Port Dickson

Port Dickson is the closest coastline to Kuala Lumpur that is reachable in about ninety minutes, and that single fact explains the place: a strip of about eighteen kilometres of beach along the Malacca Strait, numbered by the old mile markers, lined with hotels, apartment blocks, chalets and seafood restaurants, filled at weekends by families from the capital. The honest assessment is that the beaches are ordinary - the Strait is shallow and silty, the sand is coarse and brown, and the water is not clear - and that people come for proximity rather than quality. Blue Lagoon at the southern end is generally rated the best stretch. Beyond the beach there are the Cape Rachado lighthouse and forest, an army museum, a stilt village and ostrich and goat farms.

History

The place once produced charcoal and was called Arang, Malay for charcoal. Tin in nearby Lukut drew Chinese miners in the 1820s, and the British developed a small port here, named after the officer in charge, Dickson (Wikipedia, Port Dickson).

Highlights

• Eighteen kilometres of beach - marked by the old mile numbers along the road.
• Blue Lagoon - the cleaner stretch at the southern end.
• Cape Rachado - the lighthouse headland and its forest above the Strait.
• Weekend crowds - families down from Kuala Lumpur filling the strip.

When to go

All year; weekdays for space. A day, or overnight.

Practical notes

The water is silty and the sand coarse - this is not a tropical postcard beach. Weekends are crowded and litter is a problem. Accommodation quality varies wildly along the strip.

Nearby

Cape Rachado is south; Seremban and Malacca are inland and down the coast.