Lankayan Island Dive Resort

Lankayan is a small island in the Sulu Sea, set entirely within the Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area off Sandakan, Sabah. It is reachable only by boat, a crossing of around ninety minutes from the mainland. The resort holds 23 wooden chalets, split between beach-facing rooms tucked among the trees and water chalets raised on stilts above the shallows. Each has a private balcony, a hot bath, and a mini fridge; the water chalets put guests directly over the reef, close enough to watch fish beneath the floor. Fringing reef runs from the beach and the jetty, with green and hawksbill turtles, black-tip reef sharks, and schools of bumphead parrotfish visible to snorkellers without a boat. Divers have over thirty sites within fifteen minutes, sloping from shallow coral gardens to around 24 metres, known for nudibranchs, frogfish, and ribbon eels, with leopard sharks and the occasional whale shark between March and May. Reef Guardian rangers run the island's conservation work, from coral restoration to a turtle hatchery, and guests can join nesting or hatching walks in season. A short path crosses the island's interior in under ten minutes, past butterflies and resting migratory birds. The resort closes each January and February.