Picture an island sticking up out of the deep sea like a mushroom. Right next to the beach the reef drops hundreds of metres into the deep. A turtle drifts past as if you are not there, and further along a school of barracuda turns a slow whirlpool. That is Sipadan, and it is why divers from all over the world book a flight to Tawau.
There is a catch. Only around 250 people a day are allowed to go, and those places are shared out among the dive shops in Semporna. Turn up on spec and you will often be diving somewhere else that week. That somewhere else happens to be Mabul and Kapalai, with the best macro diving in Malaysia, so it is hardly a hardship.
Below: how the permit system works, what you see diving and what you see snorkelling, which certification you need, which months have the clearest water and what it all costs. And because some of these islands come with stricter travel advice, how to square that with your insurance.
How the permit system works
Sabah Parks issues a fixed number of Sipadan permits every day, about 250 according to our Semporna page. They do not go to divers but to the licensed dive shops, which each get a handful a day. Plenty of shops hand them to their own guests in order, and ask you to dive with them for a few days before it is your turn.
That flips the order of your planning. You do not book your flight first and your dives after: you email a few dive shops at once, ask on which date they can get you a permit and how many days you need to dive with them first, and build the rest of your Sabah route around that one day. Months ahead is not over the top. In the holidays the permits go even faster.
If it does not work out, you still have a full week on the water. The permit is the only thing in Semporna you cannot sort on the spot. Everything else, you can.
Sipadan: the wall
The famous wall starts right next to the beach and runs hundreds of metres down. You see turtles on just about every dive, schools of barracuda, reef sharks and bumphead parrotfish. It is the kind of place where after your first dive you already know why others wait months for it.
The rules are strict, and that is exactly why the reef looks the way it does. You need at least Advanced Open Water and you do two dives a day there at most. The permit alone costs about €70, and a full dive day often comes to €250 or more. Every November Sabah Parks closes the island to let the reef recover.
Our verdict: the most expensive dive day of your trip, and the only one you will still recount in detail years later
Mabul and Kapalai: looking at the small stuff
Three quarters of an hour by boat from the jetty in Semporna lies Mabul, and here it is all about patience. You sink down to a sandy bottom where at first you seem to see nothing, and then it starts: frogfish, seahorses, little cuttlefish and nudibranchs. You see turtles on almost every dive here too. Kapalai is part of the same day trip, and on the way you drift past stilt houses over the reef.
With Open Water you can already join in here, and as a snorkeller you have plenty to look at too. A typical dive day is three dives around Mabul and Kapalai. Want to dive several days in a row without taking the boat back and forth every morning? You can sleep on Mabul itself. Uncle Chang’s has a simple dive lodge there, and Mabul Backpackers stands on stilts over the water, with a dorm and all meals included.
When you book, check whether the boat transfer is included, because Trip.com sells rooms with and without. Mabul and Kapalai are covered by stricter government travel advice: more on that further down.
Our verdict: not a consolation prize for missing Sipadan, but a reason to come in its own right
Snorkelling without a certification: Bohey Dulang and the sandbanks
Not a diver? Then this is your day. You head out to Bohey Dulang, an old volcano in the sea, and climb a steep path with ropes and steps for half an hour to three quarters of an hour. At the top is the view you know from every photo of Semporna: a green crater rim around a lagoon in every shade of turquoise. Then you snorkel at Mantabuan and Sibuan, two tiny islands with white sand and shallow, clear water, passing the stilt houses of the Bajau Laut on the way.
A day tour like this costs from about €55, including the park fee and lunch. At the jetty you pay a fee of about €2 on top. Bring shoes with grip, because the path can be slippery, and go in the morning, before the heat and before you are shooting into the sun. More on the day in things to do in Semporna.
Our verdict: put it on your first day, even if you are diving the rest of the week
Getting certified in Semporna
No certification yet? Then you get it here among the turtles. The water around Mabul is shallow, warm and full of life, and an Open Water costs from about €285 and takes about four days. Add the Advanced straight after and you have both in one week, and then you qualify for Sipadan.
That is where the insider tip comes in. When you book your course, ask straight away about that dive shop’s Sipadan permits. Plenty of shops hand out their permits in order to their own guests, and a week-long course makes you exactly that.
