"Get, set, go to Tioman Islands" Pulau Tioman by bkarjee

Tioman islands is the largest island (roughly 1/3rd the size of Singapore) in the archipelago on the east coast of Malaysia, close to the border of Johor and Pahang state. The island itself is a part of Pahang state but the approach Jetty town (Mersing) is located in Johor state. Mersing is small town which serves as a jetty for visiting these islands like Tioman, Rawas, Tinggi.
At Mersing Jetty, ferries are available for Tioman almost every hour and return fares are around RM-80-90, depending on whether you take fast boats or normal ferries. The travel time is 90 mts with fast boats and these boats can easily seat around 30 persons. The normal ferries charge around RM 75 for return fare and take around 3 hrs to cover one way distance. Tioman can also be approached from Tanjong Gemas jetty, which is further up from Mersing. But ferry services from Mersing is more regular.
Tioman island is a pear shaped island and the western coast of this island is more popular with tourists. Most of the resorts are located in the western part, including the five star resort ‘Berjaya’.

Blue sky, bue water at Coral Islands (Tioman Is)

We stayed in Juara Beach resort, run by a Malaysian (Chinese) guy called Stiven. The resort is located very close to Juara beach jetty. The Juara beach is perhaps the best beach in Tioman because there are no rocks, the sand is white and fine. The slope is very gradual and very safe, especially for the kids. The beach is roughly a km long and is very broad. Water is very clean and transparent. You can easily see the bottom. There are no stingers or Jelly fishes in this part of the beach. This beach is the only beach that is located on the eastern side of the island. The beach is very secluded and there is a small village of around 500 people (Juara Village) nearby. The people are very friendly here. I did read some negative review of people of this village in one of the VT Reviews, but I didn’t encounter any such incident. There is a shop near the jetty, where you can get the day to day use items at a very nominal price. Next to it is a small restaurant, where the food is very cheap. They serve Malay, Chinese and western food.
Apart from Juara Beach resort, there are couple of other (at least 2) beach resorts at Juara.

Juara beach resort

Juara beach resort is run by a Malaysian Chinese gentleman Steivan, who has an experience of 15 years working for another resort in Tioman island. The Juara Beach resort is small, with 6 chalets in two rows. Each chalet has two independent rooms with attached bathroom and each of these rooms can easily accommodate 4 adults. The resort manager Joanne will take care of all the needs. The total package includes 2 night accommodation, two breakfasts, one packed lunch, two dinners (including one BBQ dinner), to and fro ferry transfer from Mersing to Tioman and back, jetty to resort transfer of luggage, one island hopping tour and a training session for snorkeling session. The 3 day 2 night package cost during the weekend was RM 300 per adult and RM 210 for child between 3-12 years.
Each room has two queen size beds that can easily accommodate 4 adults. The room size is quite big, and all the rooms have AC. There is also a TV (we never switched it on) and Tea/coffee making facility. The chalets are completely made of wooden planks and hence if somebody walks in the adjoining room, you can feel the vibrations. Since there is thick vegetation all around the resort, there are a lot of insects. Sand flies also do give occasional trouble. We used skin oil to keep the flies away, but we still did get some bites but they were not so painful.
The rooms are not sea facing, but they are almost on the beach. It will take less than a minute to reach the beach. Since the number of rooms available are less (12), advance notice is required for booking.
Joanne’s phone number is +60 9 4193188 and her e mail id is 'joannefoo99@yahoo.com.sg'.
Stivens phone number is and his e mail id is 'chengfs@tm.net.my'