Pulau Tenggol Scuba Diving

Pulau Tenggol has long been a gem amongst diving enthusiasts in Peninsula Malaysia (West Malaysia). The island is off the eastern coast of Terengganu state and is the southernmost island in a string that includes Pulau Perhentian and the famed Pulau Redang. Join us while we embark on a scuba diving trip to Pulau Tenggol!

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Pulau Tenggol

Up until recent years, Pulau Tenggol is an uninhabited island off the coast of Kuala Dungun. Pulau Tenggol has since become a private island with two independently operated resorts which are located in a small bay in the eastern part of the island.

Other than the two resorts, there are no other commercial/civilian entities and activities on the island. Unsurprisingly, the main activity on the island is water-based (i.e. scuba diving and snorkelling).

Scuba diving and snorkelling are the two main activities on Pulau Tenggol

Resorts on Pulau Tenggol

The two resorts are:

Tenggol Coral Beach Resort.
Tenggol Island Beach Resort.

Both resorts offer relatively simple accommodation options and are all-inclusive (since there are no other amenities on the island).

Mobile network on the island is essentially nil. Thus, visitors have to purchase wifi access from their respective resorts.

Kuala Dungun

Access to Pulau Tenggol is solely by boat (approximately 45 minutes) from Kuala Dungun. Both resorts operate their respective daily boat service from Dungun.

For Tenggol Coral Beach Resort, their daily boat service departs from the jetty of Riverbank Dungun Guesthouse & Café. Thus, many visitors spend a night at the guesthouse before catching the boat service the next morning. The guesthouse offers basic accommodation. Visitors driving to Dungun can park (secured parking) their car at the guesthouse (for a daily fee) while travelling to Pulau Tenggol.

As a town, Dungun used to be a port serving an inland iron mining town. Iron mining was done in the area from the 1940s up till the 1980s. Nowadays, Dungun is a sleepy coastal town devoid of much commercial/tourist activities.

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Scuba Diving at Pulau Tenggol

For our trip, we opted to stay at the larger and more popular Tenggol Coral Beach Resort.

The weather was unfortunately cloudy during the first two days of our 4D3N trip. Luckily, the sky started to clear up on our last day of diving and we finally saw something SPECIAL on the 8th and FINAL dive of the trip. We were rewarded with a majestic sight of about 20 humphead parrotfish! The trip was not in vain after all.

Initially, we just saw one popping back to the left of the coral. Then we saw a second on the top of the coral. Two was already exciting enough until we turned the corner and saw the whole gang at the back! (see video below)

What a sight!

This is why you go diving. Period.

Date visited: Jul-2022