Sandakan Travel Guide for Malaysians 2026

On this page13 sections

Overview
Getting there from KL: flights, terminals and fares
Sandakan Airport to town: Grab, taxi or lodge pickup
Where to stay in and around Sandakan
Things to do in Sandakan
What to eat in Sandakan
Halal food, mosques and prayer times
Getting around Sandakan: buses, Grab, taxis and cars
Sample 4-day Sandakan itinerary
Money, SIM and practical tips for Sandakan
Kinabatangan River and Gomantong Caves
Before you go
FAQ

Sandakan was once the capital of British North Borneo, and today it is the gateway to Sabah's best-known wildlife: orangutans at Sepilok, sun bears next door, proboscis monkeys at Labuk Bay, turtles nesting on Selingan and pygmy elephants along the Kinabatangan. The town is small and unhurried, with a harbour front, wartime history and superb seafood. For Peninsular Malaysians it is a domestic trip with one twist: no passport, but an immigration check with your MyKad on landing. Below: flights from KLIA, the ride in from the airport, where to base yourself, MyKad entry rates, halal food and mosques, and costs in ringgit.

Getting there from KL: flights, terminals and fares

Sandakan is on Borneo's east coast, so from the Peninsula you fly. At the time of writing two airlines run non-stop from KLIA: AirAsia from Terminal 2 (three flights a day in late September 2026) and Malaysia Airlines from Terminal 1 (one or two a day). Scheduled gate-to-gate time is about 2 hours 50 minutes. Batik Air launched a KLIA service in December 2024, but flight schedules for late September 2026 show no Batik departures, so do not plan around it. Flight trackers show no Subang departures either.

At the time of writing, Amaboxly's KL fare scan (19 one-way fares, updated 22 September 2026) starts at about RM 209 one-way, an AirAsia non-stop seat on a late-February 2027 date. The median is about RM 270 and the highest fare seen was about RM 389. Both AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines appeared in the scan. Subsidised festive fares ran for Chinese New Year and Hari Raya 2026 (AirAsia sold KL to Sandakan at RM 398 one-way, all in), so watch for a repeat before the next festive season.

No train, bus or ferry links the Peninsula with Sabah. If Sandakan fares look steep, fly to Kota Kinabalu, which has many more departures, then:

Hop across: AirAsia flies Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan several times a day, about 45 minutes gate to gate.
Take the express bus from Inanam (North) terminal: about 6 to 7 hours, roughly RM 40 to RM 50, bought at the terminal on the day.
Drive about 300 km via Kundasang, Ranau and Telupid. Refuel in Ranau and skip night driving on the rural stretch.

Sandakan Airport to town: Grab, taxi or lodge pickup

Sandakan Airport (SDK) is a compact airport about 13 to 14 km west of the town centre, roughly half an hour by road. It sits on the Sepilok side of the city, which helps if you start with the wildlife. Fares below are indicative.

Grab: available, but with far fewer drivers than KK, so waits of 15 to 30 minutes happen. The app shows the fare before you book. For scale, the longer ride from town out to Sepilok costs about RM 25.
Taxi: most cabs quote a flat price instead of using a meter, so agree it before loading bags. Expect to pay more than Grab.
Lodge or tour pickup: many Sepilok lodges and most Kinabatangan and Selingan packages include airport transfers, and Labuk Bay arranges pickups from Sandakan too. The easy choice with kids and suitcases.
Hire car: sensible if you will drive to Gomantong or the Kinabatangan. Book ahead.
Local buses and vans: they serve the airport road but are awkward with luggage.

Landing on a morning flight with a Sepilok booking? Go straight there, since the orangutan centre is about 23 km from town and you avoid a round trip through the centre.

Where to stay in and around Sandakan

Most visitors split their nights between town and Sepilok.

Town centre and waterfront: the grid around Harbour Square, the Central Market and the jetty. Walkable, near the Heritage Trail, with the widest range of budget and mid-range rooms. Best without a car.
Mile 4 (Bandar Indah and Bandar Kim Fung): the commercial belt a few kilometres inland, with bakeries, seafood restaurants and a spread of hotels. Suits families with a hire car.
Sepilok (Batu 14): lodges and guesthouses within walking distance of the orangutan, sun bear and rainforest centres. Ideal for early feedings and the night walk, though evenings are quiet and you usually eat where you sleep.
Kinabatangan (Sukau, Bilit or Abai): riverside lodges roughly 1.5 to 2 hours away by road or boat, normally sold as packages with meals, cruises and transfers. Allow two nights.

