One night on Turtle Island

When I started planning my trip to Borneo, the two things I wanted to see were orangutans and turtles laying eggs. I planned my Sandakan itinerary around Turtle Island as I did not want to miss it. I got to spend a lovely afternoon snorkelling and watching the sunset before the turtle viewing experience. This was one of the highlights of my trip to Malaysia and I definitely recommend adding it to your itinerary! There are so many other things to do near Sandakan so it’s definitely worth spending a couple days there.

Where is Turtle Island?

Photo of Turtle island from the water. There is one boat pulled up on the beach and another smaller boat pulled up further on the sand. Behind the beach is a lot of trees, very close together. There is a gateway with a red roof that leads into the forest. — The view as we appraoched Turtle Island

Turtle Island park is actually made up of three islands. The island that you visit is called Selingan with the other two being called Gulisan and Bakungan Kechil. The islands are located north of the town of Sandakan in Sabah, Malaysia. This area of the Sulu sea is beside the border with the Philippines so the island has border patrol stationed on it. It is a national park, so you pay a small entrance fee to Sabah parks on arrival. The only way to reach it is on a tour from Sandakan. You can’t travel there independently.

To get to Sandakan, you can fly to Sandakan airport or travel overland from other areas in Sabah. I took a shuttle bus from Kota Kinabalu which was a great experience.

How to book Turtle Island

Photo of a speed boat in the sea heading towards Turtle Island. It has three malaysian flags flying from it, and two Sabah flags. The boat has the number 6 on it, and you can also see the words Crystal Quest. — The Crystal Quest speedboats that take you to Turtle Island.

There are many tour companies that offer a trip to Turtle Island; often part of a package with Kinabatangan River or the Sepilok sanctuaries. I will say right now, do not book with any of these companies because it absolutely is not worth it. Book direct with the main company, Crystal Quest. You will have the exact same experience, but for half the price the tour companies charge. While you are on the island, everything is handled by the rangers and they provide plenty of information.

Crystal Quest currently don’t accept bookings on their website, so the best way to contact them is via WhatsApp. You can get the number from their website. I did try to e-mail first and didn’t get a response, but got a quick response through WhatsApp. You pay on arrival at their office on the day of the tour. I was charged 650 MYR for one night on Turtle Island in August 2024. The best part was that I got my own room without having to pay extra for being a solo traveller. All the tour companies were charging extra for a single supplement on top of their already very expensive tours.

The Turtle Island Experience

Photo taken underwater. There is a lot of very pale, bleached coral. Two colourful fish are swimming close to the camera. One green one is swimming to the left and another one that has pink, white and yellow stripes is swimming to the right. In the distance you can see some green vegetation and a large rock. — The water was quite shallow, which meant the coral was very bleached. You could still see loads of fish though!

Once you arrive at the island, you make your way to the main chalet where you are told the itinerary for the day and meet the rangers. After the introduction, you pay the national park entrance fee then receive your room key. On my way to my room, I rented a snorkelling set from them as they had told us that they only had limited supply.

Beaches

There are two beaches on the island, the east and west beaches. The east beach has a section for swimming and snorkelling, but you can’t go in the water at the west as that’s where all the boats are parked. There is a lifeguard on duty who also helpfully advised me of the best section to snorkel. The water is quite shallow and the coral is very close to the surface so you need to be very careful when snorkelling, but I was able to see lots of beautiful fish. I was even lucky enough to see several turtle hatchlings making their way to the beach from a wild nest that the rangers had missed! This was an incredible start to the trip and it was so lovely to be in the water.

After snorkelling, I then made my way over to the west beach to have a walk and enjoy the sunset. You aren’t allowed on the beaches after sunset to protect the turtles, so keep a close eye on the time. It was quite cloudy, so the sunset wasn’t the best, but it was still really nice to just sit and enjoy it on the beach. Once the sun set it was time to make our way to the main chalet for food, and then the waiting period began for seeing the turtles.

