Sipadan recommendations for budget travelers & newbie divers?

[scoobasteph]

Apologies if this has been requested multiple times before - I did a quick search of this forum and have not found any recent threads with this question, but if I've missed it, please send me in the right direction!

My husband & I are recently minted PADI OW divers - we've each done about 14 dives, down to a max depth of about 22 m. At this point, we've dived solely in the Philippines (where we were certified) and have done so with 3 separate operations (including the one that certified us). Since we are still new to SCUBA, professionalism and adherence to safety standards is hugely important to us when selecting a dive operator (I'm sure this is true for most divers, but I suspect that with increased experience, some become more laissez-faire about some of these things). Of course, we also are in the midst of an extended (6 months +) trip through Asia, so we do our best to stick to budget or midrange options. We like to keep our total expenses to $100/day or less (for the two of us), though of course we are willing to go over this when diving is involved!

Now that the background is out of the way, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for dive operators and/or lodging we could look into for an upcoming trip to Sipadan? We will be heading there around January 14, and I've been really overwhelmed by my searches (and subsequent cross referencing with Trip Advisor). Sipadan Scuba has packages within our price range, but they have extremely mixed reviews on TA, specifically about the age and upkeep of their dive equipment. Another option we looked at was Seaventures, which is definitely more swanky and looks a lot nicer, but obviously has a pricetag to match (especially when you factor in the additional fee needed to rent dive equipment... that will be almost $60USD per day extra for the two of us!). This option would certainly be at the top end of our budget and go under the category of huge splurge.

Does anyone have any experience with either of these options, or do you have any alternatives that might lie somewhere in between? As our entire trip will not be spent here, we are not looking to spend several thousand US dollars here, but we also don't want to scrimp so much we get a lousy experience in return. We're more willing to put up with less luxurious accommodation than we are to accept poor dive experiences, for what it's worth.

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated! We really want to dive at Sipadan at least 1 day (we were thinking of spending 5 - 6 days in the area diving), but advice on other surrounding islands/sites that would be suitable for new divers would be great too. Thanks in advance!

 

[dirtfarmer]

Scuba Junkie is a bit cheaper than Sea Adventures. They have budget accommodation in Semporna. But with them to dive Sipadan you have to stay at Mabul. And they have a limited number of permits for Sipadan, which they might not have available this close to your planned time. I dove with them in November and it was a safe and well run operation. You might also look into Uncle Chang's, they are a bit cheaper than Scuba Junkie and seemed to have more permits at Sipadan. There are also some smaller dive ops and homestays on Mabul for the very small budget.

Your biggest challenge so close to your planned date will be securing Sipadan permits. Pick a few operators within your budget and find out if they can guarantee you permits. The diving in Mabul area is excellent muck diving also. Sipadan is fantastic and well worth the cost/hassle of making reservations. Some operations might have last minute permits available but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[Patchy13]

My partner and I went with Sipadan Scuba a couple of years ago - I cant remember anything negative about the rental gear, apart from the dark and damp gear storage room... The diving was great, we had to dive two days at different islands first which were ok before we got to Sipadan but it made it all worth it. If you can, dive there last.

I wouldnt recommend the Sipadan Inn (through package with Sipadan Scuba), there werent many positives about the rooms or food.

Good luck finding somewhere.

 

[b541314]

scoobasteph,

I am doing some homework for my sipadan trip on this coming May or August, budget dive trip.

Shortlisted Scuba Junkie(SJ), Billabong Scuba(BS) and Uncle Chang(UC) for lower budget purpose and promises of Sipadan permit. I prefer more quiet environment thus I took off UC.

Communicated with SJ and BS thru mails lately and concluded the below,
* for 5D4N, SJ - dorm and BS - simple AC room with attached washroom
* SJ - resort @ beach side with bar and BS - homestay on stilts rising out of water
* Foods, SJ has better review over BS but no seafood
* Diving, SJ - 13 dives includes 4 dives to Sipadan and BS - 12 dives with 6 of the dives to Sipadan
* About the same price of RM2100 (BS includes jetty fee, Sipadan permits and BCD + Regulator rental)

Those are some of my conclusions as of now, hopefully they help. I will be at Pom Pom island on 14-18 Jan

Btw, welcome input from All.

 

[scoobasteph]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my query! I thought I would report back and let everyone know about the operator we ultimately chose & what diving at Sipadan was like.

