Sipadan Mabul Resort (SMART)

Location

Mabul Island is located on the east coast of Borneo, Sabah, East Malaysia. First, you take a short 45 minutes Malaysia Airlines domestic flight from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau then you will be met and transferred to Semporna Jetty (Harbor) by van (approx. 1-hour drive), and finally, you will be transferred to Mabul Resort by speedboat (approx. 40 minutes boat ride).

Dive Overview

Boasting attentive and thorough dive center staff and a fleet of speedboats, Sipadan-Mabul Resort promises relaxing dive excursions, so guests can focus on the stunning underwater sights.

All divers will be required to show proof of diver training/certification by an internationally recognized Diver Training Agency upon arrival before they would be allowed to participate in any diving activity. SMART also reserves the right to require a Scuba Skills Refresher Course for any diver who cannot provide proof of diving in the last 12 months and/or exhibits uncertainty in their skills.

[Read More: Sipadan Dive Travel Guide]

Food & Drinks

The restaurant is located under a large open-air pavilion and is used for delicious buffet-style meals and sometimes shows. A selection of fresh juices, coconut drinks, sodas, beer, and wine can be purchased at the resort bar and jetty bar. Buffet breakfast consists of cereal, toast, tea, coffee, fruits, eggs, porridge, and Asian dishes

Dive Information

SIPADAN

SIPADAN is a small island where you can dive and snorkel. It is a 15-30 minutes boat ride south of Mabul. Sipadan is the tip of a mountain with steep underwater walls all around it. These walls drop to 300m on the Mabul side of the island and 600m on the south side.

Diving on Sipadan is all drift diving, divers drop in and cruise with the current along the walls. This combination of deep walls and ocean currents provides the ideal environment for pelagic such as sharks and large schools of jacks and barracuda.

MABUL

MABUL in contrast to Sipadan is a continuation of the Borneo landmass rather than the top of an underwater mountain. Because of this, Mabul has more gradually sloping walls around it that bottom out at about 30m. The attractions on Mabul are of the smaller variety such as lobster, crocodile fish, moray, and garden eels. This makes it an ideal location for macro-photo opportunities.

KAPALAI

KAPALAI lies to the east of Mabul about 10 minutes away. It used to be a vegetated island much like Mabul but erosion has turned it into a small sandbar that just breaks the surface of the water. This is an area that we are exploring for new dive sites. Like Mabul, it is an excellent location for macro-photography and is especially abundant in the rare finds of diving such as mandarin fish, stonefish, leaffish, pipefish, lionfish, frogfish, cuttlefish, eels, and more.

Dive Center Information

Sipadan-Mabul Resort Dive Center Overview

Sipadan-Mabul Resort is a PADI Gold Palm Resort. The Technical Diving Center (SMART-Tec) offers various services such as Nitrox Air and Certification Courses. They have fifteen (15) custom-built fiberglass dive boats and three (3) half-cabin passenger/transport boats. These dive boats can carry 10 divers each and get to any of the island dive sites in 15 minutes or more. Each boat goes out three times a day with a boatman and divemaster.