There are many places to see, many activities to do and many beautiful sunsets to watch in Sabah State, one of the two states of Malaysia on Borneo Island. One of the places to see in Sabah; Tawau, the state's third largest city. In this text List of places to visit in Tawau, Transportation to and accommodation in Tawau information you need, such as Tawau travel guide You will find it below, happy reading!
2-Week Itinerary for North Borneo (Morning) ve 12 Reasons to Visit Malaysia's Sabah State I suggest you take a look at my articles.
What You Will Find In This Article
Tawau Travel Guide
Tawau; Neighboring the Indonesian border of North Borneo, one of Malaysia's most important tourist destinations Sipadan National ParkIt is a city known for having the closest major city and airport to Istanbul. Do not be misled by the fact that it is the third largest city of Sabah State, it is not a very large and crowded city, but a city with few tourists on its own.
Where is Tawau, How to Get to Tawau?
Tawau is located on the southwestern coast of the Malaysian state of Sabah, on the coast of the Celebes Sea.
If you want to reach Tawau by plane; Air Asia and Air Malaysia have direct flights from Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur, these flights connect the city with the world.
Where to Stay in Tawau
We stayed at the LA Hotel in Tawau. Since the city is not a very touristic place, there are no chain hotels or hotels for tourists. This is a hotel generally used by business people, and the most beautiful feature is the view of Tawau from its rooftop bar. The photo above is the view of the bar, the prices in the bar were also very reasonable.
There are large and small hotels or places for home accommodation in the city. Since this is not a touristic city, there are no chain hotels.
How Many Days Should You Allocate for Tawau?
Tawau is not a very big city. It is enough to spare a few hours to see the places to see in the city. If you reserve the other half day for Tawau Hills Park and Basalt Rocks, one day will be enough.
If you came to Tawau to go to Semporna, you can make a plan to spend one day here on your departure or return day.
Places to Visit in Tawau
The highlight of Tawau, as in many cities in Sabah State, is its nature. It is a place that will open your heart with huge tropical trees, waterfalls, rivers, green hills. Almost everywhere in the city center is within walking distance, of course, if you want to walk in the heat, otherwise, you can call a car via the taxi application Grab and go anywhere at affordable prices.
Tawau Murals
As there were no tourist attractions in the city center of Tawau, they decorated the city with murals as in Penang. You can easily find the pictures by following the marked places marked as “Tawau Street Art and Mural” on the Google Maps application.
The mural in the photo above is located right next to the Tawau bus terminal.
Tawau Covered Market Place
Cities in Sabah State often have large indoor market places. There was a similar market place in Sandakan, there is also in Tawau. There are vegetables and fruits on the ground floor of the market, dried fish and seafood on the second floor, and clothing products on the third floor.
Since Tawau is not very touristic, when two tourists like us entered the market, almost everyone chatted and said welcome. When you say "We came from Turkey", everyone starts to chat by saying "salamun aleykum".
Tawau Night Markets
One of my favorite things in Tawau was definitely the night markets. The city, which is very calm and quiet during the day, suddenly starts to move after the sun goes down in the evening.
Chester Night Market became my favourite. This is a market that runs along the streets, from second-hand clothes to toys and all kinds of traditional foods. You can find any street food you are looking for, from sushi to kebab.
Downtown Tawau The night markets close to the sea, which are known as the sea, mostly consist of mobile restaurants where you can sit and eat. As you wander around the city, you can see other night markets, where life is lived at night.
Teck Guan Cocoa Museum & Village
Palm production is an important part of North Borneo's economy, before palm production began in the 70s, Tawau was a cocoa production center. 5 km from Tawau city center, there is Teck Guan Cocoa Museum, where you can see how cocoa is transformed from fruit to chocolate and its production processes. In order to visit the museum, it was necessary to call and make a reservation a few days in advance.
- Teck Guan Cocoa Museum
- Telephone: 016-8269579
Tawau Hills National Park
Tawau Hills Park is a 20-minute drive from downtown Tawau. There are walking paths, trekking routes up to 12 km, accommodation places, camping areas, waterfalls, streams and huge tropical trees in the park. There is one point that caught my attention during our trip in Sabah State that the national parks are very well-maintained and organized. It is very easy to find the place you want by following the direction signs. We took an approximately 1-hour hike to see the tree, which was once the tallest tropical tree in the world. Along the way, many endemic and tropical plants as well as insects and animals accompanied us. The tree was the tallest tropical tree with a height of 88,32 meters, but then the tree with a height of 100,7 meters in the Danum Valley in Sabah State took the throne of this tree.
There are Magdalena Hill at an altitude of 1310 meters, Lucia Hill at an altitude of 1202 meters and Maria Hill at an altitude of 1083 meters. You need to get permission from the Sabah Parks institution in advance to hike these hills.
Tawau Basalt Cliffs – Columnar Basalt Balung Cocos
My favorite place in Tawau was definitely basalt rocks. The basalt rocks, located 38 km from the city center of Tawau, were formed as a result of a volcanic eruption 27.000 years ago. A waterfall and a pool were formed in the place where the spring water from the Tawau Hills passed through the rocks. If you take your swimsuit with you, you will have the chance to swim, we regretted not taking it.
From Tawau and Semporna road, you have to follow a 4 km broken road towards the fields to the north. The place where the cliffs are is private land, the owner of the land has put up a sign along the road, made a parking lot and a toilet.
If you go a little higher by following the stream from the rocks, there are also areas where you can camp. Local people usually go for picnics, but since we went on a quiet weekday, there were no people.
Tawau is not a city to plan specifically to go to, but a place you can include in your Semporna-Sipadan route. Stay overnight to taste great street food without leaving Sabah State!
Sabah Tourism Board hosted us on this trip, Sepilok Tropical Wildlife Adventure agency provided our trips here. A big thank you to everyone who contributed and made our trip a great one. All the information you need about the Sabah region Sabah Tourism websitefor your private trips Sepilok Tropical Wildlife Adventure You can contact with.