The oldest, purpose-built hotel in Sandakan. Family run since 1966. Retains the old and embraces the new - a hotel brimming with cultural detail and interest. Situated in the centre of town. Nestled among all the commercial buildings, banks, airline offices, and next to central market and bus station. Less than 2km from the jetty, and boat rides to islands such as Lankayan, Turtle island and Berhala island.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Classic
Quirky Hotels
Languages Spoken
English, Chinese, Malay
Location
Hotel Nak Jalan Pelabuhan, Sandakan 90000 Malaysia
OYO 1030 Nak Hotel
337 reviews
Getting there
Good for walkers
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
Lets be honest Sandakan is a pretty shabby city, however seeing as most people use it as a base camp for the various activities in the area, i'll just keep my review to the Hotel.
The hotel is well placed in the middle of the city and was at one time probably very smart. However it is begining to show its age and is a little bit shabby in places, but this is being rectfied by a gradual rennovation process. The staff at the hotel are extremely helpful and friendly and go out of their way to make your stay pleasant. The rooms are simple but functional with air-conditioning that does the job but is not top shelf, this can be solved by loaning a fan from reception. The rooms lack a refrigerator/mini-bar and this is a bit of a pain, but the supermarket over the street has a good selection of cold drinks.
The best part of the "Nak" experience is the roof bar/restaurant. Here a simple breakfast is served daily until 1030 and then from 1700 the bar opens. Here you can get the best food in downtown Sandakan and well priced drinks in a wonderful setting. If the weather turns you can enjoy the Japanese style lounge to recline and enjoy your free welcome drink.
All in all, Hotel Nak is very good value for money and if you dont mind having a bustling town outside your window then its a great place to stay in the downtown area. And even if you dont stay there, go and check out the roof bar .... You'll love it.
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Date of stay: October 2010
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Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
It was three of us travelling together so we booked a large 'family' room. Upon arrival, we were left sitting in the lobby for quite a while as the desk manager told us our room was not ready. He finally said the room did not have power so they put us in two rooms instead. Initially we thought that was fine...but when we were taken to our rooms, one was quite nice and had been recently 'refreshed' (although it lacked a coffee maker and the TV really did not work) whereas the other room was a disaster with dirty bedsheets, no working safe and no working TV. So we took our coffee maker over to the one room and requested the manager move us to a new room. They did so fairly quickly but they moved us to a large 'family room' that had not been available earlier...which we soon found out was the room that had electrical issues with the power cutting out twice while we were there (apparently the room was on a separate electrical panel and the fuse kept tripping off). This likely was a wonderful hotel back in the day...and could be a wonderful hotel again if the owners invested in renovating the entire hotel and spending a LOT of time training the staff (who are quite friendly but not terribly competent).
The upside here, if you can call it that, are the hotel restaurants. The BaLin Roofgarden served a delicious meal (their chocolate wheeze drink was great!)...but we wished the staff had told us that there was an area on more level up that has an incredible view of the city...instead we were given a table on the next level down that had okay window views. The main floor restaurant (adjacent to the hotel entrance) is where they serve the complimentary breakfast is LOVELY. The staff there were wonderful and the food was fantastic!
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Date of stay: March 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Based on good reviews and very affordable price range we decided to choose this hotel as our stop over trip to Sandakan on our way to KK. It is a sleepy town and not much happening here. It's pretty trendy and cozy for Sandakan standard I must say. Located at the main shopping street . The rooftop bar is somewhat a hot spot for some local Sandakan trendsetters for an evening drink. Very centrally located. Checking in and out is ok. However I do not really like the look of the lobby which is not very welcoming . In front of the hotel is a bus stop . You can see many young teens loitering the premises outside hotel some sort a meeting point for friends.
Travelled end 2011
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Date of stay: April 2012
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Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Let's start with the reason why I gave this hotel 5 stars: it is an excellent accomodation for the money you pay in a non-touristic town. So besides it's good value for money it's also of a quality you just wouldn't expect in Sandakan. A great way to treat yourself after fighting the Borneo jugnle for a week.
The rooms are very clean, luxurious (in the way that it has really comfy beds and a nice shower) and the rooftop restaurant has great food, snacks and cocktails. The staff is very nice and helpful.
Personally I found it was the ideal place to reset myself after having an exciting time in the outback of Borneo.
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Date of stay: December 2013
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Stayed there for 3 nights and enjoyed every minute. Yes, hotel is a bit worn out but still lovely with all the Chinese furniture and decoration in the lobby, birdcage lamps in the rooms and the Chinese bowl as the sink. Staff was very friendly and helpful. Room was clean and comfy. And in the end the roof top bar with its herbs boxes and newspaper-menu was superb. Thank you guys and keep going just the way you are.
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Date of stay: October 2016Trip type: Travelled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
when we came in it looked like we had found the worst hotel ever but the rooms were quit okay for what we expected loud music all the time bar upstairs is kinda nice but doesn't look like the pictures, at night it is better have to admit that it still is the best hotel in sandakan, as the city is dirty you should'nt go at all to sandakan only wifi in the lobby and the bar
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Date of stay: September 2015
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Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This hotel was great value for money, had clean spacious rooms, staff were really helpful and friendly - we liked everything about it. By far the best thing about it is the rooftop bar - absolutely loved it! We spent an entire afternoon eating and drinking out there on the lounges - was fantastic. Would definitely recommend this hotel.
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Date of stay: August 2012
Value
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We stayed in the tranquility Suite Room for 3 nights while in the Sandakan region and were very pleased by EVERY aspect of this place.