Our verdict: the smartest start if you want Sipadan but do not have your Advanced yet
When to go
You can dive in Semporna all year, but the water is not equally clear every month. From March to June the sea is at its calmest and the visibility at its best. July to October is fine too, warm with the odd shower, but busy in the holidays, and then the permits go sooner.
November to February is wetter, with more wind and less visibility underwater. It is quieter then, but in November Sipadan is closed. Mabul, Kapalai and the other dive sites stay open. How this fits the rest of your trip is in the best time to visit Malaysia.
What it costs
The town itself is cheap: you get by on about €30 a day, with a bed around €12 and a meal for about €2.50. Diving is the big expense.
- Sipadan permit: about €70
- A full dive day on Sipadan: often €250 or more
- Day tour to Bohey Dulang, Mantabuan and Sibuan: from about €55
- Open Water: from about €285
- Jetty fee per boat trip: about €2
Allow a week if you want to dive, and three or four days if you mostly want to island hop. A rest day at the end comes with it: after your last dive you wait at least a day before flying, and Tawau airport is an hour and a half’s drive away. More on money in what backpacking Malaysia costs.
Travel advice and your insurance
Semporna itself is a quiet little town. For the islands and dive sites off eastern Sabah, though, Mabul, Kapalai and Sipadan included, several governments, the UK’s among them, advise against all but essential travel, because of the threat of kidnapping. That advice is about the islands, not the town or the mainland. Read your own government’s current advice before you book.
The most important practical point is your insurance. Plenty of travel insurance policies cover less, or nothing at all, in places your government advises against travelling to, so check the terms of your travel insurance before you head to Sipadan, Mabul or Kapalai. Beyond that, book with a licensed dive shop, expect extra checks by the army and police off the coast, and know that a ban on boats at sea from six in the evening to six in the morning has been in place for years. That is why every day trip is back well before dark. Ask your dive shop whether the rule still applies.
Coming from the peninsula? Keep your passport in your hand luggage: Sabah runs its own immigration, even after a domestic flight. See our Malaysia visa page.
Diving elsewhere in Malaysia
Semporna is the headline act, but it is not the only place to get underwater in Malaysia. On the east coast of the peninsula there are two islands where you can start for less, and from Borneo they are a domestic flight away.
Perhentian Islands
Here you snorkel for about €10 past Shark Point, where metre-long blacktip reef sharks cruise round the rocks, and Turtle Point with its green turtles. On Long Beach the dive schools sit shoulder to shoulder, an Open Water costs from about €290 in three to four days, and after that Tokong Laut and the Sugar Wreck are waiting. The best visibility is from April to August. Bring cash, because there are no cash machines. Everything practical is on our Perhentian Islands page.
Our verdict: one of the best snorkelling days you can have for a tenner
Tioman
Tioman is one of the cheapest places in Malaysia to get certified: an Open Water from about €200 in four days, and a fun dive from about €20. There are dive schools in Air Batang, Salang and Tekek. You snorkel off the ABC jetty, at Monkey Bay and Pulau Renggis, or take a boat to Coral Island. A set costs from about €3 a day to hire. Come between March and October, because in the monsoon most dive schools close. Everything practical is on our Tioman page.
Our verdict: the cheapest way in, on calm sites just off the coast
Langkawi
Langkawi is not a dive island, but it is the island for the months when the east coast is in the monsoon: from December to March it is at its driest there. You get into the water here on an island hopping trip, with a swim in the freshwater lake of Pulau Dayang Bunting between the limestone walls. Which island suits your trip, you can read in Perhentian, Tioman or Langkawi.
Our verdict: for the winter, when you are after beaches and the diving can wait
The rules on and under the water
Do not touch the coral and leave nothing behind on the sandbanks. Do not give money, sweets or stuff to the children who paddle up to your boat, and always ask before you photograph anyone from the Bajau Laut. Do not eat reef fish when you do not know how it was caught. And after your last dive, wait at least a day before flying: a rest day in Semporna or Tawau is exactly what it is for.
Is Semporna worth it if you do not get a Sipadan permit?
Yes. Sipadan is the cherry, but the cake is big enough on its own. With Bohey Dulang and the sandbanks on your first day, a dive day or snorkel trip around Mabul and Kapalai and maybe your Open Water after that, you easily fill three to four days, and a week if you dive.
Our advice: email a few dive shops at once, plan your route through Sabah around the date you get, and check the travel advice and your insurance before you book. No permit? Go anyway. The turtles around Mabul have no idea they are plan B.