For turtles, Selingan is the only island in the park with overnight chalets, and nights there are sold through operator packages rather than booked directly.

Things to do in Sandakan

MyKad rates make Sandakan's wildlife centres cheap for Malaysians. Prices below are for Malaysian adults at the time of writing.

Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre: running since 1964, with feedings at 10am and 3pm. Entry RM 5. Closed 12pm to 2pm, and Friday mornings end at 11am. In fruiting season the orangutans may not show up.
Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre: next door, RM 10, open daily 9am to 3.30pm, with an observation platform and bear talks.
Rainforest Discovery Centre: a 620 m canopy walkway, the longest in Sabah. RM 7, and reportedly cash only. Its guided night walk (book ahead) is the best bet for tarsiers and slow lorises.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary: feeding platforms off Jalan Labuk, at 9.30am and 2.30pm (Platform A) and 11.30am and 4.30pm (Platform B).
Turtle Islands Park (Selingan): watch green or hawksbill turtles nest after dark. RM 20 park fee plus the operator package.
Sandakan Memorial Park: free, about 11 km from town on the site of the WWII prisoner of war camp where the Borneo Death Marches began.
Agnes Keith House: a colonial home on Jalan Istana, RM 2, 9am to 5pm, with the English Tea House beside it.
Puu Jih Shih Temple: a hilltop Buddhist temple about 4 km from the centre, with views across the bay.
Heritage Trail and Buli Sim Sim: a free self-guided walk past colonial landmarks, then the stilt village 3 km east of town.

What to eat in Sandakan

Sandakan is a fishing port, and plenty of Sabahans travel here just for the seafood.

Seafood by weight: prawns, crabs, grouper and lobster, cooked to order around the Sim Sim waterfront and in the Mile 4 area. You pick from the tank and pay by the kilo, so confirm the price and cooking style first.
UFO tart: the town's own pastry, custard and cream piled on a thin sponge base, sold by bakeries and kopitiam counters.
Prawn mee: a Sandakan favourite at town-centre coffee shops.
Central Market: cooked-food stalls upstairs and kuih below, best early.
Indian restaurants: fish head curry, biryani and dosai around Mile 3 and Mile 4.
Tiyula itum: a dark beef soup coloured with burnt coconut, cooked by the Suluk (Tausug) community for weddings and Hari Raya.

Several Sandakan classics are pork dishes and not for Muslim diners, notably Sandakan bak kut teh and the town's fried pork served with noodles or wide vermicelli.

Before flying home, buy dried seafood and locally produced ikan bilis, a favourite gift for family on the Peninsula. Seal them well and put them in checked luggage.

Halal food, mosques and prayer times

Sabah is about 70 percent Muslim, and Sandakan has large Malay, Bajau, Suluk and Bugis communities, so halal meals are easy to find.

Chinese coffee shops are the exception, since that is where the pork specialities live. Treat them as non-halal unless a certificate is displayed, and remember that a "pork-free" sign is not certification. Look for a JAKIM logo or a Sabah state halal certificate, or check premises and products in JAKIM's Verify Halal app. Malay and Indian Muslim eateries are the simplest options; in mall food courts and hotel restaurants, check each outlet for its certificate.

For prayers:

Sandakan District Mosque (Masjid Daerah Sandakan, also called Masjid Besar Sim-Sim): the main mosque, opened in 1990 on the road out to Buli Sim Sim and the obvious choice for Friday prayers.
Masjid Jamek: in the town centre, first opened in 1890 by an Indian Muslim cloth merchant.

As elsewhere in Malaysia, the airport and larger malls normally have a surau (ask at an information counter), and Sepilok lodges or river guides can point you to a space to pray. Sandakan is much further east than KL on the same clock, so Subuh and Maghrib come a little over an hour earlier: on 29 September 2026, Maghrib was at 6.02pm in Sandakan against 7.08pm in KL. Use the Sandakan zone (SBH01) in JAKIM's e-Solat or your usual app.

Getting around Sandakan: buses, Grab, taxis and cars

The waterfront is walkable, but the wildlife sights sit along the road west of town, so plan each day's rides.

