Sipadan/Mabul in June

[jc928tw]

Hi Guys:

We have decided to go to Sipadan in June and we are deciding on the resort we would like to stay in. From my understanding; the Mabul resorts are a little bit better than the ones on the Sipadan. Are there 3 resorts on Mabul? I found
1. Sipadan Water Village 2. Borneo Diver/Mabul 3. Sipadan Mabul Resorts.

Please kindly let me know any personal experience or information regarding these 3 resorts (eg. food, service, target customers, etc). Anything in welcome, Thank you very much!

Happy diving!

Jeff

 

[animian2002]

Stayed at Borneo diver/Mabul in April. Lodging/Food are not bad, price wise, it is among the cheaper one on mabul island.

Btw beside the 3 resort you mentioned, there's seaventure resort (Oil Rig) too but I have not stayed there before

 

[scubashooter]

Stayed at all 4 and Kapalai as well. Have to say that SMART is my favorite for flexibility, nitrox and guides(Alan). Accomodations are decent as is food. Nice bar pool and very expansive area.
Accomodation is easily in SWV's hands, as is food and their shoredive (Froggie Alley) is very nice. Guides are good. Caters to more upper income american/euro divers. They held the S&S photo shootout for the last 4 years there.
Seaventure is a nice idea but a bit of a pain to climb up and down that platform... shore dive(errr under platform dive) is one of the top sites around Mabul and my favorite. Accomodations are not great nor is food and you can get stircrazy staying there too long since there's no land. I believe it's closed now but you have to check to confirm.
Kapalai is nice, overwater basic bungalows. The problem is there's not greenery anywhere (it's basically a big sandbar). Mabul you have villages to walk thru and take pics during surface intervals.

 

[DontLieToMe]

Stayed at SMART this March. Agree with ScubaShooter. Good guides, reasonable size groups. They are building a bunch of overwater bungalows - do not know when they will be available. SMART rooms have AC - which I like - Sipidan Water does not.

 

[frogfish]

You could also try staying in Kapalai - one over the water resort only; quite nice

 

[ssra30]

I also stayed at Smart last year and would not hesitate to recommend it. Have not stayed at Water Village but one friend did recently and was a little annoyed in that their dive schedule is not very flexible ie if your group want to do a dawn dive at Sipadan drop off, Smart and Borneo Diver has no problem accomodating that if the whole group agree whereas Water Village want to stick with their regular dive schedule strictly and does not seem to be very flexible.

 

[jc928tw]

Thanks a lot for all the inputs. I heard March to May is the best season for Sipadan. Is that correct? What should we expect if we go in the last week of june?

 

[Oceanlovers]

Just finished a trade show in Bangkok and Borneo Divers were promoting a special at Mabul Resort 7 days / 6 nights accomodation diving meals transfers etc.
You will have to check with them if it was only a trade show special or there pushing it as they also believe their resorts might be getting the bump at the end of the year.
By the way at $U.S.390 all in its never been so cheap!
Thinking of taking a well deserved break myself....

 

[_Bella_]

I also stayed at Smart last year and would not hesitate to recommend it. Have not stayed at Water Village but one friend did recently and was a little annoyed in that their dive schedule is not very flexible ie if your group want to do a dawn dive at Sipadan drop off, Smart and Borneo Diver has no problem accomodating that if the whole group agree whereas Water Village want to stick with their regular dive schedule strictly and does not seem to be very flexible.

I just got back from SWV and have the exact same comment about it as you posted. The diving schedule is STRICT. The only way to dive my usual profile is to shore dive from the house reef. There is no tide table posted and the guides don't know it so it's your bad luck if you end up doing a shore dive during a ripping current with no viz. I also feel the resort segregates people too much. The dining area is large and while divers get together in the dive area, if they want to get with another group during meals, it's discouraged. The funny thing is, the boat captains will do anything, it's the guides that don't want to bend the schedule. I found the captains and locals to be super friendly and willing to do anything you want, but all the guides are from Japan, Phillipines, Indonesia, etc...

I'm dying to go back, and it sounds like Smart is the place to go.

 

[jc928tw]

Oh no, SWV was our prime choice. Now I really have to think about the alternatives. But isn't the accomadation a lot better in SWV compare to the rest? Is there a lot of Japanese divers in SWV? Is it operated by Japanese? Please advice. Thanks