Kukup Fishing Village

Kukup Fishing Village, or Kukup Laut, is a fishing community in the Pontian district of Johor.

This quaint village is built on stilts above the muddy mangrove shoreline and has been in existence for more than 100 years.

Together with the neighbouring area called Air Masin, the settlement is home to a population of 1400 people, nearly all Chinese, and mostly engaged in fishing and catering for tourists.

At weekends and holidays, the population is boosted by hordes of tourists from other parts of Malaysia and from nearby Singapore who come to savour the fresh seafood, stay in one of the holiday chalets and soak up the relaxed seaside atmosphere.

If you have been to Crab Island (Pulau Ketam) near Klang and you enjoyed it then you will probably like Kukup too.

You can walk around the village on the wooden or concrete boardwalks built on stilts above the mud and water. The villagers have everything they need such as schools, temples, shops and restaurants.

Those restaurants near the international ferry terminal are the biggest and busiest, serving a full variety of seafood dishes at reasonable prices. There are also shops here selling dried fish products like keropok and belacan.

There are scores of floating fish farms in the channel between Kukup Laut and Pulau Kukup. Visitors can take a boat tour to visit these fish farms, or kelongs, and take a closer look at the various species of sea creatures being cultivated here. The kelong boat tour costs RM10.

Pulau Kukup is a protected uninhabited nature reserve covered in dense mangrove forest. It is possible to visit and there is a boardwalk with view towers.

How to Get To Kukup Fishing Village

The location is marked on the map on my Top Johor Attractions page.

Unlike Crab Island, you do not need to take a ferry to get there as it is located on the mainland of Peninsular Malaysia.

There is no parking in the heart of the village but as you approach the outskirts you will see some large secured car parks where you can leave your vehicle for a few Ringgit per day. Some of these car parks have a free shuttle service to bring you from the car park to the town centre in front of the ferry terminal.

The ferry terminal by the way links Kukup to Tanjung Balai in the Riau province of Indonesia. The ferry runs hourly and takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes and tickets cost IDR130,000 one way plus Terminal fee of IDR30,000.