Kuala Terengganu to Kuala Besut

The next day, we checked out of our hotel and started our journey to Kuala Besut at around 9:30 am. We took route 3, which is basically a 2-lane federal road with a 90 km/h speed limit.

Traffic wasn't as heavy as route 14 from Jabor to Kuala Terengganu, and the signs were adequate to guide us to Kuala Besut (just look for route 3 to Jerteh/Kota Baru). We were planning to take route 3, then connect to route 84:

but somewhere along the way, there was this little signboard that pointed the way to the Kuala Besut jetty (something like 'Perhentian Jeti Kuala Besut 23 km') at a junction to the right. Since we didn't know better, we followed that road and ended up driving through some kampongs, but fortunately, the signboards lead us to Kuala Besut anyway. If you see that sign, don't panic. Just drive on straight, and eventually, you'll hit route 84 on your right. There's a huge mosque at that junction.

At the jetty area, the shops and terminals are on the northern side of the river, so after you cross the bridge, turn right into Jalan Masjid.

We parked at the overnight car park located at the end of the lane that had Sakura Restaurant at the corner. We then looked for our tour agent, a nice gentleman named Mr Ong, who owns Lovely Travel and Tours, and paid our holiday package fees.

and got loaded with a life jacket, snorkeling mask and 3 bottles of mineral water each!

We then made our way to the marina, paid our marine park fees (RM5/- per adult), and got onto our boat. I know nuts about boats, but ours was doing like 5.5 knots (I think) and basically overtaking every other boat in sight. We had 6 adults (including the boat driver) and 4 kids in the boat, and reached Pulau Perhentian Besar in 25 minutes. Much faster than the 1 hour my friends were telling me about.