In the end, we decided to go with Seaventures, in large part because after contacting various operators, we got the best vibe from them. They responded to my emails quickly and with the utmost professionalism... I ended up feeling that sometimes you pay more, but get more as a result, so although it may have been slightly cheaper to go with SJ or even UC, we felt we'd have the best peace of mind with Seaventures so decided to splurge a bit.

I have absolutely NO REGRETS about this decision. They were professional from beginning to end, arranging all of our transfers to and from Sipadan, and it was really lovely to have literally nothing to think about except whether we wanted to do an unguided house dive. The rig is quite nice (though the internet that is advertised barely works), the location is amazing, the food was fantastic and ample, and the equipment was in decent condition. My husband had a problem with his regulator when we went on our first orientation dive (half the bite piece was missing), but that was taken care of swiftly and without problem.

I have to give specific thanks to the dive staff who worked there - nearly all of them were friendly and a joy to dive with, and it was clear that safety is a huge priority here. We were always given very thorough dive briefings prior to each dive and on our arrival day, we were taken through all the ins & outs of how Seaventures work and what the rules & regs are. On our first dive, my husband had a bit of an anxiety attack as we were trying to descend due to the poor visibility and some water leaking through his reg, and our dive master handled with with complete patience and grace. On our last dive, I had a problem equalizing, and one of the two dive masters assigned to our group made sure to stay with me while I worked out the issue. Honestly, although it was a bit pricey (wound up being about $800USD per person for 3D/2N), I believe it was excellent money spent. As we did not have a flight out on our final day, we were actually able to go out for 3 extra dives, meaning that in the span of our time there, we did a total of 12 dives, 6 of which were at Sipadan. We had only been counting on getting one day at Sipadan proper, but Seaventures managed to get us permits for our last day (there were very few people on the rig that day) so our last two days were spent diving there.

As for the diving, the biggest letdown for us is that generally speaking, visibility was quite poor. Sometimes I'd be surprised if we had more than 3-5 m vis, and I think the most we ever had was about 12 m. That said, I still LOVED all the dives we did at Sipadan, although in spots the coral is in quite rough shape. But if you love seeing pelagic fish, it was absolutely magical. We saw tons of bumphead parrotfish, many white-tipped reef shark, got to swim with a huge school of jacks, and also spotted a few barracuda. No hammerheads, but maybe they were out there but vis was too poor to see. Did hear dolphins on one dive, but alas, never caught sight of them.

Was less impressed with the diving at Mabul & Kapilai, but maybe muck diving isn't my thing. Definitely depends on your DM, and we had a few excellent ones who really went above and beyond to make sure we saw good stuff. Though I love some beautiful coral, which is definitely not what these areas are about, it was definitely cool getting to see seahorses, more turtles than you could shake a stick at (not that you would!), and mandarin fish. We also really enjoyed diving the Seaventures House Reef where we saw a bunch of scorpion fish and a large cuttle fish as well. For nearly all of these dives though, visibility remained poor, and I can only imagine how beautiful and amazing it would have been with clearer water.

If we went back to Sipadan someday, I would happily dive with Seaventures again. They made our trip so smooth, and while I disliked having to pay for gear on top of our package price, we lived & dived very comfortably for the time we were there. While we were there, I did hear excellent things about SeaJunkie, however, so if a lower pricepoint is your aim, they might be worth exploring. That said, I'd definitely pay the extra $$$ to stay at Mabul as it's fab being able to spend your time diving, rather than driving to your dive site (especially Sipadan, where even staying out on the water, we had to be on the boat by 6 am!). If you're used to rundown SEA cities, then Semporna isn't terrible, but it is about 40 minutes from the dive sites. And no matter what others say, I strongly believe that Sipadan is absolutely the star diving attraction, so the more dives you can do there the better - Seaventures obviously has enough clout to get the permits (and we only booked about a month out), so if you want to dive worry free, I can't recommend them highly enough!

 

[ocdiver1]

Is this Steph who was originally from Toronto? I met you at Seaventures! (Alan-from California). Loved Seaventures as well and glad you enjoyed your time there. Good luck with the rest of your year+ trip..I'm jealous!

 

[scoobasteph]

Yes, Alan, this is indeed that very Steph! It was so wonderful getting to meet & dive with you and hear all about your diving adventures! I hope we'll get to meet up again one day... perhaps back at Sipadan!