I seriously never wanted to leave this place! After a hard time at work, the traveling and diving this was just the perfect place to relax and feel like in heaven. If I close my eyes I can still see the blue water, the mountains and feel the sun and a light breeze on my skin. Please somebody hand me a coconut and take me back to the Lato Lato Resort.
After our stay with Scuba Junkie, we moved on to a lovely Lato Lato resort in the national park. Living in stylt houses on top of the ocean, next to a healthy coral reef was an unforgettable unique experience.
The location could not have been more beautiful with the large volcanic crater in the background. Best of all, no sandflies or mosquitos in the middle of the sea. The resort offers hiking trips, diving, kayaking and snorkeling. Actually, you could see fishes from everywhere in the resort because you are in the middle of a coral reef.
How to get there?
We booked our trip via Airbnb, the daily price per person is about 35 Euro including food. You can also find the place on booking.com and Tripadvisor, but the communication via AirBnB worked the best. I really wanted to stay there so I contacted them basically everywhere. If you want to sign up for AirBnB you can use my link and get 22 Euro travel credit.
After confirming your booking the owner will organize a taxi boat for you to bring you from Semporna to Lato Lato Resort. This will be around 200 RM and takes 30 mins.
Amazing Vegan Pumpkin Curry
The family who owns the place was very lovely and they cooked very delicious vegan food for, even though they thought that was a bit strange. Sometimes they forgot to buy tofu at the market then we only had veggies and rice. It is okay for one day. They made the best pumpkin curry I have had. For breakfast they prepared noodles with egg some fruits and toast with a strange sweet thing inside. Most of the toast in Malaysia has milk inside so we brought our own bread and a jar of peanut butter.
Accommodation is very basic
Please don’t expect so much about the rooms they are very basic. There is no hot water shower showering happens Malay style with a big tonne of water and a bowl. Also the toilet needs to be flushed with a bowl. But the bathroom view is breathtaking. The electricity is switched off during the daytime, but you can charge all your devices during the night. We also a had little cockroach in our room one night, but the amazing experience living in the middle of the sea is compensating for one night bad sleep.
Our Insider Tip for Lato Lato Resort
Have you ever heard a turtle coming up and making the breathing sound? I was totally fascinated by it, it sounds like a human taking a very very deep breath. You want to hear it too? Just take the Kayak and paddle to reef in front of the terrace. Stay a bit on the right site. Then keep quite and wait for the breathing sound and you will be rewarded with seeing at least 20 or more turtles coming up. You can also jump into the water and snorkel with them. However, the visibility was not so good 7m at maximum, so it is actually easier to see them from the Kayak. But there are so many that you will definitely see some under water too.
Above the water they are very shy and if they see you they will be very shocked and disappear quickly. But if they don’t see you you can watch them in their natural territory. However, under water they are less shy and can come very close. Due the not so good visibility we almost crushed into one during snorkeling. If they come up and you are above them they can’t really see you.
