Tioman Island (or Pulau Tioman, as it is known locally) is one of Malaysia most popular island, where the white sand beaches overhung by towering palm trees are lapped by clear, calm, and warm water teeming with all sorts of tropical marine life.

36 nautical miles off Malaysia’s east coast, Tioman Island, with its clear blue-green waters, endless pristine beaches, cascading waterfalls, and the twin rocky peaks of Gunung Nenek Semukut bounded by a light mist, truly resembles the beautiful dragon princess that legends say the island sprung from. Rare and beautiful flora and fauna, including two species of marine turtle can be commonly seen in Tioman Island.

Best time to Dive

During the months of March to November, expect to have great weather by day, and a fantastic view of the starry night after dark in Tioman Island. Between November to March, the Northeast monsoon makes it more challenging to dive, and most divers will prefer to dive in Phuket instead.

What You Need

• Visa and Valid Passport
• Local Currency (Ringit, RM)
• Personal Medication
• Travel insurance (recommended)
• Snorkling: Able to swim in the sea
• Scuba Diving: Minimum PADI Open Water Diver Certification or equivalence for Leisure Diver

Getting There

Select from one (1) of the destinations below

Includes

• All transfers via Land and Sea
• Twin-share accommodation (3-star in Genting)
• All meals
• Air tanks and Weights
• English-speaking guides and dive masters

Excludes

• Diving: Equipment Rental
• Diving: Marine Park Fee (RM $5, if any)
• Diving: 4 x AA size Battery (if required for night dive)
• Transport: Airfare (if any)
• Transport: Taxes and fuel surcharges
• Transport: Point-to-point and Airport Transfers on Tioman Island
• Personal: Expenses that include drinks, telephone and landry bills, and tips
• Personal: Travel insurance (proof of insurance is required)
• Personal: Visa application and fees, if necessary
• Others: Gratitudes for the Boat Crew / Guide

Packages

Select from one (1) of the accommodations in Tioman Island below

Island Reef Resort–2D2N

Tioman Island, Malaysia

One of the biggest island off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, Tioman island offers exceptional diving in the region. You will be pleasantly surprised by the Island Reef Resort.
Learn more about Island Reef Resort

SGD 370

Leisure Diver

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Happy Inn Resort–2D2N

Tioman Island, Malaysia

One of the biggest island off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, Tioman island offers exceptional diving in the region. You will be pleasantly surprised by the Island Reef Resort.
Learn more about Island Reef Resort

SGD 370

Leisure Diver

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Sign Up

Accommodations on Tioman Island (Pulau Tioman)

There many resorts on Tioman Island but the common ones that Gill Divers visits are listed below.

Island Reef Resort

Select from one (1) of the packages in Island Reef Resort below

Island Reef Resort–2D2N

Tioman Island, Malaysia

One of the biggest island off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, Tioman island offers exceptional diving in the region. You will be pleasantly surprised by the Island Reef Resort.
Learn more about Island Reef Resort

SGD 399

Leisure Diver

View Schedule
Sign Up

Other Reef Resort–3D3N

Tioman Island, Malaysia

One of the biggest island off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, Tioman island offers exceptional diving in the region. You will be pleasantly surprised by the Island Reef Resort.
Learn more about Island Reef Resort

SGD 399

Leisure Diver

View Schedule
Sign Up

Island Reef Resort–Customize

Tioman Island, Malaysia

One of the biggest island off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, Tioman island offers exceptional diving in the region. You will be pleasantly surprised by the Island Reef Resort.
Create Custom Trip

fr SGD 99

Custom Trip

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Sign Up

Island Reef Resort

Select from one (1) of the packages in Island Reef Resort below

Island Reef Resort

One of the biggest island off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, Tioman island offers exceptional diving in the region. You will be pleasantly surprised by the Island Reef Resort.
Learn more about Island Reef Resort

Island Reef Resort

One of the biggest island off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, Tioman island offers exceptional diving in the region. You will be pleasantly surprised by the Island Reef Resort. One of the biggest island off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, Tioman island offers exceptional diving in the region. You will be pleasantly surprised by the Island Reef Resort. One of the biggest island off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, Tioman island offers exceptional diving in the region. You will be pleasantly surprised by the Island Reef Resort.
Learn more about Island Reef Resort

Tioman Island Dive Sites

Pulau Chebeh (Chebeh Island)

Located northwest of Tioman Island, Chebeh Island has an abundance of large boulder formations, caves and tunnels, which makes it an exciting spot for divers seeking the thrill of squeezing through tight spaces as well as cavern divers. Notable marine life includes large puffer fish, trigger fish, napoleon wrassers, and if you’re lucky, manta rays.

