Stilt village of Filipino immigrants at Pulau GayaStilt village of Filipino immigrants at Pulau Gaya
photo sourcehttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pulau_Gaya_immigrant_dwellings.jpg
authorshipThien Zie Yung
photo licensing

Pulau Gaya (GPS: 6.01799, 116.02984) is the biggest island in the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park in Sabah. The name cames from a Bajau word "Gayo", which means big. It is also the closest of the islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park to Kota Kinabalu. The island covers an area of 15 square kilometers, and its hills reach a height of 300 meters or about 1000 feet.

Covered with dense tropical jungle, Pulau Gaya has been a forest reserve since 1923. The island is well developed in terms of tourism and environmental development. It has a luxurious 5-star resort, the Gayana Eco Resort (tel: 088 301131, www.gayana-resort.com) which is also the site for the Marine Ecology Research Centre, which aims to create and enhance appreciation of the marine ecology.

The side of Pulau Gaya facing Kota Kinabalu hosts a growing stilt village of Filipino illegal immigrants, making that part of the island a high-crime frontierland. Police Bay is probably the best swimming beach on Pulau Gaya. It is a 400-meter stretch of white sand that slopes gently into the crystal clear water.

Getting there

Ferry services is provided by Gayana Eco Resort. There are daily runs from 8:00 am to 11:00 pm. The journey takes about 1.5 to 2 hours and costs RM15.

Pulau Gaya is on the Map of Kota Kinabalu

Back to Discover Kota Kinabalu, Sabah; list of Islands in Sabah and Islands in Malaysia

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

Discover with Timothy videos on Sabah

What to see when in Sabah? Here are some suggestions from my videos.

Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

About this website



Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.

Copyright © 2003-2025 Timothy Tye. All Rights Reserved.