Kinabalu Park Headquarters — Attraction in Borneo

Unless you are just looking for hiking along the forest, theres really nothing to see. No animals, no water falls or not even a view point. If you are going to Botanical Garden, its about 10 minutes walk from the entrance. You can get a park map with trails and such from the park registration office which is third house on the right from entrance.

If you are a solo traveler without a car and coming from Kota Kinabalu for a day trip, heres how I did it:

Early morning (the services start at 6.00am) head to the KK minibus & taxi station at Padang Merdeka and look for the signs "Ranau" and tell that your going to Kinabalu Park. There are two options, one is to take minibus and the other is shared taxi and they both depart when full. All the Ranau services stop at Kinabalu Park Headquarters entrance and the price is same, RM30 without luggage (just remember to check the price before boarding).

I took taxi because it was almost full already. I had front seat and took some awesome photos and videos along the two hour ride. Ask the drivers whatsapp number for return trip. If your driver isn't available for your schedule, he will give the next available drivers number who is departing Ranau to KK and in my case also a picture of the cars license plate. The drive from Ranau to Kinabalu Park entrance is around 30 minutes and the driver sent me whatsapp message when he departed Ranau. NOTE. The taxis do not pick you up from inside the park but from the road side. Remember to confirm the price which should be same as the other way, RM30. At the KK, the driver dropped people where ever they requested, so keep in mind that the taxi doesn't necessarly go straight to the Merdeka Field.

For the park entrance fee of RM50 and RM5 for the botanical garden (I took the tour at 9.00am which was nice and informative), this wasn't overall worth for me at all. I would rather recommend to go to the Poring Hot Springs for the same price, atleast there is a...

Just visited for a one day visit. 2 out of 10 trails are closed (the most interesting ones), the Bukit Ular Trail and Liwagu Trail. We tried to hike the rest but they are really badly marked. Twice we took the wrong turn. It’s a nice but nothing special, walk in the jungle. The Bukit Tupai and Burung trails supposed to have nice bird observatory place at the top but the jungle is so dense that you can hardly see anything. It’s a nice short hike but definitely not for birdwatching. The rest of the trails are so close to the road that instead of hearing the jungle you just hear the cars passing all the time. The “botanical garden” is also a joke. On top of the entrance fee you need to pay additional 5 ringgit to walk in the jungle for 20min. The garden is really small and the only difference between the garden and the rest of the trails is that in the garden you are walking on wooden path. The worst of all that is that they increased the entry ticket price from 15 to 50 ringgit per day which is definitely not worth it. We saw so many birds, butterflies and moth outside the park in our guest house, then In the park itself. So if you are planning to visit only for one day (not for hiking the mountain which is taking 2-3 days and hundreds more ringgit) I would skip it. What’s more, the lady who sells the entry tickets is really not help at all and kind of rude. You are welcomed by the hash “Pay here” or just “Pay”. Whole experience was general really disappointing and definitely not what I was...

As much as possible when I visited Kundasang I always try to slid in a visit to Kinabalu Park. Even if you don’t intend to climb Mount Kinabalu (which require an overnight stay) you can experience a glimpse of Kinabalu by visiting the park.

I visited Kinabalu Park more than 5 times and there is still much to discover - that’s how huge and geologically diverse this place is.

Apparently, owing to it’s formation 6 million years ago, Kinabalu have 4 different climatic zones each with unique set of flora and fauna - and here in Kinabalu Park it really shows. One can never be bored when climbing up or down a trail, every road is different than the previous. There are dozens of trail here and you can never exhaust the trail in even one full day.

Personally I find that a 3 hours trail will give visitor sufficient taste of Kinabalu Park: starting from the base which is the Headquarters, then trail along the main road up until Timpohon Gate, along the way there is a lookout deck where you can see waterfall from the top of Kinabalu; then, once you arrived at Timpohon Gate, you can have a hot tea or instant noodle there and greet other hikers who are planning to climb Mount Kinabalu; for the return trip, take the Mempening Trail which is the first trail you will found when going downhill from Timpohon, then just walk along the well-trodden trail; you will see all sort of terrain there that will delight your...