Basic Diver
18 – 27m depth
12m visibility

Tulai Island (Coral Island)

Located northwest of Tioman Island, Tulai Island is known for its large formations of soft coral, including the white and blue gorgonian seafan, black coral, staghorn coral, feather stars, sea stars and cushion stars. Notable marine life include lionfish and napoleon warasse, as well as angel and butterfly fish.

Basic Diver
18 – 27m depth
12m visibility

Fan Canyon

Located southwest of Tulai Island (Coral Island), Fan Canyon is named after the grogonian fan corals that fill the valley walls. Divers are not allowed to enter the canyon itself in order to prevent damage to the fragile coral, but there is the tunnel at a depth of 16m that divers can swim through. Notable marine life include Marine turtles, barracuda and spotted groupers.

Advanced Diver
30m depth
10m visibility

Teluk Kador (Kador Bay)

Teluk Kador is Northeast of Coral Island. The underwater topography of the area consists of a rocky downward slope that descends to about 20m. Overhangs in the the rocks sometimes house moral eels or stonefish. Notable marine life include the blue-spotted stingray.

Basic Diver
5 – 23m depth
12m visibility

Magicienne Rock

Southeast of Pulau Cebeh, you cannot actually see Magicienne Rock from the surface, because the spire only rises to 8m below sea level. Big fish frequent this place, and it is not uncommon to see sharks, rays, bigeye trevally, yellowfin snappers, groupers and barracuda, not to mention a whole host of reef fish.

Advanced Diver
8 – 22m depth
15m visibility

Malang Rocks

Located Northwest of Tioman Island, Malang Rocks has a shallow side that is home to potato corals, lettuce corals and sponges. In the deeper waters, sharks, including leopard sharks can be found. Other notable marine life include barracuda schools, yellow spotted stingrays, triggefish and lionfish.

Basic Diver
6 – 15m depth
10m visibility

Pulau Labas

Located Southeast of Pulau Chebeh, this dive site looks like a pile of rocks on top of the water. The unique topography allows divers to swim through caverns, and even explore the wreck of a Japanese fishing vessel in the area. Notable marine life include turtles, moray eels, sweet lips and blue spotted stingrays.

Basic Diver
15 – 25m depth
12m visibility

Tiger Reef

Tiger reef may have strong currents, but that only means that black-tipped reef sharks and barracuda schools frequent the place. The reef, which has a large array of brain, plate and fire coral, also hosts jacks, tune, trevally, yellow tail snappers and batfish. The topography of the area is mainly hard rock.

Advanced Diver
10 – 25m depth
10m visibility

Soyak Island Reef and Wreck

Located near Salang Village, this is a popular night dive spot as the area is populated by a myriad of soft corals. The wreck is also a major draw, and divers will be able to spot, among other marine animals, the 1.8m long giant grouper and black tipped reef sharks. Some divers have even occasionally spotted whale sharks in the area.

Advanced Diver
5 – 15m depth (25m for wreck)
10m visibility

Salang Bay

Right in front of the beach at Salang Village, Salang bay is a sheltered area perfect for snorkellers or people who are still getting used to diving. Schools of bumphead parrotfish populate the waters around this area, and the reef is shallow and accessible, with staghorn, tabletop, brain and blue coral making up most of the coral population.

Basic Diver
5 – 15m depth
10m visibility

Marine Park HQ

Located between Tetek and Ayer Batang villages, the marine park is the site of a chain of 8 wrecks at varying depths. Divers usually bring down pieces of bread to feed the fish in the area, and fish will usually mob you for any morsels you have. This is an important spawning point for fish, so look out for the tiny fry between March and May. Schools of jacks, trevallies and fusiliers also frequent the area.

Basic Diver
8 – 30m depth
10m visibility

Renggis Island

Just off the coast of the Berjaya Resort, Pulau Renggis is a small, rocky island often frequented by divers. Renggis Island has both a hidden wreck and reef for the intrepid diver to discover, and the hard coral formations around the island are a thing of beauty. Black tipped reef sharks and green turtles are a common sight at Renggis Island.

Basic Diver
6 – 16m depth
20m visibility

Bahara Rock

Southwest of Tioman Island, this site is chock full of marine life. Add a drop off covered with anemones, sponges, back coral and soft red and purple coral, and its no wonder that underwater photographers flock to this site to try to capture its immense scale and beauty.

Advanced Diver
5 – 25m depth
20m visibility

Jahat Island

20 minutes by boat from Salang Village, the Jahat dive site is a maze of tunnels, corridors and caves made by a huge jumble of large boulders. Divers can expect to see sharks and barracuda here.

