How to get to the Ferry Terminal in Mersing Johor

Mersing is a small town in Johor. It is actually one of the most visited towns in Johor by local and international tourists as it is the most convenient location for Ferry Terminal that connects to the beautiful Islands of Johor such as Pulau Rawa and Pulao Tioman.

These islands are among the most visited Islands in Johor for Island hopping, snorkeling, diving, kayaking and other water activities especially during the month of January to August of the year.

As a traveler, I have documented a step by step process on how we can connect to this small town to get connected with the ferry services to reach our island destination.

If you are coming from Singapore / JB Sentral:

1. Take any cross-border buses from Singapore to go to First Link (Woodland Checkpoint) to take you to CIQ checkpoint for immigration clearance to enter Malaysia.

2. Right after the immigration clearance, you need to walk for about 10 minutes to the bus bay area at the JB Sentral. You need to cross the bridge but not until to the Shopping Mall (City Square) you need to go down the escalator as shown in the directional signage inside the Link Bridge.

3. Upon reaching JB Sentral, take any local routes such as Causeway Link LM1, CW2, CW1, CWL or JPO1 bus services to connect you to Larkin Bus Terminal. If you took the CW2 or CW1 from Queen Street Singapore or Kranji Singapore respectively, you don’t need to pay your bus fare. By the way, the minimum charge for this trip would be about RM1.50- RM3.00 per person.

4. If you are inside the Larkin Bus Terminal, you need to go to the self-service kiosk machine to buy your ticket going to Mersing. There are diffident bus service operators but for this guide, I will use Causeway Link as my service provider since I took their early morning trip (7:15 am bus service to Mersing). You can book your ticket online or even on the spot. But bear in mind that booking online is much easier as you are already secured with the bus seat.

5. If you already bought your ticket through the Larkin Centralized Ticketing System or online, you need to show your ticket at the counter 14 in exchange for boarding pass.

6. After getting your boarding pass, show it to the officer in charge at the Gate 5 for you to scan to their machine.

7. Then proceed to the bus bay are at Platform 17. The ride between Larkin Bus Terminal and Mersing would be about 2 hours to 2 hours and 20 minutes depending on road condition. The bus service we took was smooth. The aircon of the bus was good and it has good legroom space. It is also equipped with a USB port underneath the bus seat to charge our devices. It’s really convenient.

Upon reaching Mersing, here are the steps we took to reach the Ferry terminal:

Small town of Mersing. Very Peaceful.

1. From the bus terminal, we walked for about 5 minutes or 200 meters via the flyover bridge to get to the other side of the road.

2. Right after the flyover bridge, you must be able to see the KFC building for you to be at the right track.

3. We walked further up for additional 200 meters about 5 minutes until we managed to see the dome-like building for us to book our ferry terminal and the conservation fee required by the authority.

4. After talking our ticket, we went to the other side of the road just about 2 minutes’ walk to exchange our ferry ticket for the boarding pass. You will not be lost since it is very nearby. And there are lot of travelers walking along the area.

5. Then we took the ferry to our island.

This experience was exciting. However, when traveling please bear in mind to bring with you some snacks and extra drinking water as the journey would be a bit tiring but with much fun especially if you are with your friends.

A Glance of the ferries in Mersing, Johor

When coming back from the island, you are advised to proceed at the bus terminal for you to get to the bus to go to Larkin for you to connect to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or just in Johor Bahru. The bus will not pick you at the ferry terminal as these buses are only allowed to wait at the Mersing Bus Terminal.

We need to show our bus ticket to the bus driver before we board the bus. If you haven’t bought the ticket for your bus trip, you can proceed to the one for the agent of the Causeway Link inside the Mersing Bus Terminal.

Other Photo Highlights:

As we lined up to show our bus ticket to the bus driver before we alight the bus.

Small ferries around Mersing Jetty Terminal.

The counter where we have to pay our Marine Conservation Fee before we are allowed to enter the beautiful islands of Mersing.

This is the counter to exchange our ferry ticket to boarding pass before we are allowed to take the Jetty to our desired Island destination.

Inside Larkin Bus Terminal as we wait for the Causeway Link Bus to Mersing.

One of the murals in Mersing which caught my attention as a traveler.