PULAUMY

Guide No. 12 of 20

Island · Johor

Pulau Sibu

A long timber jetty running out from a sandy beach at dusk, with a palm trunk on the left, a few small figures on the jetty and low hills on the horizon.
A wooden jetty on Pulau Sibu at dusk. Photographed in 2009.Photo: Lee Jee Tshoon Lee, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Boat from
Tanjung Leman jetty, Mersing
Crossing
20–40 minResort speedboat
Season
Feb–NovMonsoon closures Dec–Jan
Park charge
RM30MyKad holders RM5

Facts checked 8 November 2026 against operators and the Department of Fisheries.

The short version

Pulau Sibu is a small island in the Johor marine park, about 6 km long, reached only by resort speedboat from Tanjung Leman jetty, about 2 hours by road from Johor Bahru.

Stays, rankedThe boat from Tanjung Leman jetty

I

Where to stay

Order is editorial, not paid. An editor sets each stay’s tier by hand; within a tier, stays follow the beach. Booking partners have no say.

Pick: our first choice on the island. Good: sound, with a catch. Listed: facts only.

PickOur first choice

1 stay
  1. 1

    Rimba Resort

    North tip · Own bay, northern tip

    21 sea-view chalets on a 350 m beach with a house reef, a dive centre and a halal-certified kitchen. No air-con, cold showers in the standard chalets, and closed from December to about Chinese New Year.

    Read the entry: Rimba ResortRates on Trip.com

GoodSound, with a catch

1 stay
  1. 2

    Sea Gypsy Village Resort & Dive Base

    North-east coast · North-east coast, facing Pulau Tinggi

    Family-run since the 1990s, with a supervised kids' club, a PADI dive base, full board and a daily van from Singapore. No air-con or hot water, no Wi-Fi, and no published monsoon dates.

    Read the entry: Sea Gypsy Village Resort & Dive BaseRates on Trip.com

II

Things to do

Not sold by our partners. Ask your resort.

  • Diving and PADI courses

    Shore, boat and night dives and PADI specialty courses with Hi-Tide Divers at Rimba Resort, and Discover Scuba with Dan's Nasty Frogmen at Sea Gypsy; gear is extra at Rimba

  • Night snorkelling at Rimba Resort

    1 h, nightly at 8.30 pm · An hour on the reef for Rimba guests, tide permitting; extra to the room rate

  • Snorkelling trips to nearby islands

    Rimba Resort runs 3-hour boat trips to Pulau Lima Besar or Mentigi, about 20 min away, and Sea Gypsy runs trips to several sites; both are extra to the room rate

III

When to go

  1. JanShut
  2. FebPart
  3. MarPart
  4. AprOpen
  5. MayOpen
  6. JunOpen
  7. JulOpen
  8. AugOpen
  9. SepOpen
  10. OctOpen
  11. NovPart
  12. DecShut

Open: the resorts and their boats run. Part: some resorts are opening or closing; check dates. Shut: most resorts close for the monsoon; ask any that face the mainland.

The northeast monsoon (musim tengkujuh) brings rough seas from about November to March, and most Sibu resorts close for about three months, except some of those facing the mainland. Rimba Resort takes guests from Chinese New Year to the end of November. Sea Gypsy publishes no closure dates, so ask before booking from November to February. April to September is the usual season, and June to August is usually the calmest. Boats can be cancelled for sea, weather or tide at any time of year.

IV

Getting there

  1. Kuala LumpurDrive 386 km to Tanjung Leman, about 5 h 15. Or fly to Senai (Johor Bahru), or take an express bus from TBS to Kota Tinggi or Mersing, about 4–5 h.
  2. Johor Bahru or Senai airportDrive or arrange a car, 110–118 km, about 2 h. There is no bus to the jetty.
  3. Tanjung Leman jettyResort speedboat 20–40 min. Pay the marine park charge here: RM30, MyKad holders RM5.
  4. Pulau SibuYour resort's own beach.

There is no public ferry. Each resort runs its own speedboat for booked guests from Tanjung Leman jetty, about 20 to 40 minutes across. The jetty is in Mersing District but about 70 km by road south of Mersing town, so do not go to Mersing jetty. Tanjung Leman is about 2 hours by road from Johor Bahru and about 5 hours from Kuala Lumpur; Sea Gypsy also runs a shared van from Holland Village in Singapore.

Boats, times and fares

V

Packages and rates

Sibu’s two main resorts sell both nightly rates and packages, and both quote prices “++”: add 10% service charge and 8% SST. Figures below are from the resorts’ own pages in November 2026.

  • Rimba Resort: half board (breakfast and dinner) from RM340++ per adult per night, twin share. Its 3D2N Getaway package is RM850++ per person sharing, with the return boat, two breakfasts and two dinners; the 3D2N Snorkel package adds a half-day snorkelling trip and gear for RM1,050++.
  • Sea Gypsy Village Resort: full board only, from RM400 per person per night in a Malay chalet, two sharing, or RM250 in a budget A-frame.

Neither price includes the marine park conservation charge or, for non-Malaysians, tourism tax of RM10 per chalet per night. Snorkelling trips are usually extra. We do not sell packages; each stay page says what its rate covers.

There are also a few small kampung-style chalets on the mainland-facing side. We could not confirm which still take guests, so they are not listed.

VI

Rules in the marine park

Sibu is one of the islands of the Sultan Iskandar (Johor) Marine Park, a marine park since 1994 managed by the Department of Fisheries. Park waters extend 2 nautical miles from the low-water mark. Every visitor pays a conservation charge at a window in the Tanjung Leman jetty complex: RM30 for adults without a MyKad and RM5 for MyKad holders; RM15 and RM2 for children aged 6 to 12 and adults over 60; free for disabled visitors. Some resorts quote other figures; these are the Department of Fisheries rates.

  • No fishing in park waters.
  • Do not touch or stand on coral, and do not take shells, coral or any marine life.
  • Boats must not anchor on the reef.
  • Since 1 January 2026, take your rubbish back to the mainland.
VII

Cash, Wi-Fi and shops

  • Bring enough cash from the mainland. Rimba also takes Visa and Mastercard, but not Amex.
  • Neither main resort has air-conditioning. Rimba warns guests about sandflies and mosquitoes, and Sea Gypsy sells its own sandfly remedy.
  • Wi-Fi is limited: Rimba has it only in the bar and reading room, and Sea Gypsy has none. Sea Gypsy says 4G works, best on Celcom and Maxis.
  • The only shops are a few basic ones in Kampung Duku, a fishing village of about 40 families at the south end of the island.