We contacted down below last minute for diving via whatsapp and they were very accommodating. The... read more
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Adventures in Borneo with Downbelow Marine & Wildlife
KK Times Square | Block F, Ground Floor 33-G, 33-1, 33-2, Kota Kinabalu 88100, Malaysia
Open today: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Review Highlights
“A great dive center!”
Aliyah D
“Brilliant dive centre, well worth a visit, no matter what level you're at.”
Fantastic dive centre. The setup is so professionally organised, the staff are all amazing... read more
E8268SYcolins
Леди В
Manchester, United Kingdom
937
The most overpriced tour
Date of experience: February 2019
7 Thank Леди В
Related to items you viewed
Multi-day Tours, Scuba & Snorkeling, Climbing Tours, Nature & Wildlife Tours, Day Trips
Multi-day Tours, Climbing Tours, Nature & Wildlife Tours, Day Trips
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just_Kenji
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
33
I recently took an AOW dive course at Downbelow’s Gaya island and everything was positive. The planning was well-orchestrated via email with excellent customer service. During my 2 day course, every detail was taken care of carefully, from land/boat transfer, equipment, lunch and snack. Alex, my instructor, was excellent and paid attention to provide everybody with thorough briefing and preparationg for the dives. Thumbs up!
I really enjoyed spending time at their dive center on Gaya island. Lovely location! Also, the fact that Downbelow is the only operator on the island means it isn’t overcrowded with tourists. It’s a big plus!
I also want to mention that Downbelow has a great shop with very good diving gears if you want to check it out. The staff was really helpful even though I arrived a bit late in the afternoon (after coming back from our dives). I was very happy to find a wetsuit that fit me perfectly at their shop.
Overall, I highly recommend Downbelow!
Date of experience: January 2019
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1 Thank just_Kenji
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.
KKRichard, Manager at Adventures in Borneo with Downbelow Marine & Wildlife, responded to this reviewResponded 24 February 2019
Hello Thao N, congratulations on your AOW! Thank you for being so generous with your compliments to the team. We are happy to read that you had the chance to meet our team across the company and everyone has been lovely. Yes, you are right, all of our client appreciate that we are the only dive centre in Gaya & Manukan island. You are enjoying private setting away from mainstream tourist. Thank you for your lovely review and we hope it’s not too long before we dive together again.
Best,
Natt & The Team
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
kaneu57
Shenzhen, China
71
We did a day trip from KK and the trip was well planned and organized. The transport to/from our hotel and Gaya island and back was all well done. We had time for three activities during our day, which was advertised to be snorkeling, kayaking and jungle trekking. It ended up not including kayaking, but did have another session of snorkeling so that was a great surprise! But if you are planning on doing all three, maybe choose something different, or maybe kayaking is included during a different season...? We were pleasantly surprised with our experience and would recommend Zul for your guide.
Date of experience: February 2019
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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.
KKRichard, Manager at Adventures in Borneo with Downbelow Marine & Wildlife, responded to this reviewResponded 24 February 2019
Hi Kaneu57, thank you for the review and we are pleased to read that you had a great time with Zul as your guide. We will sure to pass on the compliment. It’s been a great day out with you in the island and we look forward to welcome you again in the near future.
Sea Kayaking is indeed included in the program you booked. Maybe you were having such a great time snorkelling that Zul thought you wanted to stick with that. I will check with him.
Maybe you would like to try diving next time?
Best,
Natt & The Team
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
_hcrawford28
Melbourne, Australia
31
via mobile
I did the three activity day on Gaya island with trekking/snorkeling and sea kayaking and the next day flew to Sandakan for the sepilok experience.
Downbelow are FANTASTIC, I had Alex and Lulu as our snorkeling and kayak instructors and Robert as my sepilok guide, all are friendly and helpful and the absolute loveliest people, even though I was traveling alone I felt so welcomed and by the end of the day felt as though we were leaving a family. If you find yourself on KK it would be a mistake to not book a tour with these guys.
Date of experience: February 2019
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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.
