Kota Kinabalu
Malaysia
Borneo’s coast, with a mountain behind it and orangutans inland
Photo by Vincent Chan on Unsplash
Photos by NARU KIOB, EJ Yao, Nik Ramzi Nik Hassan and Bryan Heng on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Malaysia
March to September
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 296mm in Oct
Where it is
5.98°N, 116.07°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Climb or look at Mount Kinabalu
- Snorkel the Tunku Abdul Rahman islands
- Meet orangutans at Sepilok
- Watch sunset from Tanjung Aru
- Eat at the Filipino night market
- Take a river cruise to see proboscis monkeys
Kota Kinabalu travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Malaysia
Good valueRates in Sabah are slightly worse than the peninsula. The changers in Wisma Merdeka are the best of what is available.
ATMs & cards
Fine in the city, scarce the moment you head inland — draw what you need before going to the interior or the islands, where nothing takes cards.
Avoid these
- relying on cards for park fees and boat trips
Use these instead
- Maybank
- CIMB
- HSBC
Sabah park permits, island jetty fees and dive boats are cash. Draw in the city before heading up to Kinabalu or out to the islands.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Malaysia
SafeSafe in the city and on the islands. Two real considerations: climbing Mount Kinabalu requires a permit, a guide and booking months ahead, and it is a genuine altitude climb rather than a walk. Governments have long advised against travel to the far east coast of Sabah near the Philippine border — check the current advice before booking anything around Semporna or Lahad Datu.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (5 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Filipino Market — after dark
- The east coast of Sabah near Semporna, which has a standing travel advisory — check it before booking a dive trip
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Malaysia visa rules
No visa neededup to 90 days
One of the more generous allowances in the region. You may be asked to show onward travel and a hotel booking.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 30 days
Visa required in advance
How to get it: No visa to arrange, but almost every visitor must file the Malaysia Digital Arrival Card online in the three days before arriving. It is free — sites charging for it are not official.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: the arrival card
Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC)Required
In the three days before you arrive.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- flight number
- the full address of your first night
- your onward or return flight date
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of Malaysia
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Rabies if you will be near animals or staying a while
- Japanese encephalitis for long rural or Borneo stays
Getting treated
Kuala Lumpur and Penang have excellent private hospitals — Malaysia is a medical tourism destination in its own right, and standards and English are both high at a fraction of Western cost. Care thins out quickly in the interior of Borneo, where a serious case means a flight to the coast.
Dengue is endemic and Malaysia has large outbreaks; there is no prophylaxis, so repellent and covered arms at dusk are the whole defence. Rabies is present — any bite or scratch from a dog or monkey means a clinic the same day.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodSabah eats differently from the peninsula: seafood at the Filipino night market, hinava raw fish salad, and Sabah tea from the plantations near the mountain. The night market is loud, cheap and worth it.
Nightlife
Waterfront bars for the sunset and a night market for the seafood, in a town people pass through on the way to a mountain.
- KK Waterfront — sunset bars in a row
- Filipino Market — the night market, and the grilled fish
Closing: 01:00.
A beer in a bar: RM 12–20
Getting around
Workable- GrabWorks here
- inDriveWorks here
- MaximWorks here
- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
- Against a taxi
- Cheaper than the metered taxis, which are thin on the ground now.
Time zone and your working day
Asia/Kuching — 12 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 21:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 21:00–05:00 on yours.
Friday afternoon is quiet — offices close early for prayers and many reopen after.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Malaysia
Why these are Malaysia's numbers and not Kota Kinabalu's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 1.4× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 1.5× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Kota Kinabalu, so these are medians for all of Malaysia. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Malaysia, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Malay
- HelloSelamat pagi / petangse-LA-mat PA-gi / pe-TANG
- Thank youTerima kasihte-REE-ma KA-see
- You’re welcomeSama-samaSA-ma SA-ma
- Yes / NoYa / Tidakya / TEE-dak
5 more phrases
- Excuse meMaafma-AF
- How much?Berapa harga?be-RA-pa HAR-ga
- DeliciousSedapse-DAP
- No spice, pleaseTak pedastak pe-DAS
- GoodbyeSelamat tinggalse-LA-mat TING-gal
Bahasa Malaysia is the national language and English is spoken widely enough that no visitor needs it — but Malaysia is Malay, Chinese and Tamil at once, and the greeting you choose is noticed. Malay is close to Indonesian without being the same: terima kasih works in both, but a Malaysian will hear an Indonesian accent immediately.
Religion
Sunni Muslim, officially
Islam is the religion of the federation and about 63% of people are Muslim, but Malaysia is genuinely plural: roughly 19% Buddhist, 9% Christian and 6% Hindu, largely along ethnic Chinese and Indian lines. Muslims are subject to sharia courts in personal matters, non-Muslims are not. In practice this means mosque etiquette matters, alcohol is available but not everywhere, and the conservative states of Kelantan and Terengganu are noticeably stricter than Kuala Lumpur or Penang.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Use your right hand to eat, to give and to receive — the left is for the bathroom
- Remove your shoes before entering a home, a mosque or most temples
- Point with your thumb over a closed fist; an index finger is rude here
- Dress modestly away from the beach, and cover your head and arms at a mosque — they lend robes at the door
Don't
- Do not offer alcohol to a Malay Muslim, and do not assume a restaurant serves it
- Do not eat or drink in public during daylight in Ramadan, out of ordinary courtesy
- Do not touch anyone of the opposite sex in greeting unless they offer a hand first
- Do not show affection in public — it draws real disapproval, and in the conservative north it can draw the authorities
Where to stay in Kota Kinabalu
No Holistay rentals in Kota Kinabalu yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Kota Kinabalu on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Kota Kinabalu BKI
10 minfrom the airport· 6 km as the crow flies
10 min to the centre.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
