Rawa Island Getaway

It’s been a crazy busy year and we needed a vacation to get away and recharge. We were considering Batam or Bintan but finally decided on Rawa Island in Malaysia instead.

Rawa Island is actually just off the coast of Mersing Johor. I really loved our trip to Redang Island many many years ago and hoped that Rawa will provide the same or better experience. The pros are that it is quite exclusive and only a few boats/tourists go there and I love places that are not too crowded and touristy. The con is that it is very expensive. One night is around S$300 for a beachfront villa. We bit the bullet and just booked a 3 day 2 night vacation anyway as it is quite reasonable for a full-board trip. It includes all the meals and also boat transfers from Mersing Jetty to the island.

The waters off Mersing are quite murky but once you are near the island, it starts to turn into a beautiful turquoise colour.

We couldn’t wait to check into our villa and it was not a disappointment at all. The room itself is spacious and clean, and the bathroom is airy and very lovely as well.

What Activities Can You Do On the Island?

There’s all kind of water activities like kayaking and Scuba diving but we picked our favourite which is snorkelling. If you are familiar with snorkeling, you will know that you need calm and clear waters for the best experience and Pulau Rawa seems to offer that.

You can rent a life vest if you are not a confident swimmer (like me) but you don’t have to swim far out to see fishes. There are tons of them swimming around the pier.

There are 2 fun water slides for children (or adults who behave like children) which can be used during high tides.

Other than swimming and sunbathing or playing on the beach, you can also walk along the island trails which lead into jungle. And as with most resorts, there’s also a spa and a tennis court and billiard and pool tables.

Unfortunately the coral reefs here are dismal. We had to swim very far out to see some purple coral but it is still very sad and miles apart from the beautiful coral reefs at Redang or Bali.

Importance of Reef Safe Sunscreen

Which brings me to my point. For our beach or seaside vacations, I always only use a proven reef safe mineral sunscreen that does not contain oxybenzone, avobenzone and octixinate. 100% mineral actives is the best. My preferred go-to brand is Stream2Sea and my current favourite is the Every Day Mineral Sunscreen which is easy to apply and lightweight and sheer and I don’t look too white even with my yellow-toned Asian skin. You can get this brand from iHerb.com or Amazon. This post is not sponsored by them but I wanted to raise awareness that sometimes the sunscreen we use might not be good for the environment and might even be killing the precious corals so we should do our part to protect the fragile ocean ecosystem.

Ok, Back to Activities

There is enough to keep us entertained for the whole time we were there and luckily not too much so we had a lot of time to chill and relax as well. Our day starts early and we go swimming/snorkeling after a light breakfast in the morning before the sun becomes too hot.

The afternoons are really hot so we just lounged around in the hall playing billiards or in our room. It was entertaining to see the peacocks and peahens just roaming around and even using our deck to get away from the afternoon heat.

When the sun is finally going down at around 5pm, that’s when we will go out and swim for 1-2hrs before coming back for dinner.

At night, we took a stroll around the island path to walk off our dinner. It was well-lit and an easy walk.

Honourable Mention: Dining

As I already mentioned, since this is a full-board trip, there are meals provided the whole day so you’ll never go hungry. And the food is GOOD. There’s a huge variety of dishes, Malay, Western, Chinese food and also vegetarian options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. On the 2nd night of the weekend we were there, there was even a BBQ dinner with hot mouthwatering satays and grilled meats.

Dining at Rawa Island Resort was truly not a disappointment.

Final Thoughts

I’m glad we chose to go Rawa instead of Batam and Bintan. The island is beautiful, the beaches and clean and sand is soft, and the sea is a lovely colour. Due to climate change and warming seas, that affected the coral so the underwater landscape isn’t the best, but it is still a lovely island resort destination. Best of all, it is so accessible from Singapore. It provided all the relaxation and rejuvenation we desperately needed.