KKRichard, Manager at Adventures in Borneo with Downbelow Marine & Wildlife, responded to this reviewResponded 24 February 2019
Hello _hcrawford28, thank you for your lovely words on your program. It’s been a pleasure having you here in Borneo for your holiday. Our Headquarter based Kota Kinabalu is a one stop center for our client to plan their holiday throughout Borneo. We customise travel & itineraries for our clients which save money and maximise time. Every client have special and unique interest and needs, our dedicated travel consultant will guide you through in planning your dream holiday here in Borneo. It’s been a pleasure having you and we hope to see you again next time to explore more exciting places! Thank you for taking the time to review us, til next time.
Best,
Natt & The Team
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
TheIrishmaninSing
Singapore
4322
via mobile
We booked a 3D2N poring hot springs and mount Kinabalu trip.
The team on the phone and email are great - smiley voices and friendly.
The suggestion to take in poring hot springs on the trip was poorly made. This is a local bathing house rather than a hot spring experience. We were dropped off 1 hour before it closed.
The mountain climb info was generic and basic - there’s a hard coded process for moving 100 or so people up the mountain and back so they know what they are doing but they won’t tell you much about it even when you ask. I got a reply about storage options the day after I’d made the climb.
There are easy and hard ways to do the climb depending on your fitness, speed and kit - some advice on this can make a big difference to the experience. A good example was the summit climb - we were in the first group to depart at 230am and reached the summit at about 430am an hour and a half before sunrise - it’s sub zero up there and windy you would want serious cold weather kit to keep body heat. Alternatively you. Could leave later and spend less time waiting in the cold at the summit.
The mountain itself ? Sublime, amazing, incredible.
Date of experience: February 2019
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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.
KKRichard, Manager at Adventures in Borneo with Downbelow Marine & Wildlife, responded to this reviewResponded 24 February 2019
Hi TheIrishmaninSing, thank you for the time taken to review us. We take feedback seriously here in Downbelow and would like to respond to your points respectively.
During your program with us, I have personally spoken to you twice to make sure all the arrangement is going well and your feedback was very positive and unfortunately there were no indication of you not being happy as portrayed on your review.
Regarding your comment about Poring Hot Spring, we should have picked up that the shuttle schedule by Sutera Sanctuary Lodges will only allow you to have an hour at best in Poring Hot Spring, this is a very recent change and unfortunately you were the first client on this new timing schedule. This has been a short fall from us and we apologise. The shuttle schedule was managed and operated by Sutera Sanctuary Lodges, we have forwarded the result of this unfavourable situation to them. Also as a result we have re-structured our departure times for our clients.
Your comment on luggage storage is a little un-fair as you emailed us late, after office hours the night before your climb. We had provided you our hotline number to contact for circumstances like this, however, we did not receive any call from you nor did you mention this during both of my courtesy calls to you before and after your climb. Your mountain guide has assisted you on the luggage storage and it was all sorted out before your ascend. You also met our staff member in the morning of your ascent and he would have been able to assist you on the luggage too. After confirming that your luggage situation was actually sorted, we still reply the email accordingly on Monday morning. Were you meaning to say that you only manage to see the email after your climb?
We do actually fully prepare our clients expectation for Poring Hotsprings on our website, maybe you did not read it.
Thank you for your feedback and it allowing us to justify it. It’s been a pleasure having you and congratulations again on summiting the highest peak of Borneo.
Best,
Natt & The Team
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
GDavies523
Western Australia, Australia
1910
We were 2 adults and 2 children travelling mid January 2019. We booked last minute for the following day and did a snorkel and island stay. The service by all the team at DownBelow was just as all the other reviews said and we are glad we chose them for our tour. The clarity was terrific and the reef sensational (we live on the Ningaloo Reef WA), so much to see.
Date of experience: January 2019
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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.
KKRichard, Manager at Adventures in Borneo with Downbelow Marine & Wildlife, responded to this reviewResponded 24 February 2019
Hi Liz W, thank you for taking time to review us. One of the perks of us running our own dive centres is that we are able to accommodate and be flexible with last minute bookings. Many of our clients also enjoy the fact that we are the only operator in Gaya Island where privacy and isolation from main stream tourist crowd is cherished.
We are so happy you enjoyed your time with us. Total customer satisfaction is our goal every time.
We look forward to welcome you again in the future!
Best
Natt & The Team
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC