3 Best Hotels in Sandakan, Malaysia

Widely considered Sandakan's best hotel, this is comfortable lodging with every necessity, including all-day dining, an outdoor infinity pool with splendid views of the harbor, cocktail lounge with evening entertainment, a beauty salon, and a gym. Rooms here are spacious and modern—some with floor-to-ceiling windows. All rooms have a flat screen TV, and many offer spectacular views of the harbor, especially from the higher floors (be sure to request a view when booking). The hotel is Sandakan's tallest bulding and the centerpiece of the Sandakan Harbour Square project, the city's major push toward urban renewal.

An hour-and-a-half boat trip from the Sandakan yacht club takes you to tiny, wooded Lankayan Island, a little slice of paradise ringed with white sand beaches and turquoise waters. The only habitation on the island, the resort offers 23 air-conditioned beachfront "chalets" each with functional wooden furniture, high ceilings, private terrace for optimal sunset gazing, and enough space for a family. On the sea turtle corridor, the island is serious about conservation; if you go between June and September you help accompany hundreds of adorable hatchlings to their first sea dive. Within close proximity to the island, human divers can enjoy 32 dive sites and two wrecks. Although the diver price includes three dives a day and unlimited jetty diving (non-diver packages are about $100 less), the snorkeling is every bit as good.

Aptly named, this unique hotel perched on a hill (538 steps up the hill, to be precise) in the middle of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary is about as close as you'll get to a treehouse, and with only four guestrooms it's almost as small. Though modest, rooms are comfortable and spotless, with good beds, functional bathrooms, and a common terrace. Here, it's all about the surroundings. Along with an view over rain forest and the river below, you'll be up close and personal to the jungle wildlife, and passionate and knowledgeable hosts offer a thorough introduction to the area's extraordinary natural beauty and wildlife.