Where to stay on Tioman

[kevindive]

or not to stay. Just looking for recommendations.

Thank you.

 

[humuhumunukunuku]

there are many options:

1) juara - by far the most beautiful and peaceful place in tioman, with a long stretch of beach, a river at each end you can kayak up for a close-up view of the monkeys and snakes. it has no late afternoon heat as it is on the east side of the island and the sun dips below the mountain therefore you dont need aircon and its very comfortable. they also have a turtle sanctuary and are a short boat ride from the waterfull at the south end of the island which is nice for a half day visit. downside: the diving. i think there is a shop that opened last year next to the turtle sanctuary but the diving on that side isnt very good except one or two spots.

2) salang - a built up but nice place (on weekdays) with some beach and some rock. gets very crowded and crazy on weekends because all the locals from malaysia and singapore seem to come here on weekends. a nice quiet place to stay is at the north end of salang at ella's place or the one past that. there are four or fie dive shops. i would recommend sea monkees (formely fishermans) or azmi's. they are run by friendly locals and alot of fun to dive with and hang out with throughout the day. i would not recommend b&j because they change miserable western staff at least once a year because no one like working for them. therefore your dice guides are unlikely to be happy or to be familiar with the dive sites, plus the enclosed atmsphere of the dive shop and attitude of staff is not conducice to sitting around and chatting.

---------- Post added March 10th, 2014 at 11:12 PM ----------

t......there are two good shore dives off salang: the wreck, in front of dive asia, which has fallen apart but still attracts alot of fish, and the jetty near the other dive shops - massive schools of fish and interesting things under the jetty (watchout for boat traffic).

3) ABC - a big and peacefull place not that built up which attracts alot of backpackers. cheaper rooms and more expensice food than salang. more bars and good places to eat than salang. oh, i forgot to mention: salang has a duty free shop but the bar and restaurant next to it have been torn down to make way for new construction(likely still on going) of a big ugly prison like hotel aimed intended to be used as acomodation mainly for people in snorkeling package grouos from singapore. anyway, abc especially with the tiny beach at the south end and crispy pizza bar called sunset, is probably the best area to stay f you are diving. not as nice as juara and gets the late afternoon sun, but is peacefull with good room and bar and restaurant options and id close enough to the good diving (all the little islands off the northwest of tioman) to still be able to dive there. i would not recommend diving with b&j though, not only for the reasons stated earlier but also because if you dive with b&j from abc you will have to first take the boat ride to salang and pick up their passangers (usually they are late) before going out diving(on a big slow cattle boat) then drop them off before returning. - takes most of the day to go for two dives. if you do three, they will drop people off in salang after two, pick up those who want to do the afternoon dive, return to salang to drop them off then head back to abc. so you are then looking at night time by time they return. not sure who else is still in business at abc as far as dive shops are concerned but i think there is a lil one next to the jetty.

4) berjaya - thats where all the stuffy rich people who like to spend their time at the resort and golf course stay. they are over priced and their dive shop is a joke.

5) tekek - has a couple nice dive shops but it is the main village and has all the schools, government officilas, airport, etc.. so not so nice to stay, plus no beach or anything remotely close to it. berjaya no longer flies to tioman anyway so you will need to take the ferry.

6) anywhere south of tekek is nice and peacefull, but a bit far from the good diving for them to frequent often so you will most likely be stuck diving the tiny nearbyisland in front of tekek and the two or three wrecks in the very uninteresting very bad vis mari e park and what ever other joke of divesites they frequent. the tiny island in front of tekek is a nice dice site though.

hope this helps!

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

Hey there,

Some great advice given above, I think if you follow this advice you'l have a great stay. Humuhumunukunuku is right about the dive site locations, although there are a couple of decent ones in the south - Renghis is a nice dive, and some nice marine life and soft corals around Jahat. But generally you are better off further north.

If you happen to end up at one of the more isolated resorts further south, we'd recommend to avoid Twin Peaks dive centre which is located at Tunamaya resort. One of our staff was unfortunate enough to do a stint there on their travels a year or so ago, and its pretty much a cowboy op - or definitely was at the time. Think unregistered boat - and therefore no boat insurance, unlicensed captain, no agency affiliation to PADI/SSI etc (not a big deal in itself, but combined with everything else not ideal!), inadequate O2 provision for the location, and a general lack of regard for safety standards etc. Definitely one to avoid in our opinion!

That being said, most other operations seem fairly competent and above board, but be sure to check your dive centre of choice out thoroughly, as there does seem to be a disproportionate number of reported accidents there for some reason.

Happy holiday planning

 

[humuhumunukunuku]

ah yes, renggis! thats the name of the tiny island near tekek which serves as a good and shallow dive site (usually third dive of the day). couldn't remember the name!

