Sepilok orangutan tours & packages

You have one day in Sandakan. Or you have five.

You want the platform at ten o'clock. Or the river at dawn. Or a turtle laying eggs in the dark while a ranger holds a red torch. Or all of it.

Seven packages cover every version. Prices are real, per person, verified this month — and at the bottom is the honest section about when you don't need a tour at all.

Tours are billed in Malaysian ringgit (RM). Converted figures are approximate — mid-market rates, early September 2026 — for planning only.

One day: the full Sepilok circuit

Day trip

Full-day Sepilok Orang Utan, Sun Bear & Rainforest Discovery Centre

Minimum 2 people · hotel or Sandakan Airport pickup

Pickup at your hotel, or straight off your morning flight. The 10:00 feeding. The nursery. The sun bears across the road. Lunch under the trees.

Then the canopy walkway — 28 metres up, hornbill height — and a drop-off wherever you need. It pairs with an evening flight out.

Included: guide, all transfers, lunch, every entrance fee. Not included: drinks, camera fees, tips.

RM500 adult  /  RM365 child (2–10) 

Ask about this trip

All seven, compared

*Peak surcharge RM54 per person, 1 Jun–30 Sep.  **Selingan high-season surcharges apply Jun–Sep; confirmed with your quote. All prices per person twin share, verified September 2026.

3D2N Sepilok, Sun Bear & Kinabatangan (Tanini) — the value pick

The busiest itinerary on the river, in the best way. Four cruises — two at dawn, two at dusk. Two night walks on different trails. A trek to the ox-bow lake where pygmy elephant tracks turn up in the mud.

Day one is Sepilok and the sun bears. Then two nights at a riverside eco-lodge where the loudest thing after nine is the frogs. Six meals, both entrance fees and the conservation levy included.

3D2N with Gomantong Cave — the cave-and-birding variant

Swaps the sun bears for a cave. And what a cave — Simud Hitam, a fifteen-minute boardwalk into a cathedral of swiftlets, source of the edible nests that built Sandakan's fortunes.

Nights at Borneo Nature Lodge in Sukau, with a dawn cruise to Kelenanap Ox-Bow. Night cruise (RM116) and night walk (RM59) bolt on if you want the dark hours too.

3D2N Abai — the unhurried one

Furthest downriver, and it feels it. You arrive by boat from Sandakan — the transfer is itself a cruise.

Then: trees full of fireflies flashing in sync. Breakfast on a platform over the water. Lunch in a villager's house. One lodge, no repacking, no hurry.

4D3N with Selingan Turtle Island — the flagship

Night one: a green turtle hauls herself up a beach in the dark to lay, and you watch a ranger release hatchlings to the sea. Day two: orangutans and sun bears. Then two nights of river cruises from Bilit.

Borneo's big three, four days, one booking. Selingan practicalities worth knowing: chalets are 500 metres from the jetty with no porters, so pack a light overnight bag — there's a luggage room at the jetty. Torch and leech socks for the river leg.

5D4N Abai + Sukau — the full circuit

Both lodge areas, moving upriver by boat, cruising as you go. Five-plus cruises including the Menanggul tributary and two ox-bow lakes. The fireflies. The jungle breakfast. The village lunch.

First night at a Sepilok-area nature resort with its own flying-squirrel platform and boardwalk night walk. This is the complete Sandakan wildlife circuit — there is nothing on this coast it leaves out.

What every package includes

English-speaking naturalist guides — on the river, the difference between seeing wildlife and boating past it. All land and boat transfers. Entrance fees and permits. Meals as itinerised.

Not included, anywhere: Malaysian Tourism Tax (RM10 per room per night, foreign visitors, paid at check-in), drinks, camera fees, insurance, flights, tips.

Do you need a tour at all?

Honestly — no. Not for the centre alone.

If you're sleeping on the reserve road, the three centres are a stroll apart and the fees are modest. Independent visiting is easy, and we wrote a whole site to help you do it.

A tour earns its money in two situations. Combining Sepilok with the Kinabatangan, Gomantong or the Turtle Islands — the boats, permits and lodge logistics are genuinely hard to self-arrange, and the packaged price usually beats the sum of the parts. Or a tight flight schedule from Kota Kinabalu, where the day tour turns a risky sprint into a smooth one.

Common questions