Best place to stay for likelihood of Sipadan permits?

[1976]

Hi, planning to stay for 5 nights in early October at a dive resort so we can get to Sipadan, and trying to work out where will have the best chance of getting a permit (2 people).

Sipadan Water Village website says they guarantee a permit for 5 night stays - does anyone know if a resort can really make this guarantee? If so, will probably stay there, but prefer the look of some other resorts (Mabul Water Bungalows, Smart, Kapalai).


A friend also recommended Mataking, because they have turtles there too, but this is further away and not had a reply yet from them after enquiring about Sipidan practicalities. Any advice on diving Sipidan (and other sites) from Mataking appreciated!


The rig and Borneo Divers are not really an option as looking for a slightly more upmarket resort to spend the non-diving time in.


We are only OW divers so will have restricted choice of dive sites, if that makes any difference to where is good to stay.


Thanks for any advice!

 

[Lorenzoid]

My wife and I enjoyed Sipadan Water Village. We dived three days and, not surprisingly, got to visit Sipadan just one day out of the three. I wish we had stayed another day or two. Had we done so, a second day at Sipadan almost would have been certain.

 

[underH2Oman]

I was planning a trip to dive Sipadan, but changed my travel plans when my travel agent told me that they would only guarantee a permit for 1 day at Sipadan with a 5 day stay. May try and go there some day when I know I can get to the Island more than once on a trip that far.

 

[divedrie]

Hi 1976.

Seaventures Dive rig located just off shore Mabul island is he only resort that guarantees 1 day of Sipadan permit with 3 nights stay (4D3N). For 5 nights stay, you get 2 days of Sipadan permit.

 

[1976]

Thanks for your replies everyone. There is only availability in the most expensive room type at SWV so I think that is ruled out! Will have a look at the rig, maybe OK for a shorter stay which we could do if guaranteed the permit.

 

[ocdiver1]

+1 on Seaventures. Have stayed there twice and both times not only delivered on the promise of minimum permits, but both times had the ability to go additional times (one of those times was even while full on Chinese New Year). Good food and guides, and a lot of fun staying on a converted oil rig!

 

[bracko]

all of the hotels will tell you up front what their permit structure is. Most are one day in every four from the research I did and as others have said above.

Some of the more expensive resorts are only sometimes full which is where you get the possibility to dive more than the advertised amount, but no hotel will ever promise more than they say up front... trust me, I tried!

I stayed at Mabul Beach Resort (scuba junkies) and really liked it. It has back packer qualities to it, but the rooms are nice, clean and the food was pretty good.

 

[OnTheSpot]

Yes it is a bit of a crap shoot. The guaranteed number is the minimum that any resort can guarantee. Sometimes that's all you get. Other times you might get lucky. I spoke to someone yesterday who had 4 dive days there - 3 at Sipadan. It might help if you are booking with an agent who has a relationship with the operator. Of course the Celebes Explorer is the king when it comes to frequency of dives at Sipadan - but it comes with a few downsides too.

 

[Triggerman]

We stayed 7 nights at Kapalai Sept.2013, the accommodations were amazing but the food was just ok...As for the diving, we dove 2 times at Sipadan and had we wanted to pay a more we could have done extra days there as well. We were told 5 days guaranteed 2 days at Sipadan. The diving at Sipadan is amazing!!! The local dive sites are good, nothing spectacular...one highlight is the Mandarin Fish night dive!! Watched 3 or 4 pairs of mandarin fish mate, and got to watch a huge mantis shrimp hunting!!

The one thing I found interesting was how they use their allotted Sipadan permits. One of the days my wife and I went to Sipadan we had to pretend we were someone else, ie. there were different names on the permits than our names. I figured someone decided they didn't want to dive that day so instead of wasting a permit they let us use it...however when I asked when we get "our" permit day I was told we already had gone on our 2 trips to Sipadan and if we wanted to go again we would have to pay extra. Talk about a money grab, as those permits have already been paid for once and now they are selling them again!! This practice wasn't an isolated event as we spoke to other divers and they had gone through the same name game as we did.

Good luck planning your trip!!

 

[Zippsy]

Trigger, who do you think paid for the permits the first time? I think the resorts have to turn in aa list of names of guests ahead of time but when the guest doesn't turn up or they have to change plans for some reason, the resort tries the end around with the park's people. The permit that they had arranged you for on Sipadan was probably used by someone else.