From Tawau to Semprona.  
You can take a taxi or bus from Tawau to Semprona town, it will take less than 2 hour to reach the town. , Most of the island resorts in the North of Sabah will depart from this small town, you can find out the semprona street map on our site. If you main objective is to go to Sipadan Island and you could not get your resort accommodation on your dream Island, you can always get your second alternative such as Mabul Island, Mataking Island or Kapalai Island. As all these resort can always arrange a boat tour to Sipadan Island for diving and other activities. . It is worth saying that most of the coral garden and marine life there is well preserved as compare to the other part of Sabah Borneo. This because these are less frequent visited area in this region. More than 3,000 species of fish and hundreds of coral species have been classified in this richest of ecosystem.   
  
Mabul Island, there are two resort operators in the island. You can choose to stay in the Floating resort of Sipadan water village or Smart resort with a very nice beach on the island. You can do all kind of water activity that you wish there, or just lying on the sand. As usual diving and snorkeling gears is available for rent in both resort in Sipadan Island     

Mataking Island  
If you wish to visit Mataking Island, you can check in to The Reef Dive Resort, the only resort in the island. This is the newest dive spot in the Celebes Sea, located just 40 minutes from Semporna, The resort provide luxurious accommodation to the enchanting undersea world of Mataking Island. The Alice Channel which is about 100 meters deep connecting Mataking to Sipadan Island just 60 minutes boat ride away.   
  
Kapalai Island is only a sandbank with a resort built on stilts over the island. Check in to Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort, experience the comfort of stylish floating water village with no land in sight, the depth of this site ranges from 15 to 20 metres, sloping to a sandy bottom. Divers can observe stonefish, frogfish, gobies, leaf fish, ghost pipe fish, nudibranchs and mandarin fish (Synchiropus Splendidus).   
  
Sipadan island, need no introduction, Praised by the internationally renowned oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau as one of the best diving spots in the world, it is unique as the only oceanic island in Malaysia. Its geographic position puts Sipadan in the centre of the richest marine habitat in the world, the heart of the Indo-Pacific basin. Sipadan rises 600m from the seabed to provide spectacular wall dives and underwater garden

....Next : How to explore Tawau and her neighbouring attractions (Part 2)