 

[dorkito]

We just got back from 4 days at Minang Cove, which is on the south of the island. It's quiet and isolated, but that was what we were looking for. No internet and cell service is only with the DG carrier and too slow for much on the internet (I had a sim from another provider, so no access at all for me). Nice little protected beach (it really is in a cove). It's not on the cheap side, but there are definitely more expensive options on the island. Food is good (breakfast and dinner are included) and service is good. It wasn't on my radar as a dive destination, since the shop is so small: it's staffed by one instructor (but the owner is also an instructor). Turned out great. My wife and I were the only divers. Dive sites are all 10-25 minutes away (we didn't go to the sites at the very north), so you leave at 9:30am, return for lunch, leave again at 2:30pm. Night dive is around 7pm. I liked being able to see others throughout the day, rather than disappearing all day. We brought all of our own gear, except for my wife's BCD, which was fine. So I can't comment much on the quality of the rental gear. Dive sites were great. Johat, Lanting Wall, Renggis (farthest at 25 minutes away). Maybe the ones in the north are even better, but we were impressed. And we literally saw zero other divers except one other group at Renggis. That was niiiice.

 

[kevindive]

Thank you everyone.

 

[Zippsy]

I know everyone is entitled to their opinion and opinions are never "wrong", just slanted based on the speaker's experience but.... IMHO, B&J's is one of the most professionally run outfits (actually, one of the best of a very few professionally run outfits) on Tioman. Humu's comments seem to clash with most other local divers opinion for some reason.

 

[alantsh]

For ABC,can try Eco Divers on the right hand side of the jetty!

there are many options:

1) juara - by far the most beautiful and peaceful place in tioman, with a long stretch of beach, a river at each end you can kayak up for a close-up view of the monkeys and snakes. it has no late afternoon heat as it is on the east side of the island and the sun dips below the mountain therefore you dont need aircon and its very comfortable. they also have a turtle sanctuary and are a short boat ride from the waterfull at the south end of the island which is nice for a half day visit. downside: the diving. i think there is a shop that opened last year next to the turtle sanctuary but the diving on that side isnt very good except one or two spots.

2) salang - a built up but nice place (on weekdays) with some beach and some rock. gets very crowded and crazy on weekends because all the locals from malaysia and singapore seem to come here on weekends. a nice quiet place to stay is at the north end of salang at ella's place or the one past that. there are four or fie dive shops. i would recommend sea monkees (formely fishermans) or azmi's. they are run by friendly locals and alot of fun to dive with and hang out with throughout the day. i would not recommend b&j because they change miserable western staff at least once a year because no one like working for them. therefore your dice guides are unlikely to be happy or to be familiar with the dive sites, plus the enclosed atmsphere of the dive shop and attitude of staff is not conducice to sitting around and chatting.

---------- Post added March 10th, 2014 at 11:12 PM ----------

t......there are two good shore dives off salang: the wreck, in front of dive asia, which has fallen apart but still attracts alot of fish, and the jetty near the other dive shops - massive schools of fish and interesting things under the jetty (watchout for boat traffic).

3) ABC - a big and peacefull place not that built up which attracts alot of backpackers. cheaper rooms and more expensice food than salang. more bars and good places to eat than salang. oh, i forgot to mention: salang has a duty free shop but the bar and restaurant next to it have been torn down to make way for new construction(likely still on going) of a big ugly prison like hotel aimed intended to be used as acomodation mainly for people in snorkeling package grouos from singapore. anyway, abc especially with the tiny beach at the south end and crispy pizza bar called sunset, is probably the best area to stay f you are diving. not as nice as juara and gets the late afternoon sun, but is peacefull with good room and bar and restaurant options and id close enough to the good diving (all the little islands off the northwest of tioman) to still be able to dive there. i would not recommend diving with b&j though, not only for the reasons stated earlier but also because if you dive with b&j from abc you will have to first take the boat ride to salang and pick up their passangers (usually they are late) before going out diving(on a big slow cattle boat) then drop them off before returning. - takes most of the day to go for two dives. if you do three, they will drop people off in salang after two, pick up those who want to do the afternoon dive, return to salang to drop them off then head back to abc. so you are then looking at night time by time they return. not sure who else is still in business at abc as far as dive shops are concerned but i think there is a lil one next to the jetty.

4) berjaya - thats where all the stuffy rich people who like to spend their time at the resort and golf course stay. they are over priced and their dive shop is a joke.

5) tekek - has a couple nice dive shops but it is the main village and has all the schools, government officilas, airport, etc.. so not so nice to stay, plus no beach or anything remotely close to it. berjaya no longer flies to tioman anyway so you will need to take the ferry.

6) anywhere south of tekek is nice and peacefull, but a bit far from the good diving for them to frequent often so you will most likely be stuck diving the tiny nearbyisland in front of tekek and the two or three wrecks in the very uninteresting very bad vis mari e park and what ever other joke of divesites they frequent. the tiny island in front of tekek is a nice dice site though.

hope this helps!

 

[DrBarbarian]

Renggis is nice. I like diving at KD Sipadan wreck too.... the beach at Tioman is full of sand flies!!!! do put on some repellent if you plan to hang out by the beach. It will itch for days!

 

[kevindive]

Thank you everyone for the information. We stayed at Paya Beach Resort for our stay. We also dove with them (Divers Cove). The rooms were comfortable. The diving was great. We had Barbara as our divemaster and felt very comfortable with her. I would stay and dive with them again.

No sand flies but there were mosquito's.

It was a good stay.

Thanks again for all the information.

K