This island is so tiny till you can easily walk circling it in only about 20 minutes. The land - across all the village - is mostly covered by white soft sand, just like on the beach. Fresh water is also abundant since the locals state that they need only to dig around 1.5m - 2m to get an unlimited supplies of water. This perhaps is another reason why Derawan becomes dense in population.

The easiest & perhaps the cheapest way to reach Derawan is by going from Tanjung Batu. There is a regular speedboat from both ports which will cost you around 100k for one trip / person with 15 minutes sail distance. More details about how to get here will be provided in the last page of this destination slide. 

 

Actually you can also find that some visitors, especially for them who came in a group, would reach Derawan via Tarakan. Well, basically this option is not feasible for them who do solo traveling since the only way to get here from Tarakan Port is by chartering speedboat. The sail distance is varied around 2 - 3 hours so the price will be much more expensive. This option is made available due to there is a cheaper direct flight from Jakarta - Tarakan & certainly you can afford this economically if you have sufficient persons in your group that will share the cost. Or you may take longer land + river trip from Tarakan to Tanjung Batu via Tanjung Selor if you insist to take that cheap direct flight. This will be explained more on the last page as well :)

Rise Up! - Heading east close to Derawan Resort for getting the best view of sunrise on Derawan Island

This is a typical environment of Derawan Village. White sand all over the place!

Going there and around..

Around mid-day (during low tide), get a small boat for about IDR 150k to transfer you to Gusung Island back & forth. The island consists of white sand which will only appear to the surface during low tide. The scene is quite dramatic and very suitable for you to add some collections on your selfie album. Let the world know that you are having a holiday!!

By the way, my Teddy loves to be there.

 

Still during the afternoon, I also love to walk around the beaches just to see the excitement of the local kids while playing in the low-tide seashore. The atmosphere is like watching the people that walks on the water surface. Yeah, it's like that I just saw Jesus!

 

Another attraction point is just heading to Derawan Dive Resort (they call it BMI, but I don't know & I'm too lazy to google it what BMI stands for) then have some snorekling there. The resort view is great and of course, it's a bit pricey compared to others. Unless you just have married or just in the first 1 or 2 months of a relationship with your girlfriend, or, you are a kind of men that are afraid of their wives, I better stay in other cheaper homestay. But still, price does not lie - period.