Santubong has two beachfront resorts at Damai, one rainforest resort at the end of the road, a handful of boutique hotels and homestays in Kampung Santubong, privately let apartments in between and three campsites. For a family that wants a pool, Damai Lagoon is the first place to look, with caveats below. Couples who want quiet should look at The Village House or Nanga Damai, and hikers who want a dawn start should look at Permai.
None of them is a polished beach resort. The sand at Damai is brown river-mouth water you wade in rather than swim in, and whichever bed you pick, dinner means driving. I have not booked a night at any of these, so room condition, insects and pool rules below come from the pattern of what guests have written through 2025 and 2026, not from a stay of mine.
The Santubong Resorts Compared
The table puts every option side by side, with price bands checked in October 2026. Rates swing between weekdays and Saturdays, so treat the band as a range and search your own dates before booking.
| Property | Where | Price band 2026 (per night) | Beach access | Best for | The minus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damai Beach Resort | Damai beachfront | RM200 to RM650 | On the sand | Budget family stay, sunsets | Ageing rooms and plant |
| Damai Lagoon Resort | Teluk Penyuk, Damai | RM400 to RM1,000 | Short walk | Families, pool weekends | Guests only, pool first |
| Permai Rainforest Resort | End of the road, under the mountain | RM280 to RM650 (treehouses, cabins) | Small cove on site | Rainforest night, hikers | Basic, humid, buzzing |
| The Village House | Kampung Santubong | RM280 to RM450 | Three-minute walk | Couples, quiet | Ants, price for quality |
| Nanga Damai | Near Kampung Santubong | RM200 to RM300 | Drive | Adults after peace | Adults only, car essential |
| The Culvert | Near the kampung | RM200 to RM420 | Walk, not for swimming | Design fans, two pools | Compact rooms, mosquitoes |
| Santubong Suites | Between Damai and the kampung | RM80 to RM700 | Varies by unit | Groups, self-catering | Different host per unit |
| Campsites | Permai, Damai, Andong | RM38 to RM42 at Permai | On or near the sand | Cheap nights | Little shade |
The Beachfront Resorts at Damai
Damai has two beachfront resorts, and they suit different budgets and different tolerance for age. Both sit on the same strip as Sarawak Cultural Village, so a night at either puts the village a few minutes away. The water itself is covered in the Damai beach guide
Damai Beach Resort
Damai Beach Resort is the long-running one, right on the sand at Teluk Bandung, with 242 rooms in chalet, poolside and balcony categories. It has a beachfront pool, a clifftop pool reached by a paid internal shuttle, a children’s pool and a kids’ play area. Rooms run from about RM200 to RM650 a night depending on the date.
The minus is age. Recent guests describe facilities past their lifespan, a pool over capacity during long school and public holidays, and rooms that feel old, with sand, dust and insects getting inside. The most repeated complaint is that the rate asked does not match the upkeep. The hilltop wing is the one guests say to avoid with small children or elderly parents, because of the climb. What still draws people is the location: the beach and the sunset are what guests praise even in critical reviews.
Damai Lagoon Resort
Damai Lagoon Resort is the former Damai Puri Resort & Spa, which was earlier a Holiday Inn Damai Lagoon, and it soft-opened under the new name in June 2023. It is built around a pool-and-spa stay rather than a beach-first one, with an open-air lobby that looks over the sea and a children’s pool with a slide that guests with kids single out. Rooms run from about RM400 to RM1,000 a night.
The minus is that it is a pool resort that happens to be near a beach. Guests report that outsiders are not let in, so there is no day-pass route here. Scores run higher than Damai Beach Resort, but 2025 and 2026 reviews also mention worn rooms compared with the 2023 opening, and algae in the pool on one visit. Judge it on those recent reviews, not on the five-star sign. I could not find a working official website for it, so check a booking platform for the current phone number and rates. If you only want a pool for the afternoon, the Damai Beach Resort day pass is the cheaper way in.
The Rainforest Resort
Permai Rainforest Resort
Permai Rainforest Resort sits on 44 acres under the mountain at the road’s end, and it is the closest bed to the national park headquarters. It has treehouses and cabins on stilts, a camp site, high ropes, kayaks, a small cove and The Feeding Tree restaurant, which make it the most distinctively Borneo of the three resorts on the Santubong peninsula. Treehouses and cabins run about RM280 to RM650, and a day visitor pays RM15 at the gate (adults 18 to 70).
