Close your eyes and think of a place where you’d love to be right now. Is it a white-sand beach with crystal clear water? Are you seeing yourself lying in a hammock with the perfect view of the beach and ocean? No tourist crowds? Then I found the place you really want to be: The Flora Bay Resort & Dive Shop on Pulau Perhentian Besar in Malaysia!
If you follow me for a while now, you should know that I am a little obsessed with beautiful islands. The big Perhentian island in the North-East of Malaysia is definitely a perfect place to relax.
You should also know that I am against big corporations and resorts. Although the Flora Bay Resort has this “bad word” in the name, it is far from a big chain. No high raised building, no all-inclusive holiday, or hotel complex that you wouldn’t leave because it’s like a little city. The Flora Bay Resort is a local hotel that will give you the opportunity to enjoy this gorgeous paradise to the fullest.
How to get there
You can, for example, take a bus from Kuala Lumpur or Penang to Kuala Besut Jetty, or fly to Kota Bharu and take a taxi to Kuala Besut. Here are some other options to get there.
Once you are at the jetty (ferry port) in Kuala Besut, you head over to the Flora Bay office. They will kindly welcome you and take care of you from now on. I loved how they handled the whole procedure. They will bring you to the beach of your hotel safe and sound.
One tip: Always go in the mornings as the sea tends to get a little rougher in the afternoon – so you will get wet on the boat, or soaking wet like me.
They even have a transit center at Kuala Besut, where you can take a shower and get some rest if you have to wait for the bus or flight. We found this extremely helpful and convenient because we had to wait for around 5 hours. The man even gave us a ride to the bus terminal.
Arriving at Flora Bay Resort
Once you get dropped off at the beach. You can walk over to the reception of the resort. The team of the Flora Bay was extremely welcoming and has taken care of everything already. Although we arrived in the morning (around 9 am), we were able to check into our room.
Rooms at Flora Bay Resort
The room we had – Garden View Terrace – was spacious and clean. It had all necessities you’d need: Towels, mini fridge, water supplies, AC and ceiling fan, hot shower, and toiletries. It is pretty basic but affordable for this island. Therefore it is perfect.
The Flora Bay Resort has many different room types, even sea view bungalows.
However, the main reason why you’d come to an island isn’t the room. You are there for exploring and enjoying the gorgeous beaches.
The Flora Bay Resort is directly at the beach. You don’t have to walk far for swimming in the crystal clear water or chilling in one of the numerous hammocks along the beach.
Peaceful beach cove
The Tuluk Dalam beach is a peaceful and unspoiled place. It is the perfect paradise for people who want to disconnect from the world and just relax. You will not have cell phone service and you will not see tourist crowds. You will definitely find your peace here.
Diving and snorkeling all day long
People come to the island to swim, snorkel and dive. The best thing is that you don’t have to go far.
The Flora Bay Resort also has a dive shop, where I felt comfortable right away. The staff was friendly and very professional. They were always available and open for a chat. They even started conversations when they saw us somewhere at the beach. It gave us a very welcoming feeling. I’d definitely go back to the Florabay Divers again!
We have been on two dives: T3 and Kapal Polis (police shipwreck). I have to say I liked the second one more as it featured a lot of different fish species inside and outside the wrecks. It was a lot of fun exploring the three wrecks.
The T3 is interesting because of its architecture. You will swim through canyons between huge rocks, see lots of coral, fish and swim through some “rock windows”. It’s a great adventure and I believe it’s even better if the visibility is more than 5m. We were a little unlucky, but we also chose to go right after the rain season. So it’s our fault.
At the dive shop, you can also rent snorkeling gear and swim out to the Sharks Point. If you are lucky, you’ll be able to see sharks from the water surface at high tide.
Water taxi
You can reach other beaches, snorkel spots, and coves by using the water taxi from Flora Bay Resort. There are no streets on the island, so you have no other choice. Well, there are two hiking trails that lead to the other side of the island. However, the water taxi is the most common and fastest way.
I can highly recommend Flora Bay Resort as a place to stay because it will reconnect you to nature and to yourself as you don’t have anything else to worry about. Your phone won’t work and the WiFi is only free at the dive shop (you have to pay for Wi-Fi at the resort).
You can book your room on the website of Flora Bay Resort and ask any questions if you have any: florabayresort.com.
If you feel more comfortable by booking through Booking.com: Here the link.
The Flora Bay Resort sponsored this article. However, it didn’t influence my opinion at all.
