Sepilok Nature Lodge

Most guests reach Sandakan on a flight from Kota Kinabalu, which the booking site puts at about 55 minutes. The packages sold through our booking link begin with a pickup at Sandakan Airport or a hotel in town, in a shared seat-in coach. Tours are join-in, so you share the guide and vehicle with other guests; ask when booking if you want a private guide and car, which costs extra. The lodge was formerly called Sepilok Nature Resort, so older maps and reviews may use that name.

Packages run two days and one night, or three days and two nights. The short one includes one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner, entrance fees, an English-speaking guide, a guided evening walk and the return transfer. The longer one doubles the meals and adds a morning outing to Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, with pickup at 10:30 for the 11:00 feeding and lunch back at the lodge around 1 pm. Flights and alcohol are extra. Children from 3 to 11 are charged the child rate, and under-3s go free.

Day one follows the orangutans' timetable. After a short video at the Nature Education Centre, a boardwalk of about ten minutes leads to the platform for the 10 am feeding. Lunch is at the lodge, you can walk back alone for the 3 pm feeding, and after dark a guide takes the group along the Sepilok Forest Trails to look for night animals and insects. Check-in is from 2 pm and check-out by noon. Meals are served 7 to 10:30 am, 12:30 to 2 pm and 7 to 8:30 pm.

Chalets have twin beds, a ceiling fan as well as air conditioning, an en-suite bathroom with shower and bathtub, tea and coffee, and British-style three-pin sockets at 220V. The owner's page describes a garden of more than 150 Asian orchid species that takes half a day to explore, and a tour desk in the main building where staff arrange birding, treks and trips to Sukau or Turtle Island. The booking site tells guests to pack leech socks, insect repellent, a raincoat and sturdy walking shoes. If you continue to the Kinabatangan, see our note on Sukau Rainforest Lodge.

The orangutan center lies inside the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve. The Sabah Tourism Board says it was founded in 1964 to rehabilitate orphaned orangutans and lists the Sabah Wildlife Department as its contact. It opens 9 to 12 and 2 to 4 on most days, with a shorter 9 to 11 morning on Fridays, and visitors are asked never to touch the apes because human illnesses can pass to them. Our Borneo rainforest guide covers the wider region.