The minus is that the rooms are closer to camping than the photos suggest. Guests split: some call the treehouse “not at all grubby” with a sea view and the sound of waves, others find the bathrooms dated, the bedding thin and the villas humid, basic and insect-heavy. The treehouses book out at weekends, and the cabins are what people end up in when they do. Swimmers like the jungle pool, which guests say is fed with cool water off the mountain.
Kampung Santubong: Boutique Hotels and Homestays
Kampung Santubong is on the far side of the mountain from Damai Central, and it has three places worth knowing: two quiet boutique stays and the design hotel built from concrete culverts. Nanga Damai sits just outside the kampung proper. Staying here shortens the walk to the Ranger Post for the national park hike, which is the reason hikers book it.
The Village House
The Village House is a Balinese-style boutique house in the kampung with a pool, a three-minute walk to Santubong beach and a seven-minute drive to the mountain and the cultural village. Staff drive guests around the peninsula, and reviews praise the breakfast and the service. Rooms run from about RM280 to RM450.
The minus is value. A guest who paid RM400 a night said they could find a better five-star hotel in town for the money, and the complaints repeat: ants in the room, bathrooms that were not clean enough and a location that is a long way from the city. Guests who expect simple and cosy rate it much higher than guests who expect luxury.
Nanga Damai Luxury Homestay
Nanga Damai Luxury Homestay is adults only (18 and over), with a pool, breakfast and free parking. Guests call it quiet, more small boutique hotel than homestay, and mention proboscis monkeys and macaques from the pool terrace. It costs about RM200 to RM300 a night.
The minus is the car. Guests without their own wheels rely on the owners to drive them to restaurants, so it works best if you hire one, as in renting a car in Kuching. It is also adults only and has few rooms, so it fills.
The Culvert
The Culvert is a design hotel built around concrete culvert rooms, above the sea about 30 minutes from Kuching. It has two infinity pools, a sauna, a gym and a giant swing, and reviews are strong in volume. Rooms run from about RM200 to RM420, plus a RM100 deposit per stay and a RM10 per room per night tourist tax for foreign guests.
The minus is the rooms. Guests call them compact, the cafe pricey and the grounds mosquito-heavy, with one review describing the open-air movie night as full of bites. Service gets patchy when it is busy, and the pool bar is not always running. The stretch of beach here is a walk to the water, not a swim.
Self-Catering at the Santubong Suites
The Santubong Suites are privately let apartments under names such as Santubong Suites B Just Like Home, Sejinjang, by Nasz and The Apartment at Santubong. Some face the mountain, some the sea, a few have private pools and most have kitchens. Prices run from very cheap to resort money, roughly RM80 to RM700 depending on the unit.
The minus is inconsistency. Each listing has a different host, review counts are tiny, and “private beach” in a listing means the same public sand everyone else uses. Guests like the quiet, the view of Damai beach and the odd monkey, and say everything on the peninsula is within five minutes by car.
Camping at Permai, Damai and Andong
The three campsites cost the least and carry the most weather. Permai’s camp site is RM42 an adult, RM40 for students and RM38 for children a night, entrance included, with tents for hire, showers and toilets near the cove. Damai Escape Park sits in the Damai Central area behind a rope gate, with toilets, showers, piped water, BBQ pits and a cafe, and I could not find its prices published. Andong Beach Campground is a small, privately run site near Kampung Santubong that guests call clean and quiet, and its phone number is 016-866 6432.
The minus is shade. Reviewers advise pitching under trees or the open ground gets very hot, and nights are breezy. There is no camping inside the national park.
Family, Couple or Hiker: Which One?
Families should book Damai Lagoon for the pool if the recent reviews above do not put you off, or Damai Beach Resort if the budget is tighter and the room is poolside. Couples should look at The Village House or Nanga Damai. Hikers should book Permai for the dawn start, or any Kampung Santubong bed within a 20-minute walk of the Ranger Post. Everyone should eat before 8pm or plan the drive, because Damai Central’s food court closes at 8pm and after that the peninsula has resort restaurants and a few kampung stalls. More ideas for children are in the family activities guide.
If you are coming in June, book early: rooms on the coast go quickly around the Rainforest World Music Festival.
Should You Stay Over at All?
For most visitors Santubong is a day trip. Stay for a hike start, a pool weekend or a night in the rainforest, and otherwise sleep in the city, where how many hotels Kuching has gives you more choice and the coast is a day trip away. Getting back is the real problem a night solves, and how to get to Damai and Santubong sets out the options.
If you decide against a room, you can still have the sunset at Damai beach, then the drive home.