Things to do in Semporna
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Semporna
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Main season with calmer seas and the most reliable boats, but resorts fill and Sipadan permit pressure is highest.
Shoulder month with more variable weather.
Sipadan closes for its annual conservation month, in recent years the whole of November, as the monsoon builds.
Wettest and roughest stretch, with more cancelled boats, less reliable visibility and a muddier Bohey Dulang trail.
What's on
- Regatta Lepa April, dates set each year
Bajau festival of decorated lepa sailing boats in Semporna harbour, the one weekend the town itself is the attraction.
Best things to do in Semporna
Sipadan Island
Permit-gated wall diving with turtles, reef sharks and the barracuda tornado at Barracuda Point.
Mabul Island
Muck and macro diving with frogfish, flamboyant cuttlefish and mandarinfish, and no special permit needed.
Kapalai
Reef and macro diving off a stilt resort sandbar, with garden eels, turtles and unlimited jetty dives for guests.
Sibuan Island
A small sandy park island with clear shallow water and coral gardens, the best cheap snorkelling day from town.
Pom Pom Island
A calm resort island with turtles and healthy coral, dived or snorkelled on the Mataking day-trip circuit.
Where to stay in Semporna
Semporna town
transit nights, budget stays and seafood dinners
Walkable jetties, dive shops and restaurants, but no swimmable beach and quiet, limited-alcohol evenings.
Mabul
diving base for Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai programmes
A lived-in village island with resorts from dorms to water bungalows, 45 minutes by boat from town.
Kapalai
committed divers and couples wanting total immersion
A single stilt resort on a sandbar with no island or village, where the resort is the whole place.
Think twice about
- Semporna town as a beach base
There is no swimmable town beach and the harbour water by the jetties and stilt villages carries rubbish. Sleep in town for logistics, not for the beach.
- ESSZone waters at night
A dusk-to-dawn sea curfew prohibits being on the water in the zone between 6pm and 6am without a police permit. All transfers and dive boats run in daylight.
Best restaurants in Semporna
Anjung D'Samudera Cafe
The best known seafood dinner in town, live seafood cooked to order at fair prices confirmed by weight first.
Summer Breeze Cafe
A clean town cafe for Malaysian and Western plates, noodles and shakes when you need a break from dive food.
Dozo Nanyang Kopi House Semporna
A kopitiam coffee house for cheap local breakfasts of kopi, kaya toast, nasi lemak and noodles before early boats.
Outdoor things to do in Semporna
Bohey Dulang Island
A steep trail climb to a viewpoint over a turquoise crater lagoon, the non-dive highlight of the whole area.
Timba Timba Island
A long pale sandbar with easy shallow snorkelling over coral gardens, visited on the Mataking circuit.
Mataking Island
A private resort island with a turtle house reef, white sand and an underwater post office on a wreck.
Best hotels in Semporna
Mabul Water Bungalows
Overwater bungalows with pool and spa on Mabul, the clear luxury splurge for divers and non-diving partners.
Borneo Divers Mabul Resort
An original Mabul dive resort with beach chalets, villas and a large dive operation running three boat dives a day.
Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort
A stilt village resort over the Kapalai sandbar, all inclusive, with three boat dives a day and jetty diving.
Scuba Junkie Mabul Beach Resort
The mid-range Mabul workhorse, dorms to beach chalets with full-board dive packages and a busy diver scene.
Seaventures Dive Rig
A converted oil rig off Mabul where you sleep, eat and dive the house reef below, with boats to Sipadan.
Seafest Hotel
The main mid-range hotel in town by the jetties, with a pool, best for late arrivals and early boat mornings.
Dragon Inn Floating Resort
A floating wooden hotel over the harbour by the waterfront, characterful and cheap for a night in transit.
Sipadan Inn
Simple, clean budget rooms on the seafront by the dive shops and jetties, the straightforward town diver base.
Is Semporna expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | MYR 350 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | MYR 900 a person |
| Splurge | MYR 1,800 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Sipadan Island: months ahead
- Mabul Island: weeks ahead
- Kapalai: weeks ahead
- Sibuan Island: a few days ahead
- Pom Pom Island: a few days ahead
- Bohey Dulang Island: a few days ahead
- Timba Timba Island: a few days ahead
- Mataking Island: weeks ahead
- Book island packages weeks to months ahead in the March to September season.
- Treat Sipadan as a months-ahead conversation, get permit conditions and fees in writing, and stay longer to improve odds.
- Book Tawau domestic flights early, as peak capacity is limited.
- Sipadan closes for a conservation month each year, in November in recent years.
Is Semporna safe?
- Kidnapping is a threat in the islands and maritime areas off eastern Sabah; make sure your insurance is valid for where you are going and what you are doing.
- ESSZone dusk-to-dawn sea curfew runs 6pm to 6am without a police permit.
- Nearest recompression facilities are in the Kota Kinabalu area, hours away, so carry DAN-type dive and evacuation insurance.
Semporna travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Permit scams and unlicensed operators: never buy a standalone or short-notice guaranteed Sipadan permit for cash.
- Confirm seafood prices by weight and cooking charges before ordering.
- Check whether day-trip prices exclude park fees, jetty fees and equipment rental.
- Avoid cheap unlicensed boat trips with no life jackets or radio.
Getting around Semporna: public transport and more
- Fly to Tawau Airport, then a pre-booked road transfer of about 70 minutes to Semporna jetty.
- Boats to Mabul and Kapalai take about 40 to 45 minutes, run in daylight only and are weather dependent.
- In Semporna town, jetties, dive shops, hotels and seafood restaurants are walkable or a short Grab ride.
- On Mabul you walk everywhere, and all island movement is by your resort or operator boats.
Who Semporna suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | OK |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Semporna your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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