Cameron Highlands to Pulau Perhentian via Kuala Besut - Bus & Boat

When we arrived in the Cameron Highlands (Tanah Rata), we decided to book our bus tickets to leave in 2 days time for Pulau Perhentian Islands. We were offered tickets to go with CS Travel again and thought it would be a safe bet. It costs 125RM which includes boat tickets from Kuala Besut or in our case 75RM as we already had boat tickets through our dive company. We were told it would take about five hours which was no problem.

We walked over to CS Travel office on the main road at Tanah Rata at 7.45am to wait for our minibus leaving at 8am. A lady turned up 5 minutes later to open up the office and never said a word to us. Even after 30 minutes, she still sat there and didn't even seem to notice us. We had previously read that the lady working here was useless. Well around 8.20am, a man came over to say our minibus was leaving from around the corner so we followed him. 

Waiting around for the minibus!

We ended up at TJ Travel office with another couple heading the same way and 5 minutes later, two more passengers turned up. I presume not many people booked onto this journey so they joined companies up which surely the lady at CS could of mentioned! No worries however everyone at this office disappeared and we were left sitting there for a while too. Finally the minibus turned up not long before 9 and we loaded up.

This minibus had plenty of room as only 6 of us were on it and we sat back and relaxed. We were on the road for about 1 hour 45 minutes before the driver stopped at a service station for a toilet break, everything normal. However 10 minutes later we pulled into another garage at Kuala Lipis and the driver said we would wait here for another minibus to pick us up. That was the first we heard of changing minibuses, nobody back at the offices or when booking the tickets mentioned this. So we waited here for nearly 45 minutes.

Eventually the next minibus picked us up already half full and we squeezed in. This driver was much more adventurous and didn't hang around! After about an hour, we stopped again at a closed restaurant with a seating area. They said nothing to us and someone asked how long we were stopping for, and yes... he said we were changing buses again.

We sat there until around 1.15pm with nowhere to get food. We were getting hungry like the others who had left at 8.30am that morning. Then a coach pulled in and unloaded with people coming from Kuala Besut. We then boarded this coach and set off for Kuala Besut.

This bit of the journey took around 3/3.5 hours with a short stop in the middle. It was a relief to finally get going and to not keep on stopping! Beware that the drivers happily smoke on the bus so it may be better sitting further back.

When we pulled into Kuala Besut, they took us to their own ticket office to buy boat tickets if we didn't have any. As far as I'm aware return tickets cost 75RM in general so you won't get them any cheaper elsewhere. We had to pick ours up from a different office and left the bus.

At about half 5, we finally made our way to the jetty and got onto a speedboat. It said a maximum of 12 people however there was double that plus luggage! We put life jackets on and set off for Pulau Perhentian Kecil. Wow, the speedboat is quick and bumpy- loads of fun! We then got dropped off on Long Beach around 6.15pm.

A very long day of travel that should of been much quicker! I think this is the only way to travel from the Cameron Highlands to Pulau Perhentian so be warned and maybe look at your travel routes!

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