Staff was kind, well informed, and always there to help,
Room was very clean, spacious and had a good AC
Location of the hotel is very good to have a look at anything in the region (although a bit noisy outside even through the windows)
Restaurant on the 7th floor is AMAZING with GREAT ambiance.
What more can you ask for,
Definitely recommend to anyone and will stop by again if passing through Sandakan
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Date of stay: August 2012
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We stayed 2 nights in June 2012. The rooms whilst sparse are comfortable with air conditioning and a hot shower. The hotel building itself is quite old, and the rooms do feel it in some senses, however for the price we paid we feel it was good value for money. The hotel is also right across the road from the local bus station, making getting out to Sepilok and Labuk Bay easy.
Balin restaurant on the roof is a fantastic place to chill out and look out over the harbour.
The staff were also very helpful and friendly.
The is no in-room internet but they do have free Wifi in the lobby and on the roof at Balin Restaurant.
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Date of stay: June 2012
Value
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Location
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Nak hotel.We booked via Agoda initially for 1 night in a 'brick view' room only expecting to sleep there for one night and hoping to visit Turtle Island Reserve for another night.Turtle Island was ridiculously expensive and didn't reply to 3 emails and then needed bank transfer deposits in order to reserve a place and goodness knows what else.If you are interested, the email address for Turtle Island Sanctuary is: cquest1996@gmail.com.Don't necessarily expect a reply!Price for one room 2 people is 576 MR which doesn't include conservation fee,camera charges,nor hire of snorkling equipment. That's what comes of monopolies,and there is no guarantee you may even see any turtles! The Nak hotel and the Sandakan tourist office intervened on our behalves concerning this lack of replies and were very helpful,but we decided against it.Having decided against the Turtle Island option we then booked a second night at the Nak which happened to be sea view.Email contact with the hotel was excellent,and they upgraded our first night free of charge to SV too.Thank you!! The SV windows only have a 30° outlook because of the way the hotel is built.But no-one overlooks the rooms so the bamboo blinds don't need to be used. The brick view means you have a window but look out to a wall.
We arrived by taxi from Sepilok(35MR) and were given room 43, a twin room.(walk-in shower) Unfortunately we had great difficulty in locking the door(so did the receptionist when he came up) so we moved to Room 55. This was again SV.double bed,fresh white bed linen,paprika coloured walls(all looks freshly painted)headboard light for reading,coffee and tea making facilities,TV (but no English language news channels).We asked for extra pillows and hangers and this was no problem. There are 2 easy chairs,mirror and desk,wardrobe with hanging and shelf space. The bathroom looked fairly recently renovated with taupe coloured tiles, bath and fresh towels daily.The only drawback in room 55 was the fact that the handle which turns the water flow from bath to shower was broken. For 2 nights this was not a problem as we just had baths;but it could have been inconvenient if I needed to wash my hair.Hand towel and bath towels as well as body gel,shampoo and soap are provided.The hand basin (Blue and white Chinese bowl) unfortunately didn't have much room around it to store your own toiletries.
However.... clean room and fine for 2 nights.
The Reception down stairs is glacial(Air/con up high)Helpful staff,some Chinese furniture and artifacts and a place to sit if you want and look out at the street life through the front plate glass window.There is a useful info book at the desk,listing sights etc with prices and how much a taxi would cost to get there.Great!All hotels and guesthouses should think of this!!There is also a second hand book library to swap books or for hire. A lift reaches the 7th floor and walking up one flight one reaches a unique bar on the roof(inside with A/C) and outside with sea breeze. Breakfast is served up there,which was fine.Not a large choice but it started the day off well. On arrival we were also invited to a mocktail which we had on the roof top bar(lychees,mint and all sorts...deliciously refreshing and would normally cost 14MR)A nice extra. They serve food up there as well but we thought it was quite pricey and preferred to eat locally in the little cafes in the street. The first night it poured with rain and this washes thro the top floor terrace and bar,but the water was evacuated and mopped up very quickly.They must be used to it!Staff in the bar are very pleasant. The rooms are being double glazed and although we had this you could still here the chap from the bus stand downstairs early in the morning touting for business(well I presume that was what he was doing),but then you also have the convenience of being in the centre of town,so you can't have everything!! There is a Chinese restaurant next door,and across the road a market which sells fruit and also a very nice bakery shop which also sold cold drinks(within this market area)Stock up on a room snack. Central market in town(about a 10 minute walk from the Nak) was surprisingly clean and big,food,fruit and veg ground floor with a good little food hall on the first floor. We ate there once;it was fine and cheap and you could point at what dishes took your fancy. It cost about 5MR for rice and 2 veg.They also do take away.Not open evening though. Batiks are reasonably priced in the local shops and the town is in a grid system,easy to find your way around,buzzy during the day but not much after 8p.m. Sandakan now has a 'Heritage' route if you want to see the main sites.You can down load the map on line. There is free wifi on roof and in lobby,but not in rooms.No hairdryer. A taxi from the Nak to Sandakan airport cost us 25MR.Plenty of taxis in the vicinity. We were happy with this option as a hotel for a short stop. It was clean,safe,central and provides all you need for a couple of nights. The roof top bar is a hidden delight,and the staff helpful(were even able to loan us a sharp knife so that we could tuck into delicious mangoes in our room.) Good value.Thank you
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Date of stay: April 2012
Value
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Location
Cleanliness
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Seaview rooms give a better outlook.Higher the floor better the view and quieter from street...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
There are more places to choose from in the Sandakan area.
ALSO KNOWN AS
nak hotel sandakan
FORMERLY KNOWN AS
Nak Hotel
LOCATION
MalaysiaSabahSandakan DivisionSandakan
NUMBER OF ROOMS
24
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