Planning a trip in March and am hoping to get some ideas about places to stay in Malaysia that are convenient to dive spots. My partner and I are certified divers but would like a slightly more pampered experience than the usual dive boot camp/inn. Also - in a 2 week trip, any suggestions for tacking on some bit of Singapore?

March is a difficult month for diving as it is on the cusp of the monsoon season for east coast Malaysia and Borneo. Redang Island on the east coast has some reasonable hotels (i.e. 4*). We used the Berjaya which has its own dive shop and some pretty good dive sites just off the beach. I believe thare are now lots more hotels on the island. I guess you could be lucky with the weather. Sipadan off of Borneo has probably the best diving in Malaysia but, again the weather has a major part to play. As far as weather is concerned, the Similan island off the west coast of Thailand offers the best diving/weather at that time of year.

I did Tioman in April, and while there were a few early morning showers, the weather was quite nice the rest of the time. Was talking to a dive shop owner in Phnom Penh this morning, and she was saying the weather the last two years has been completely unpredictable. It was raining in January, which has not happened in living memory.

Tioman also has a Berjaya resort, as well as the very upscale Japamala. The advantage of staying in a resort around a place like Tioman, is that all the dive sites are no more than 20 to 30 away by boat. You can get up in the morning, and if the weather looks good and you feel like it, you can go out for a couple dives. Back by lunch, and you can choose to go out again for more dives, or lounge around the pool for a couple more days.

Tioman is a short hop from Singapore or KL, so yes, you could easily fit in some time there as well as diving.

I agree that this may be a little problematic. IMO the best diving in Malaysia is on the east coast, but March can be an issue. If you mean the latter half of March, that will be better; but remember that the winter monsoon will be receeding then after about 4 months there, so it will have churned up the water/bottom and may affect visibility. But you may not notice it; some of this will depend on where else you have dived and how much clarity you are used to.

I am not a fan of Tioman, I find it too developed, and mostly I don’t think the diving is as good as elsewhere. I agree on Redang, the Redang Beach Resort is actually quite nice, see (http://www.berjayaresorts.com.my/redang-beach.) You can fly to it from Singapore (from the smaller regional airport there), so that fits in well for a few days before or after in Singapore.

If you need luxury, then consider the Tanjong Jara Resort http://www.tanjongjararesort.com on the east coast just south of Kuala Teerraangu. It’s on a lovely long beach, but there is no diving there, you have to take a dive boat out to get to dive sites, so it is not quite an convenient as being on the island; however there is a lot to do in the area (national parks, villages, etc), so if you have 10 days or so you may prefer this area rather than being island-bound where there is little to do other than the beach. From Singapore, this is a bit harder to get to. I don’t think you can fly non-stop to Kuala Terengganu, but check into this (you can go via KL); if you have a few days, it is a fun and scenic drive; you could stop overnight at someplace like Kuantan.

You could consider Sipidan, as you certainly have the time for it, and also it is reachable from Singapore. You have to have permits now to dive in the park, which makes it more difficult, so make sure you secure those now or IMO there is little point in going. You could also consider spending some time on Borneo itself as part of this trip. You could do 5 days in Sipidan, 3-4 in Singapore and then a few days in rain forest area or climbing Mt Kinabalu.

I don’t know your budget, but you might consider chartering a boat from Singapore or elsewhere on the east coast of Malaysia and doing your own live-aboard dive trip. I have not done this in more than 10 years from Singapore, so don’t have reccos for speicifc boats, but it is a great way to visit a varierty of dive sights and you have a good bit of time so could cover a good area. (I could recco charter companies for the Phuket area if you are interested in that area.)

I have to say that you can fly to the Maldives from Singapore in four hours. And March is prime season in the Maldives (esp in the northern atolls which are very dry then). And the diving and snorkeling are superb. And boy can you get some really fine hotels. (You will pay more for these of course, but they are generally far superior to what you will find resort-wise for diving in Malaysia.) This is just something to think about.

I agree that the west coast of Thailand, like the Similans, may work as well.

Cicerone, has the permit system for Sipadan changed? My understanding was that the permits were given out to the dive boats (not the divers) on a daily random draw, so there was no way of knowing in advance whether or not you could dive Sipadan on any given day, and there was a chance that your dive operator may not get a permit during your stay.

Obviously every year is different but as cicerone said the latter part of March is far better in the Redang Islands. We were there in 2006 from March 19-25 and the weather was terrific. we had 2 passing showers of 1-2 hours during the 6AM-10PM period. The said at the Berjaya Beach Resort in a Delule Villa. It was equivalent to a 3++star accomodation in the Carribean, in our opinion. the food was included and we were fortunate that the chef they had that season prepared meals that were good not very good but considering where you where we were quite satisfied. We had wanted to go to the Prehentians but the trip was just too long fromn KL so we chartered aboat 1 day for $375USD and a crew of 2 took us diving there in less than 90 minutes. It turned out it was no better than the snorkeling or diving around the Redang islands. The big advantage is you can take Berjaya Air 4 or 5 times a week from the city airport in KL and in 45-50 minutes you are just about at the resort. The RT cost in '06 was $135USD. In KL it is well worth hiring a driver and make a long day trip (10-11 hours) and go to the Cammeron Highlands. In late March/early april it is lovely there or you can rent a car and stay a night if you want. The RT car trip is 5 hours. We have been to KL 2 times and stayed in 3 hotels. The best was the Sheraton-Luxury Collection-not the regular Sheraton. It was nicer than the Ritz or the Westin, in our opinion.We found 3 days ibn and around KL was sufficient. We thought the Genting highlands was not worth the trip and the Bantu caves were just o.k. The chinesetown market and others are worth 1/2 a day unless you want cheap trinkets. Hope some of this helps. Enjoy.

March is the perfect time to go diving in Sabah.

Have you seen CNN's 'Malaysia Truly Asia' ad?

It is shot in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo).

Sabah is where the best scuba diving of Malaysia is: Sipadan of course but also Mabul island a magnet for underwater macro-photographers.

There is still a lot of wildlife there in Sabah (Kinabatangan, Sepilok, Danum Valley, Maliau Basin...).

March is also a good time to go to mainland Malaysia (Tioman, Perhentians). Also the dive sites are not comparable in marine life diversity.

There are cheap flights from KL to Tawau. You then go to Semporna which is the getaway to Mabul Island and Sipadan Island.

Websites with a lot's of infos: www.sipadan.com and www.sabahtourism.com

Cheers!