Sepilok bus: public buses marked Batu 14 Sepilok take about 30 to 45 minutes and cost roughly RM 4 to RM 6 in cash. There are only a handful of fixed departures a day, so check the times in town and plan your ride back before you set out.
Grab: fine in town and to Sepilok (roughly RM 25 each way), but cars are scarce at outlying sights, so book your return before the last feeding ends.
Taxis: flat fares agreed in advance, typically around RM 50 to Sepilok one way. For Sepilok plus Labuk Bay in one day, negotiate a day rate.
Hire car: the most flexible choice for families and the easiest way to Gomantong (about two hours each way) or the Kinabatangan. Rural roads are poorly lit at night, so drive in daylight.
Packages: Selingan and most Kinabatangan stays bundle road and boat transfers.

Eastern Sabah is a designated security zone (ESSZone), and boat trips follow its rules, so book sea and river journeys only with licensed operators.

Sample 4-day Sandakan itinerary

This plan assumes an early flight from KLIA. Swap Day 3 for a night on Selingan if turtles matter most.

Day 1: Land at SDK on a morning flight and check in at Sepilok. See the sun bears (open until 3.30pm), then the 3pm orangutan feeding next door, and join the Rainforest Discovery Centre night walk after dark.
Day 2: An early canopy walk at the Rainforest Discovery Centre, Sepilok's 10am feeding, then Labuk Bay for the 2.30pm or 4.30pm proboscis feeding. Move to town for a seafood dinner near Sim Sim.
Day 3: Memorial Park in the cool morning, the Heritage Trail up to Agnes Keith House and tea next door, then Puu Jih Shih Temple for late-afternoon views and Maghrib at the District Mosque.
Day 4: Breakfast at the Central Market, buy dried seafood and UFO tarts, and catch a midday or evening flight home.

With two extra days, add a Kinabatangan river lodge and Gomantong (see the last section).

Money, SIM and practical tips for Sandakan

Sandakan is home soil, but a few things work differently from KL.

Cash: some counters, reportedly including the Rainforest Discovery Centre, take cash only, as do the Sepilok bus and most market stalls. DuitNow QR works as it does at home wherever a shop displays the code, and the sun bear centre accepts cards. Carry enough cash before heading to Sepilok or the river.
Phone: your Malaysian line works as normal, but signal can be patchy on the river and at sea, so save maps and bookings offline.
Plugs and clock: the same Type G sockets and time zone as the Peninsula, with sunrise and sunset about an hour earlier.
Camera fees: Gomantong charges RM 30 for a personal camera, and Sepilok about RM 10 (phones excluded) at the time of writing.
Sepilok etiquette: never touch the orangutans, who catch human illnesses easily.
Packing: rain jacket, insect repellent and shoes with grip for wet boardwalks.
Safety: the town is generally calm. Agree taxi fares first, and use licensed boat operators.
Tipping: not expected, though a small tip for a good guide is welcome.

Kinabatangan River and Gomantong Caves

Plenty of Malaysians come for Sepilok and leave talking about the Kinabatangan. The river runs through a wildlife sanctuary roughly 1.5 to 2 hours from Sandakan by boat, or a similar time by road.

Wildlife: proboscis monkeys, wild orangutans, saltwater crocodiles and all eight Bornean hornbill species, with pygmy elephants passing through some stretches. Nothing is guaranteed.
How it works: lodges at Sukau, Bilit and Abai sell packages with meals, transfers and cruises at dawn and dusk. Sabah Tourism recommends at least three days for the best odds; two nights suits most families.
Village stay: the MESCOT (KOPEL) homestay programme places guests with Orang Sungai families.

Gomantong Caves, about two hours' drive from Sandakan, are an optional add-on in most Kinabatangan packages. Swiftlet nests are collected twice a year, and the best times to visit are February to April and July to September. The MyKad fee is RM 5, with hours of 8am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm (Friday mornings until 11.30am, last entry 4pm). Wear closed shoes on the slippery boardwalk.

