Tawali Leisure & Dive Resort

Visit was eight hours off of a cruise ship with about 27 other people. Beautiful location on the Lee side of the island. Very good snorkeling off their docks which made me think the other locations would have been unbelievably gorgeous. Staff was very helpful and safety conscious. Lunch was delicious… as good as if not better than some of the food we’re getting on seabourn. Skull cave was an interesting side trip… very friendly villagers and beautiful carvings. Kids were a lot of fun.

Was the only guest during their quiet period. Very well looked after by Kathy and team. Food very fantastic and very generously served. Very peaceful location. Snorkelling was absolutely fantastic and Nathan was a helpful guide. Enjoyed the skull caves. Would be very happy to go back, but maybe not in January when I hear the ocean is often choppy.

Huge disappointment, from A to Z unfortunately, with only a very few positives to report. Overall, the resort seems to be under a lot of economic pressure, due to low number of travelers, and that has unfortunately impacted services and business approach. It started with the shuttle service, for which guests are being charged, that took almost 2 hours (instead of one) since after airport pickup other guests needed to be picked up from an oil palm plantation that was located in the opposite direction. They could have easily been picked up in advance, instead of having all other travelers driven 2 hours back and forth. Upon arrival I was informed that the resort made in error with my invoice - which I had pre-paid - now more than doubling my room prince. Not even a small discount was offered for an error totally beyond my control. I ended up paying 3 full extra nights that were ‘overlooked’ during booking. Rooms are not up to standard. The most annoying thing is that the floor is shared with the adjacent bungalow and hence all movement, steps and everything else (!) happing next door is also felt in your bungalow half and vice versa. Zero privacy is the result. Food quality is average and over the Christmas holidays hordes of day tourists arrived, playing loud music on the beach and ruining any aspirations for a ‘getaway’ holiday in a ‘remote’ resort. Some days we sat on the back porch since loud day tourist groups occupied the main dining area. Not even the highly paying longer term guests were prioritized. We needed to pay for an expensive day trip by boat to a remote little uninhabited island just to have a day of calm. The large dive boat is broken dawn, rusting at the jetty and used as bunk bed hostel for large package groups. Divers are being taken out in small boats. There is no safe in the room. The list is long, but unfortunately this is the bitter truth and experience we had. Avoid going during holiday season, try the off season - if at all - as you will otherwise get the opposite of calm, remoteness and nature you have paid for. No value for money. Staff other wise friendly and carting. There’s a local replacement cook that is much better than the expatriate regular cook. Cocktails are good, though expensive.

L'hôtel est calme dans l'ensemble mais les climatisations sont très bruyantes et si vous avez la malchance de tomber sur un voisin qui met la climatisation cela fait l'effet de dormir à côté d'un vieux frigo. Les repas sont très répétitifs et de qualité moyenne. Les chambres un peu austères et défraîchies. Le bateau de plongée est désagréable : très bruyant dû à un moteur poussif qui émet une fumée noire et une odeur de fuel. C'est vraiment dommage pour l'environnement. Je déplore également l'organisation : pas de pick up à l'arrivée alors que ma réservation était confirmée, la manager est peu présente, ne se préoccupe pas de savoir ce que vous souhaitez faire et surtout ne vous informe de rien : programme de plongée ou heure de départ pour l'aéroport, par exemple. Surtout j'ai fait la désagréable expérience d'une mauvaise organisation d'une sortie bird watching avec un retour 45 minutes en retard et pour conséquence l'annulation de ma sortie plongée prévue sur la côte Est (en remplacement des plongées proches que j'avais déjà faites et que je ne souhaitez pas refaire). En revanche l'équipe de plongée (Albert notamment) est super.