Sipadan – One of the Best Places to Dive in the World

You probably heard of it, diving in Sipadan, East Malaysia, is often ranked amongst the 10 best places to dive in the world. I finally visited Sipadan in January 2018, and I can confirm;

It is worth it!

Sipadan is not so easy to visit due to relative remoteness and limited access to the Marine Park, so here is a guide to help you plan your trip there.

How to get to Sipadan?

To get to Semporna, you can fly to Tawau, and then jump into a taxi or a bus that will take you there in around 1 hour.

AirAsia connects Kuala Lumpur to Tawau several times a day for a quite low price. Alternatively, you can fly to Kota Kinabalu and take an overnight bus from there.

That would give you a chance to combine scuba diving with climbing Mount Kinabalu, the other main attraction of the state of Sabah. I personally organized transport from Tawau airport to Semporna with Scuba Junkie, the dive operator I used, for a price similar to a regular taxi. 🙂

Where to stay and which dive operator to choose?

Sunset in Mabul | *image: Flickr

You can do day trips to Mabul from Semporna, but to Sipadan, you need to stay on the island of Mabul itself. Sipadan is a protected area and also a military zone, so staying there overnight is not allowed. Your hotel or dive centre will probably organize transportation to Mabul for you.

• Check out: Simple and flexible travel insurance for your next dive trip

I stayed and dived with Scuba Junkie Mabul, the package I booked include shared private room, full board and 3 to 4 dives a day. I was happy with it, nice simple rooms, good food with vegetarian options (no fish on the menu cause ‘Fish are friends, not food’, as they say there and it makes sense for a dive centre doesn’t it).

They have several packages so just have a look at their website and check out what suits you the most. It is not the cheapest option, but with the friends, I was travelling with we decided this time we would go for a mid-range option with a dive centre that really cares about the environment and conservation.

They are actively taking part in conservation efforts there and initiate many actions, with their in house marine biologists. If you need to spend a night or 2 in Semporna, they offer you to stay at their hostel there for a special price of RM25 a night in a dorm of 6 people. The package I chose cost me around RM 2700 and included 13 dives (4 of them in Sipadan), 3 nights in a shared fan room, and full board.

If you’re on a tighter budget, you can find cheaper options, such as Uncle Chang’s Diving, but I found the information about the other options offered on the internet was not 100% clear.

Do you need to make a booking?

If you want to dive Sipadan, YES! It is a protected marine park and only 120 persons (divers and non-divers) per day are allowed. To secure your permit, you’ll need to book a few months in advance.

If not, there is a slim chance that you will be lucky enough to get an available permit when you arrive there, but chances are you will have to stick to the Mabul area or have to wait many days in the town of Semporna.

When is the best time to go?

You can dive there all year long, but the best seasons are from March to July and October to December. I was there in January and didn’t experience the best of conditions.

It was rainy and choppy, which reduced the visibility in the very shallow area, but apart from that, it didn’t alter the whole diving experience much.

How is the diving there?

School of Barracudas | *image: Flickr

Sipadan island offers absolutely incredible diving. Expect loads of reef sharks, white tips, black tips and grey reef sharks. Massive school of jacks, with sharks and giant trevallies cruising in the middle. A school of more than 100 bumphead parrotfish, often in the shallows, making this very distinctive noise when hitting the coral with their big teeth.

The Corals are great, the rock formations as well. I personally dived in South Point, a wall with great coral formations, loads of reef sharks and some Napoleon wrasses.

Barracuda Point, the schools of jacks and bumphead parrotfish were in the beautiful colourful shallows, which then turns into a wall.

Drop Off, a wall features the well-known turtles’ graveyard cave on one side, and Turtle rock on the other side, which might be strangely familiar to some of you, because it was on the Blue Planet 2.

The Blue Planet team who recorded some breathtaking images there. Turtle Patch, another dropoff with plenty of table corals in the shallow.

I wish one day I can go back and dive all the other dive sites I could not go to! Mabul and Kapalai islands offer great macro sightings. I saw countless frogfishes, 2 flamboyant cuttlefish, pygmy seahorses, many nudibranchs I had never seen before.

I dived Scuba Junkie house reef 2 times and loved it, mostly sand so if you want coral to avoid it, if you love muck diving then it is the place to be for you. The water is warm all year long (around 28° when I was there), and visibility is generally pretty good (15 to 30 m), but there can be strong currents.

Since it is a once in a lifetime trip, I recommend Sipadan drop-offs to experienced divers only (minimum Advanced divers with around 50 dives or less if you already have experience in current and are very comfortable). Mabul and Kapalai, however, are suitable to less experienced divers, with some easy shallow dive sites.

• Related: Raja Ampat – The Dive Site That You Might Never Want to Leave
• Related: Nusa Lembongan: Unforgettable Diving with Manta Rays, Elusive Sunfish & More

So, what are you waiting for? Book now and take me with you please!

This article contains links to Affiliates which Fat Starfish receive a percentage of sales with no additional costs to you. Help us maintain this website by buying from our links. Thank you for your support!

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are the author’s and in no way reflect the views and/or opinions of Fat Starfish.