Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Best way to fly to Pulau Perhentian and save you time and energy!

Dah banyak minggu duk survey cara terbaik untuk ke Pulau Perhentian, tapi tak ramai yang berkongsi cara kalau nak menaiki kapal terbang. So, harini aku share pengalaman kitaorang menaiki kapal terbang. The best is to take flight ke Kota Bharu. So, misi pertama untuk ke sana, of course cari package penginapan dan sebagainya. Tapi sebab aku nak pergi semata-mata untuk ambik course open water diving, aku terus minta pihak ocean13scuba settlekan bab transport dari jeti ke pulau dan bab penginapan.

Why flying is the best option to go to Pulau Perhentian

First of all, there is no direct flight to Pulau Perhentian. So, the nearest option is to take a flight to Kota Bharu airport, which is 40-45 minutes to Kuala Besut jetty - the best gateway to Perhentian Island ;)
We opt for flying because, we are short of time and we wanted to save our energy. Travelling by road can be long and tiring, and we have very little time in our hand to waste it on recovering the kepenatan after haha. Flight to KB is only 50 minutes, memang cepat dan mudah.
Kalau nak naik bas pulak, ada budak-budak kecik, takut banyak pulak hal diaorang nanti nak ke tandas dan sebagainya.
Malindo Air sangat selesa dan luas

How to buy cheap flight ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Bharu 

I have used skyscanner to compare ticket prices, and Malindo Air was the winner. But, when booking, I used budgetair.com as it offers the lowest price, and there is no hidden charge (unless if you want to add on stuff like free cancellation or insurance-like).  The flight that we've got is quite cheap, 4 adults and 3 kids, cost us RM 800 to and fro KL-KB. The flight was for Sunday-Khamis (We stayed a night in Besut just to berjalan raya around my mother-in-law's kampung).

We arrived Kota Bharu around 8:30am, we then have some breakfast in the airport lounge area, then only make our way to Jeti Kuala Besut.

From Kota Bahru airport you can easily buy a taxi coupon to Besut Jetty for RM78. Look for the taxi booth near the arrival hall. We were lucky that we find a big taxi that can fit us all, so we only needed one. The journey to jeti Besut took us about 40 minutes.

How to go from Besut Jetty to Perhentian Island

This part was not mine, since it was pre-arranged by ocean13scuba but I will just share our experience. The best part of this arrangement was, only 4 of us are going for the diving trip, but each family brought along their parents, kids, and some siblings too, so we became a big group of maybe 30-ish people, just enough to fit a speed boat!

There are plenty of things you can do while waiting at the jetty. There's food stalls, clean toilet that you can pay even to shower, souvenirs shops and many travel agents that offer over-the-counter deals, so if you don't want to pre-book your boat arrangement, you can also buy it there.

Speed boat ke Pulau Perhentian
From Jeti Kuala Besut, it is about 30 minutes by speed boat to Perhentian Island. We stayed in Shari-la Resort Perhentian Kecil, a very convenient resort as there is a cemented walkway from the jetty all the way to the resort and through their individual chalet too. So you can use the typical roller bag to bring all your stuff over! No sand will be in your way :)

The speed boat that we got was not as luxurious, but it is ok, as long as it takes us safely to Perhentian, and most importantly, FAST! But when returning to Besut, we got a better looking boat, complete with cover, I really don't understand why the big difference :D

Oh yeah, the price is typically the same for any agent, speed boat to and fro will cost you RM70 per adult and RM60 per child.

Mesmerizing view welcoming us upon our arrival

The walkway to Shari-la resort - roller bag friendly

The Shari-la resort entrance

The resort is individual chalet like - complete with air conditioner (suitable for mat-salleh like children of mine haha)


3M enjoying the trip to Pulau Perhentian 


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