needed it. The food was excellent and very reasonably priced, which went some way to offsetting the price of alcohol!! With very few guests we had the pool, sea, and beach pretty much to ourselves and certainly didn’t experience any problems with sand flies. If only it wasn’t 15 hours flying time away we would be back like a shot.
Very private resort, serene and quiet. Room was clean and spacious. Excellent hospitality and staff are well trained. Food was awesome and various of wines selection. Price was slightly higher in the resort but still at acceptable range of price. But the resort had too many mosquitoes and i was bitten by sand flies. The sand flies are aggressive and i had horrible experience. Basically my upper body and leg was attacked by sand flies and it leaves scars (plenty).. Whoever plan to stay there, need to bring repellent and fusicort cream for the sand flies. And also watch out for the monkeys, they are naughty and wild. If is not bcus of the sand flies it would hv been a perfect vacay.
Our stay at Bungaraya was great, huge thank you to the thoughtful kind staff (Nancy, Dean, Kery, Zalaina, Juliet and everyone else at the restaurant) as well as the spa team (Tina, Brenda and everyone else) for making our stay so memorable. The food and drinks were great and the massages are a must! I hope to see them all in the future. On top of this the location is amazing, the rooms are right on a white sandy beach making it impossible to beat.
The stand out thing at this resort are the staff. Attentive, thoughtful and accommodating without being obsequious. Fazlina at The Longhouse Restaurant stands out, as do Laurent and Nancy as resort managers. The food was excellent. Based on previous reviews our expectations weren’t high but the quality was consistently very high. I thoroughly recommend the wasabi fish (a truly great dish) and the satay sticks which are accompanied by the best satay sauce I’ve had along with little cubes of pressed rice and if cucumber. Richie was a great dive leader and we were lucky to have him to ourselves over the three days of diving we did. The dive centre is actually at the sister resort but arrangements are easy to make either in advance or whilst there. I had an amazing signature massage - worth doing. You can buy a WiFi dongle to use in your room and once you know you can call the front desk to re-set your limit, is very reliable. Some bits of the resort do look a little tired but overall it’s charming. It sits on the boundary of the jungle and the beach so won’t ever be one of those pristine resorts you find in the Maldives. Some of the planks in the numerous wooden paths and walkways are spongy or loose which can be alarming. And bugs are an issue but repellent is provided and replenished gratis. Laurent and team are very responsive and helpful on any issue.…
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