Advanced Diver
5 – 25m depth
10m visibility

Pulau Sepoi

Pulau Sepoi is great of drift diving, and along the way, a diver might get to see manta rays, eagle rays, schools of jacks, yellow banded snappers, turtles, and sharks.

Advanced Diver
18 – 25m depth
16m visibility

Other Recreational

Nightlife

Pulau Tioman offers the night owl several ways to unwind after a long day. Genting village has a karaoke pub that opens until 10pm, so does the spa at Paya, while various other bars and eateries around the island serve food and alcohol into the wee hours of the morning. Mostly, take a stroll along the moonlit beach and look up into a universe of stars embedded in the cloudless night sky.

Fishing

Anglers will love Pulau Tioman for the sheer variety of fishing that it offers. Hire a boat for a day and drop anchor outside the Marine Park limits, the only place where fishing is permitted. Catch here include groupers, morays, tuna, parrotfish, sea-bass, red snappers, stingrays, plaices, soles, cora trout, blue marlins, squid, cuttlefish, shrimp, crab, prawns and lobster. For a more an experience worthy of any seasoned angler, enquire about deep-sea fishing.

Shopping

Pulau Tioman has been declared a duty free zone, so alcohol and tobacco prices on the island are at an all time low. Buy cheap booze and cigarettes at any provisions store on the island, and don’t forget to browse through the huge selection of Tioman Island T-shirts and souvenirs before your trip comes to a close.

Snorkling

Snorkel off almost any beach on Pulau Tioman, and you’ll be guranteed to find a veritable array of corals and reef fish just slightly out of reach. The waters on Tioman Island are clear and unpolluted, and any snorkeller worth his salt should strap on a mask and explore the natural beauty that the reefs have to offer.

Rockclimbing

The “Dragon’s Horns” twin peaks are a real challenge for any expert climber, and it was only in 2002 that man first summited the peak. Beginners can learn the ropes at the base of the peak, or at other sites around the island, while advanced climbers can attempt the full climb, which takes five days to complete, while sleeping in hammocks overlooking great heights and overhangs.

Jungle Trekking

Most of Tioman Island’s rainforests are untouched, as only the coastline is developed. As such, the jungle is replete with monkeys, monitor lizards, birds and insects, as well as trees that have stood for hundreds of years. Visitors have the option of many jungle paths to trek through, but the most popular and challenging jungle trek is the 7 kilometre trek from Tekek to Juara beach that slices through the middle of the island, across several hills and waterfalls.

Golf

Berjaya Tioman Resort has an 18-hole international standard golf course, flanked on one end by the beach and on the other end by primary tropical jungle. The par-71 course contains numerous challenges, such as jungle-rough, ponds, and bunkers. A highlight is the par-37th hole, where golfers have to hit the ball across the sea in order to reach the green. Pre-Booking of the course is usually not required, and facilities at the golf course include lockers, shower and changing rooms, a pro shop, practice green, gymnasium and sauna rooms. Golf carts, clubs and shoes are available for hire.

Spa

Both The Ayura Spa at Berjaya Tioman Resort and The Paya Holistic Spa at Paya Beach Resort offers a variety of treatmentes, including massages, bodyscrubs and wraps, facials, pedicures, manicures and also a special hair spa treatment, utilising natural ingredients such as cucumber, coconut, herbs, papaya and yoghurt. In addition, The Ayura Spa offers the Ayura Signature Massage which uses a traditional method of applying a heated poultice of aromatic herbs and spices to specific points of the body. All spa treatments require pre-booking.

Tioman Trip Itinerary

Tioman Island 2D3N Itinerary

Day 1

1900                Gather @ Gill Divers
1930                Departure for Mersing Jetty
2230                Rest stop (Night divers buy battery for dive torch)
2345                Arrival @ Mersing Jetty

Day 2

0015                Depart on ferry for Tioman Island
0315                Arrival @ Tioman Island
0330               Check into resort
0900               Meet-up at Dining area for Breakfast, followed by morning brief
1030               1st Dive
1230                Lunch
1400                2nd & 3rd Dive
1900                Dinner / Night Dive (Advanced Open Water Divers and above)
2030                Dinner (Advanced Open Water Divers and above)

Day 3

0700                 Meet-up at Dining area for morning brief
0715                 1st Dive
0900                 Breakfast
1030                 2nd Dive
1200                 Lunch
1300                 Check out and Departure from Island
1700                 Arrival @ Mersing Jetty
1730                 Depart on bus for Singapore
2100                 Arrival @ Gill Divers (Home Sweet Home)

Please note that the above timing is an approximate. It may be subject to road / traffic / tide / weather condition on the day of trip.