Sea Gypsy Village Resort & Dive Base

2 adults, 1 teenager and a lhasa apso over all, the place is clean and peaceful. i'll recommend you to stay at their regular chalets. we went dec 30 - jan 1 2022 and the tides are strong and it was very windy. they have a bar and restaurant but limited food variety. suggest to bring chips or snakcs but ensure you don't leave food inside your chalets (ants will be very happy). they don't allow for you to bring their food to your chalet. their is a KFC restaurant at the jetty which was a surprise for us. i'll go back when its no longer the moonsoon season. shoutout to their friendliest and funniest staffs they have!!

Food was very basic with little variety. Beach area and sea was great, clean with clear waters. Pre departure information was helpful and kept us well informed. The room while understood not to have hot water and air conditioning was uncomfortable, not thoroughly cleaned and little has been done to ensure that insects, bugs and other pests were managed, at least to a satisfactory level, given the nature of the resort. The A chalets were also unexpectedly cramped and ventilation was poor. Bed bugs/ flea bites On the first morning at the resort, I had a lot of bites all over body but did not give it much thoughts and assumed that they were mosquitoes bites. On the second night, I woke up in the middle of the night due to the itch. I went back to sleep after applying some ointment but only to be woken up again at 6am by the terrible itch. I had bites all over my body (legs, arms, chest, abdomen and back) In suspicion of bed bugs after looking at photos online, we decided to leave the room and brought it up with a member of staff we bumped into on the way to the lounge area. At around 8am, while we were having breakfast at the dining area, a second member of staff, unprompted, approached us about this issue and questioned if we took a night walk at the beach and if so, it’s possibly sand flies. He may have had good intentions in trying to identify the cause of the bites but on the receiving end, it felt like an attack on our characters - as if we were lying to gain something out of this. When informed about the issue, the person in charge approached us a few hours later, offering to change our room while the team investigated. During this conversation, there was no apology received, even at least for our inconvenience and experience we’ve had in their rooms. During the situation, we only had a single member of staff to commend who quickly went to pick up a tube of cream to aid in the itching (Mopiko really helped with the itch). We felt that he was the one person who cared about our wellbeing there. Hours after leaving the resort and upon searching online, we realized that it could be flea bites not bed bugs since pet dogs are allowed to be brought to the resort. All in all, we would have been better comforted if we had been treated with more empathy and understanding.

Sea Gypsy Village is a beautiful resort with a long expanse of private beach and well appointed chalets. Rooms are comfortable with basic amenities. There's no water heater, TV or aircon but the clean drinkable well water and beautiful breeze makes up for it. The toilet is very clean and one of the best we've seen in resorts of this type. However as the bed is next to it and the rooms are constructed of open wooden boards, at night there can be an occasional faint wiff of the sewer pipes. There's daily housekeeping and the cleaning crew takes fantastic care of the beach and grounds. There's plenty of deck chairs and beach mats for relaxing on the beach. Water is clear with fine sand that extends a long way down. No sharp corals to worry about here. All the staff from the front office to housekeeping are absolutely lovely and friendly and genuinely have fun with the kids there. A criticism may be that pricing generally is on the steeper side. One night's stay is around rm400 per person with full board. Good to take advantage of their occasional promotions. Food is tasty but lacking in selection. Lunch and dinners are mostly along the vein of 1 carbohydrate (usually some kind of rice), 1 veg and one protein (fish, chicken or beef). While they do switch up on the menu items daily, all of the other full board island retreats we've been to in various parts of Malaysia have more variety, especially for the breakfast buffet. Ala carte food items are expensive. The breakfast beef burger (with ramly patty and an egg) with fries is RM30, while 3 (fairly large) spring rolls is rm20. Alcohol prices are decent with beers at rm18 and cocktails at rm40-45. Activities such as paddle board rental and guided hikes are rm60 per person.

We spend a week in April 2022 in this resort. Perfect place with kids. It has an awesome beach and the team is super friendly. There are different activities and excursions every day (Tree climbing, sand castle competition, walk to the village, …). We will definitely come again!

Great place with friendly staff! Went for activities like snorkeling, mountain climbing, visit to waterfall-we enjoyed overall. Kids had different options to engage themselves and they were taken care by the staff from 6-9pm!

The environment is good, chill and quiet. Staff are friendly. not crowded in the resort. The rooms are clean, but the bed is "not clean" hence we have beg bug for 2 out of 3 room. And also this is the first time in my travel time that I felt the food is not enough. Is it very limited choices of the food as buffet style and it doesn't come with drink for lunch & dinner. even fruits are served by pax ?. It is not up to expectations of the price that we paid.

Spent the New Year holidays here, arrived for a two nights stay ended up extending for 6 nights. For Year end monsoon period the weather was pretty mild and sunny some days and overcast others. Lots of activities to do or you can be like me and chill over a good book and a cup of tea or glad of wine. Wonderful experience going to sleep with the sound of the waves. The staff are like family, super friendly and not overly attentive or in your face. Highly recommended for those looking for a place to vege out whilst the kids run around learning to climb trees, snorkel, archery, dive etc. But be prepared for no wifi, no hot water and going to sleep with a ceiling fan or the ocean breeze as there's no air conditioning. Beautiful stretch of beach that is painstakingly swept every morning.

Just back after spending New Year’s Eve at the resort. It was excellent - apart from the rain which is to be expected this time of year - even this didn’t stop our enjoyment as we got to sit in the bar and watch the waves, drink some beers, play cards and read our books. The food and staff were both excellent; especially Richard who does a great job of running the place and always seems to be busy entertaining everyone or helping us. The cabins were lovely too - just a fan - but with the cool sea breeze then it doesn’t matter. It was the coldest I have felt in Malaysia at sea level - apart from the Cameron Highlands. There was a very nice mix of expats, and locals staying and we soon made some new friends. Best of all it was very dog friendly. The beach is lovely and kept clean by a nice old man and lady who get up early to clean it up from what ever the tide has deposited over night. My wife went snorkelling and really enjoyed it too - next time we will try the diving. Overall - it was the most relaxing holiday I have had in years and would definitely recommend it to anyone who just wants to kick-back and forget about the world for a while!