Before you go

Best time to go: March to September is generally the better time for Sandakan, as the northeast monsoon eases and boat trips to Selingan and along the Kinabatangan tend to be calmer. April is usually the driest month, while October to February is the wettest, when downpours can swell the river. Wildlife is around all year: turtles nest on Selingan nightly, with October often the busiest month, and orangutans may skip Sepilok feedings in fruiting season. Prices peak in the Sabah school holidays, above all the year-end break (5 to 31 December 2026), and around Chinese New Year (6 and 7 February 2027). Kaamatan (30 and 31 May) fell inside the mid-year school break in 2026, so book Selingan and river lodges early around then. Away from school holidays and festive weeks, midweek trips usually give the best value.
Visa for Malaysians: As of September 2026, Malaysian citizens visit Sandakan without a passport or visa, though Sabah runs its own immigration control, so Peninsular travellers show a MyKad to an officer on arrival. Flying in from KLIA, you receive a free single-journey Document in Lieu of Internal Travel Document with a Social Visit Pass of up to three months, recorded on an IMM.114 slip. Children under 12 use a birth certificate (a MyKid is also accepted), no parental consent letter is needed, and a valid passport is accepted too. Keep the slip with your IC until you fly home, because if it expires while you are still in Sabah you need an Exit Check Memo before you can leave. Longer stays for work or study need other documents. Rules can change, so check the Immigration Department of Malaysia's official site, imi.gov.my, before you travel.
Honest budget guide: Plan on roughly RM 150 to RM 400 a day per person in Sandakan, excluding flights, with tours pushing you to the top of that range. Flights: at the time of writing our fare scan has one-way KL seats from about RM 209 (AirAsia, non-stop) and a median of RM 270, so two one-way fares cost roughly RM 420 to RM 780. Budget rooms in town run around RM 60 to RM 120 a night, and mid-range hotels or Sepilok lodges about RM 150 to RM 300. Food is RM 30 to RM 80 a day, more with seafood by the kilo, and local transport adds RM 20 to RM 60. At MyKad rates, Sepilok, the sun bear centre, the Rainforest Discovery Centre, Agnes Keith House and Gomantong total about RM 29. Four days and three nights sharing a mid-range room comes to around RM 900 to RM 1,800 with flights, before any Selingan or Kinabatangan package. All figures are indicative.

Frequently asked questions

Do Malaysians need a passport to visit Sandakan?

No. As of September 2026 Peninsular Malaysians enter Sabah with their MyKad and receive a free Social Visit Pass of up to three months on an IMM.114 slip at Sandakan Airport. Under-12s may show a birth certificate or MyKid instead. Hold on to the slip until your flight out, and check imi.gov.my for updates.

Is there a direct flight from KL to Sandakan?

Yes. Two airlines fly it non-stop in about 2 hours 50 minutes gate to gate: AirAsia from KLIA Terminal 2 and Malaysia Airlines from Terminal 1. At the time of writing our fare scan shows one-way fares from about RM 209, with a median of about RM 270. Batik Air flew the route from December 2024 but did not appear in late-September 2026 schedules.

Is Sandakan Muslim-friendly?

Yes. Sabah is about 70 percent Muslim and Sandakan has large Malay, Bajau and Suluk communities, so halal food and mosques are easy to find, with the District Mosque by Buli Sim Sim the main one for Friday prayers. Treat Chinese coffee shops as non-halal unless certified.

How many days in Sandakan is enough?

Three to four days covers Sepilok, the sun bear centre, the Rainforest Discovery Centre, Labuk Bay and the heritage sights comfortably. Add a night on Selingan for nesting turtles and two nights at a Kinabatangan river lodge. Six days fits everything without rushing.

What is the best month to visit Sandakan?

April is usually the driest month, and March to September generally means calmer seas for the Turtle Islands and easier river trips. October to February is wetter but workable, and October is often the peak for turtle nesting. Skip the December school holidays for lower fares.

How much should I budget for 4 days in Sandakan?

One person sharing a mid-range room should budget around RM 900 to RM 1,800 for four days, covering return flights from KL, food, transport and MyKad entry fees. A Selingan turtle night or a Kinabatangan lodge package comes on top and is usually the biggest single cost, so get quotes early. These figures are indicative.

Can I use Grab in Sandakan?

Yes, but Sandakan has far fewer drivers than KL or Kota Kinabalu, so waits of 15 to 30 minutes are common. A ride to Sepilok costs roughly RM 25. Book your return early from outlying sights, or agree a flat fare with a taxi.

How do I get from Sandakan town to Sepilok?

Sepilok is about 23 km from town. The Batu 14 Sepilok public bus costs roughly RM 4 to RM 6 in cash and takes 30 to 45 minutes, with only a few departures daily. Grab is about RM 25 each way and a taxi around RM 50, and the sun bear and rainforest centres share the same approach road as the orangutans.

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