Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre Tour

The Sandakan Orangutan Rehabilitation tour is available in two options – coach and private. The private option offers greater flexibility and the convenience to do the tour at your own pace. Air fares are not included in the tour price.

Early morning, board a plane for historic Sandakan, one of Sabah's earliest settlements, where you can visit the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary. A guide will go with you. If it is raining and the road condition is bad, a 4WD will be used.

You will arrive at the Center where registration of names will take place. A boardwalk leads you to the Viewing Gallery and Feeding Platform where the apes are fed milk and bananas twice a day at 10am and 3pm by the rangers. Feeding time also attracts long-tailed macaques to the area. See young, orphaned orangutans being taught survival skills so that they may eventually return to their natural habitat.

At the Center visitors are restricted to walkways. Some of the apes have become accustomed to human presence but touching them is strongly discouraged. Though orangutans are naturally shy and gentle, the more mischievous ones may try to grab your camera or hat, in which case you should call for a ranger as trying to wrestle the 200 pound apes may not be a good idea!

During your visit you can either walk along a nature trail to see vegetation and animal life in the tropical rainforest area of the Centre, or watch a nature video at the Nature Education Center in the Sanctuary.

After departing the Center you will stop for lunch at a local restaurant in Sandakan.

In the afternoon you will be taken on a city tour of Sandakan. The tour includes a visit to the Central Market, Buddhist Temple and a drive to the Water Village to see the houses of local tribes perched on stilts above the water.

After the Sandakan city tour you will be dropped at the Sandakan Airport for your flight to Kinabalu.