Sepilok
Orang-utans, the world’s smallest bears and Sabah’s longest canopy skywalk — an easy, rewarding addition to your Kinabatangan river safari.
Sepilok, on the way to the river
With its famous orangutan rehabilitation centre and the nearby Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Sepilok attracts everyone from avid wildlife photographers to our youngest visitors, who are more easily impressed by a close-up view of an orang-utan than by a fleeting glimpse in the wild.
Sepilok Rainforest Discovery Centre is lesser known than the two sanctuaries but should certainly not be forgotten. Boasting the longest skywalk in Sabah at 620m, a myriad of trails and a nature interpretation centre, it is a great place to while away a few hours in the afternoon — you can even return after dark for a night walk.
Where it sits. Sepilok is 25km west of Sandakan, so most guests visit on the morning of their transfer to the river.
Good to know :
- Feedings at 10am and 3pm — arrive from 9am for the boardwalks
- 43 sq km of protected lowland forest around the centre
- Around 60 orang-utans live semi-wild inside the reserve
- The sun bear centre next door is a separate ticket
- Camera fees are payable at the gate in cash
Sepilok's Sanctuaries
Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre
Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre opened in 1964 — the first place in the world built specifically to rehabilitate orang-utans, taking in orphaned babies and injured adults and working to return them to the wild. It’s run by Sabah Wildlife Department, with support from Orangutan Appeal UK.
The centre sits inside the 43 sq km Sepilok-Kabili forest reserve, where the orang-utans roam freely and top up their diet at two daily feedings, 10am and 3pm. The food is kept deliberately dull — enough to help, not enough to make foraging optional.
What a guided visit looks like
There are no fences here — the orang-utans come and go as they please, sometimes wandering into the Rainforest Discovery Centre next door, or further still, into the grounds of hotels with the right fruit trees.
Our visits to Sepilok orangutan sanctuary start at 9am, with the latest pick up from Sandakan airport at 8.15am. A visit includes an educational video, a look at the younger orang-utans in the nursery, who enjoy their own separate and more playful feeding time, and a visit to the adult feeding platform.
Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre
Dr Wong Siew Te founded the Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre in 2008, giving rescued, orphaned and trafficked sun bears somewhere safe to live.
Sun bears are the smallest bears in the world, and among the least protected — still taken illegally as pets, still kept in conditions no animal should live in. The centre exists to change that, and to give each bear the best outcome available to it: rehabilitation and release, where possible, or a permanent, spacious home for those who spent too long in captivity to survive in the wild.
Our Sepilok packages include a visit here, right after the orang-utan sanctuary next door.
Sepilok Rainforest Discovery Centre
Sepilok Rainforest Discovery Centre has Sabah’s longest skywalk — 620m, wide and stable, nothing like the swaying rope bridges at Poring or Mulu. Good for any age, and good for looking up: birds most of the day, and if you’re lucky, an orang-utan moving through the canopy.
Come dusk, the centre changes shift. Flying squirrels, tarsiers, and whatever’s making noise in the leaf litter — insects, frogs, the odd reptile you’ll hear before you see.
Add it on with Gomantong Caves on the way back to Sandakan, or visit on its own, before or after your time with us.
Sepilok In Pictures
Semi-wild orang-utans, the outdoor nursery and the lowland dipterocarp forest that surrounds the centre.
Sepilok Then The River
The simplest way to see both sanctuaries is our 3D2N Sepilok & Kinabatangan river safari, which collects you in Sandakan or Sepilok in the morning and has you on the river by mid-afternoon on the same day.
Same-day transfer
Sanctuaries in the morning, on the Kinabatangan by mid-afternoon.
Cruise the same day
You are usually on your first river cruise by 4pm.
One operator throughout
Transfers, guides and entry fees handled by one team.
3D2N Sepilok & Kinabatangan
3 days · 2 nights · from RM1590 pp
3D2N Sepilok & Kinabatangan
3 days · 2 nights · from RM1590 pp
- Phone:+1 (859) 254-6589
- Email:info@example.com
3D2N Sepilok & Kinabatangan
3 days · 2 nights · from RM1590 pp
The orang-utan and sun bear sanctuaries on the way to the river.
4D3N Turtle Island & Kinabatangan
4 days · 3 nights · from RM3090 pp
4D3N Turtle Island & Kinabatangan
4 days · 3 nights · from RM3090 pp
- Phone:+1 (859) 254-6589
- Email:info@example.com
4D3N Turtle Island & Kinabatangan
4 days · 3 nights · from RM3090 pp
A night with nesting turtles on Selingan, then two nights on the river.
3D2N Kinabatangan river safari
3 days · 2 nights · from RM1300 pp
3D2N Kinabatangan river safari
3 days · 2 nights · from RM1300 pp
- Phone:+1 (859) 254-6589
- Email:info@example.com
3D2N Kinabatangan river safari
3 days · 2 nights · from RM1300 pp
Four cruises, a jungle walk and two night walks — our most-booked stay.
4.9 on TripAdvisor
73 reviews · #5 of 17 in Kinabatangan District
Verified guest reviews on TripAdvisor.
See Sepilok on the way to the river
Tell us your flight times and we will build the Sepilok stop into your Kinabatangan stay.
