5 days of relaxing beach after Sabah trekking?
Replies: 13 - Last Post: Jun 17, 2012 10:16 AM Last Post By: guestfamilytrav...
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5 days of relaxing beach after Sabah trekking?
After 10 days trekking and moving about in Sabah we're looking for some tranquil, gorgeous beach to relax and explore near KL or East side of the penisula. Need to get back to KL for flight back to UK. Looked into Penang and Langkawi, can anyone recommend somewhere or are these our best bet? Also is it fairly easy to get to these places to and from KL? Cheers!1
The east coast has much better beaches:http://www.molon.de/galleries/Malaysia/EastCoast/
Don't even think about going to a beach on Pinang:
http://www.molon.de/galleries/Malaysia/WestCoast/Pinang/Beaches/
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Where abouts in Sabah will you be? We had a blissful few nights on Pom Pom island (nearest to Tawau airport) - we stayed at a dive resort (can give you the details if it sounds like your thing) it was very isolate, all that was on the island was the dive resort & another resort. You could walk around it in 40minutes, at night turtles would come and lay their eggs and the sunsets were magnificent.Generally in Malaysia you don't come across hundreds of British tourists, more Australians.
East Coast beaches, we only really did the Perhentians because we loved it so much we didn't move on!
Langkawi isn't too bad (well the beaches are cleaner than Penang), Penang has a lot to offer even though the beaches are a bit dirty.
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The last time I've been on Perhentian I didn't see many British tourists. On Lang Tengah I was one of the very few western tourists (lots of Asian tourists BTW). Redang probably also receives way more Asian tourists than western tourists, but is more upmarket and resort-like.Redang and Tioman (which I don't recommend) have airports with direct flights to KL. For the other islands you fly to either Kota Bharu or Kuala Terengganu and then take a taxi and a ferry (30-60 minutes).
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Thanks for this, sounds great! We had looked into Turtle Island which is nearer Sandaken I think. We're heading from KK in Sabah to Danum Valley. We are travelling on a tight budget and treating ourselves to the jungle expedition here so having to make savings else where. Do you know whether we could do Pom Pom on a budget?!? It looked rather lush!7
Thanks also for the island tips, all look amazing on google! Looking into te Perhentian islands. Do you know if there are flights to Kota Bharu/Kuala Terengganu from Borneo? It seems travel around Malaysia is mainly flying, is that because its so big and trains/buses take too long? We're only there for 3 weeks so don't want to be stuck cramped in a coach for too long. Thanks for all your great tips.8
Pom Pom is very expensive, as are other resorts in Sabah (see for instance Mataking, http://mataking.com/ ). The Tip of Borneo area (3 hours by minibus/taxi from KK) is quite cool and not expensive:http://www.molon.de/galleries/Malaysia/Sabah/Tip/Beach/
Regarding the islands of peninsular Malaysia's east coast, to get there you have to fly from Borneo to KL and from KL to Redang, Kuala Terengganu or Kota Bahru. It's all through KL and buses are not an option if you are short of time.
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Thanks alfredm. Hows about a coach or taxi from Singapore or Johor Bahru? Flights rtn from SIN to KK are resonable enough?10
Yes, it's possible to do Pom Pom Island on a budget, but not at the Pom Pom Island Resort.We stayed at the Celebes Beach Resort which wasn't quite so plush, but clean comfy rooms with aircon & nice food. I can't remember how much we paid and I can't get the website to work but I know it wasn't a budget blow out (like our trip down the Kinabatangen). I can't get their website to work but they are active on Facebook and I'd really recommend them. I think we paid less than 2000RM for 4 nights, 5 days, loads of dives, advanced open water course, babysitting & food.
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We visited Turtle Island near Sandaken overnight, I wasn't overwhelmed to be honest; very touristy. I think we were a group of 30 that crowded around the lady turtle laying her eggs, it didn't feel that natural (however we'd already seen lots of turtles before this so perhaps we'd have been more wowed if it was the first time).
