Monkey Beach

A beach with a few food/beverage huts. The views are nice and there's cheeky monkeys to watch out for but it's so covered in litter that washing up it's not a nice environment to sit in, feel very sorry for the animals that call it home. The sea looked dirty so we avoided go for a swim. Only cool thing was watching the sea eagles gliding around.

I have to concur with other comments I have seen about this place. The beach has some really fine, appealing sand and I enjoyed being able to photograph butterflies from close. However selling food there is probably not a great idea and there is little to see. Only deserves a short stopover. We couldn't enter the National Park and have no idea whether it can be visited.

Monkey Beach is probably one of the best examples for the problems the COVID pandemic caused for the local tourism industry. And I hope I can correct the record a bit, as this beach is probably one of the best on Penang island. My partner and I decided to hike to monkey beach thinking it would be a nice and easy trip of about 90 Minutes. The first leg of the journey towards the university research center is indeed that, although one has to watch out for some broken stairs here and there. What the guard at the entrance failed to tell us however, was that on the second part of the journey, the path had not been maintained (see pictures below). This meant we had to search for the old trail because there was no indication where it had been previously, until we found the ruins of the old concrete path. From the beach with the research station, there are no further indicators until you are well into the jungle, so if you decide to hike there, be advised you are in for an adventure, that not everyone is cut out for (I certainly wasn't). We took about 3 hours from the entrance to the beach for a trail that would usually take 90 Minutes if it had been maintained. The delapifated state of the trail also means, one has to be very careful not to get hurt as there are broken steel pipes, crumbling concrete and rotting wood everywhere. If one loves adventures, and is well prepared (mentally and physically) the hike is a lot of fun nonetheless, with great chances to see the local wildlife. The beach itself is only a husk of its former glory, but the people do their best to re-build it and provide some basic refreshments and food. It's a pleasant place, with nice people and when we were there the beach was as clean as can be expected from a beach which borders the straits of Malacca. On the way back we decided to take the speed boat, which was a fun and very fast ride, although not inexpensive. Overall, a nice day trip although the hike is not recommended if you are planning to go onwards to other places in the national park. In which case the speed boat to monkey beach and a hike onwards might be the better choice.

Went there by a boat for about 10-15 minutes and paid for $300 for 5 pax, consists of my family. The beach is quite clean except for rubbish here and there. Saw a monkey drinking a can of tiger beer 😂. Lots of abandoned structures. There is atv to rent. But nothing much to do but just walk on the beach.

So much rubbish on the beach it was quite disgraceful. Not much there besides a couple of places to eat, a few monkeys wandering around. Quite a nice little beach despite the garbage… We paid for a boat to take us there which was about ten minutes each way. We were glad we didn’t hike there as it would have been disappointing to waste so much time for such an average destination.

Don’t waste time, just enjoy the food in George Town. The jetty (from nature reserve park) is very run down and poorly maintained. Dangerous spot, local authorities to keep check. Many steel structures having serious corrosion and I think it’s just a time-bomb!!!

The beach is pretty meh, and very sad to see trash being thrown everywhere, even from the restaurants on the beach. The beach being next to the national park (technically not _in_ the national par) just makes it all the sadder.

The seawater was very murky, and there was trash everywhere. Honestly, I expected better.