Photo showing a tiny baby turtle swimming in shallow water above some sand. — A hatchling from a wild nest.

The Turtle Viewing

Laying Eggs

Photo of a large turtle in a hole in the sand. In the top right is a green bucket that has some turtle eggs in it. — The giant turtle laying eggs.

The main highlight of the trip is getting to watch the turtles as they lay eggs. As they are wild animals, there are no guarantees this will happen, and the time can vary drastically. The guides explained to us that sometimes it can be quite early, but other times it has been as late as 2am and so you just have to hope you’re lucky. I recommend taking a book or chatting with the other guests as you wait. As there were a lot of us there that night, we were split into two groups. I was lucky enough to be in Group 1 which meant we would visit the first turtle, while Group 2 would have to wait until a second turtle started to lay eggs.

It was around 10pm by the time our group were called, and we followed the guide to the beach. We weren’t allowed to use torches or our phones unless it was a red light, as white light would disturb the turtles. Once we reached the turtle, we made a semi-circle around it, making sure to stay away from the head. The ranger made us change positions every few minutes to allow everybody a chance to see the eggs being laid. This was a really fair system and meant we all had the opportunity to get some good photos without worrying about blocking the view for others. While the eggs were being laid, another ranger was collecting the eggs in a bucket to rebury later in the hatchery.

Turtle Hatchery

Once the turtle had finished laying eggs, it was time for the rangers to measure her. At this point, they used a regular light and gave us the opportunity to get photos with the turtle. We then accompanied the rangers to the turtle hatchery with the eggs they had collected. Here they explained the threats to the eggs such as monitor lizards, and reburied the eggs in a protected hole. They put a marker detailing the date and amount of eggs and you had the opportunity to sponsor the nest.

Release of the hatchlings

Photo of hatchlings being released to the sea on Turtle Island. You can see ten baby turtles in the image, two have reached the water and the rest are scurrying across the sand. — My very blurry photo of the hatchlings being released.

The final event of the night was releasing the turtles that had hatched that day. The ranger took us back to the beach with a small basket of baby turtles. She drew a line in the sand and asked us to stay behind the line and then gently released them from the basket. We got to watch them scurry down the beach to the sea, which was adorable to see. You weren’t allowed to take videos at this point, and the lighting was low so most photos will come out a bit blurry.

After the baby turtles reached the sea, it was time to head to bed. Before doing that though, I highly recommend looking up. The sky was beautiful and you could see so many stars. You can’t stay on the beach, but you get a good view from the paths leading to the accomdation. I stood close enough to reception to use the WIFI to back up my photos while I looked up at the stars.

The whole process, from first seeing the turtles to releasing the hatchlings took just under an hour. After this, it was time to head back to my room as it was an early start the next morning to head back to Sandakan.

Would I recommend this?

Photo showing a monitor lizard walking across the sand. To the background of the image is grass, suggesting that the sand might be a path. There are two lines in the sand that look like tracks starting in the background and winding throughout the image. The width between the lines suggests it might be the tracks of a suitcase that somebody has pulled through the sand. — Almost immediately after arriving on the island, I spotted a monitor lizard just crawling around.

I absolutely loved spending one night on Turtle Island. You get lots of time to relax on the island before seeing the turtles. I enjoyed the buffet and my room was very comfortable with both a fan and AC. Given I booked direct, I thought it was excellent value and I would happily go back on a future trip. The time that you spend waiting before seeing the turtles can be a bit long, but that will be different every night. There is WiFi available where you wait, but I spent most of the time chatting with other travellers. It is a bit expensive if you’re on a budget, but I felt it was definitely worth the price! Sadly there isn’t an option to stay longer. I would happily have stayed a second night and done it all again!

Do you think this sounds worth it? Would you spend one night on Turtle island? Is there anywhere else that you would recommend to see turtles laying eggs?

Where is Turtle Island?

How to book Turtle Island