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All lengths with peak and off-peak pricing.
See ratesA four-day package contains two full diving days. Understanding what each itinerary actually delivers is the difference between booking the right length and regretting it from the boat.
Every package on Mabul runs the same skeleton. Arrival day is a check dive on the house reef and nothing more — boats have already gone. Departure day has no diving at all, because of the 24-hour no-fly rule out of Tawau. Everything in between is three guided boat dives a day, plus unlimited unguided house reef diving.
Your Sipadan day sits inside that. It replaces a normal diving day: an early departure around 06:00, two boat dives at Sipadan, one at Mabul on the way back, and you are ashore by roughly 13:00.
So a 4D3N package is not four days of diving. It is two full diving days, one of which is your Sipadan day. That arithmetic is why length matters more than any other booking decision.
Dive counts are in flux. Sipadan was capped at two dives per day from 2022, with operators reporting a return to three from May 2026. Where the itineraries below say two, confirm the current allowance for your dates at booking.
Boat from Semporna at 10:00 or 12:30, check in 15:00, house reef check dive. No boat dives.
Three guided boat dives at 08:30, 10:30, 14:00. House reef available after. Night dive optional.
06:00 departure. Two dives at Sipadan, one at Mabul on return. Ashore by 13:00, afternoon free.
Check out 10:00, boat 11:00 or 13:30. No diving. Flight from Tawau after 16:00.
Six boat dives, one Sipadan day. Works if leave is short or Sipadan is one stop on a wider Borneo trip. The risk is concentration — if weather cancels your single Sipadan day, there is no second chance and no refund of the permit.
Arrival, check in, house reef check dive.
Three guided boat dives daily. Enough time to work the house reef properly — mandarinfish at dusk, night dive for the macro.
Early departure, two Sipadan dives plus one at Mabul. Back by 13:00.
Check out, transfer, afternoon flight. No diving.
Nine boat dives, one Sipadan day. The most booked package and the sensible default for a first trip. The extra day buys slack — if weather moves your Sipadan day, there is somewhere for it to go.
Arrival, check in, house reef check dive.
Three guided boat dives daily plus house reef.
First permit day. Two Sipadan dives plus one at Mabul.
Second permit day, often on different sites depending on tide. This is where you get the dives you actually came for.
Check out, transfer, afternoon flight.
Twelve boat dives, two Sipadan days. If Sipadan is the reason for the trip, this is the one. The jump from RM4,870 to RM6,550 buys a second permit day — the single most expensive thing to add later and the thing divers most often say they wish they had booked.
The honest version of the upsell: one Sipadan day is a sample. Two is a trip. Divers who fly from Europe for a single permit day almost always regret it, and permit days cannot be bought on arrival.
Open Water divers need Advanced before Sipadan. The course takes two diving days, so it only fits on 5D4N or 6D5N — and on 5D4N it consumes both your non-Sipadan days. On 6D5N it works comfortably: certify on days 2 and 3, dive Sipadan on days 4 and 5. See diving requirements.
Snorkelling packages run the same boats and the same schedule, including Sipadan permit days. Mixed groups travel together throughout — see Sipadan snorkelling.
Sipadan combines naturally with Sandakan and the Kinabatangan, or with Mount Kinabalu via Kota Kinabalu. Build the dive segment first and fit land travel around it, because permit days are fixed and orangutans are not.
Not optional in practice. Resort boats leave Semporna at 10:00 and 12:30 and few flights connect in time. Budget a night at each end unless your flights genuinely align — see how to get to Sipadan.
Five nights is the point where the trip stops feeling rushed, because 6D5N carries two Sipadan days. A 4D3N package gives you six boat dives and a single permit day.
Six on 4D3N, nine on 5D4N, twelve on 6D5N, plus unlimited unguided house reef diving. Arrival and departure days carry no boat dives.
Only a house reef check dive. Boat dives run at 08:30, 10:30 and 14:00 and have gone before the 15:00 check-in.
No. The 24-hour no-fly rule applies and resorts do not permit it. Book flights out of Tawau after 16:00.
Yes, on a 6D5N package. The course takes two diving days, leaving both permit days intact. On shorter packages it consumes the diving you came for.
Operators reassign where they can, but permits are date-specific and allocations are full. On a 4D3N package there is often nowhere to move it, which is the main argument for booking longer.
Send us how many days you have and your certification level, and we will map the trip that actually fits.
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