Lifestyle

8 Things to Do in Kundasang and Ranau, Sabah 2026: What Every Gate Charges, and the Age Bands That Match Nowhere

Kundasang is the one part of Malaysia where the MyKad in your wallet is worth more than anywhere else. At Kinabalu Park, a Malaysian adult pays RM10 to walk in and a foreign visitor pays RM50. To climb the mountain, a Malaysian permit is RM100 and an international permit is RM400. The gap is five to one at the gate and four to one on the summit. The catch is that every operator in the district draws its free and half-price age lines in a different place: Sabah Parks lets Malaysian children under 12 in free, Desa Dairy Farm stops at under 7, and Sosodikon Hill stops at 6. We pulled the published fee tables from Sabah Parks, the Desa Dairy Farm ticketing portal, Sabah Tourism Board and Sabah Tea Resort on 29 August 2026 and added them up for a family of four.

Marcus Wong28 August 202614 min readUpdated 29 Aug 2026

Kundasang sits at about 1,900 metres on the shoulder of Mount Kinabalu, two hours by road from Kota Kinabalu, and Ranau is the district town below it. Between them they hold the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Malaysian Borneo, the country's highest mountain, a working dairy farm, a war memorial to the Sandakan death marches and a hot spring with a canopy walkway strung through the trees.

They also hold something the brochures skip: a set of published fee tables that use five different definitions of "child" and two completely different prices for the same seat depending on which passport you carry.

Every figure below came off an official source on 29 August 2026: Sabah Parks' own park pages, the Desa Dairy Farm online ticketing portal run by Desa Cattle (Sabah) Sdn Bhd, Sabah Tourism Board's destination pages and Sabah Tea Resort's own rate listings. Where nobody publishes a price, we say so.

The two-tier system, in plain numbers

Malaysia prices its protected areas on citizenship, not residency, and Sabah applies it more steeply than most states.

Kinabalu Park conservation fee: RM10 Malaysian adult against RM50 international. Five times.
Mount Kinabalu climbing permit: RM100 Malaysian adult against RM400 international. Four times.
Poring canopy walkway: RM5 Malaysian adult against RM10 international. Twice — but closed since 30 July 2025, see below.
Desa Dairy Farm: RM10 Malaysian adult against RM20 international. Twice.
Sosodikon Hill: RM5 Malaysian adult against RM10 international. Twice.

So the five-to-one spread is a Sabah Parks policy, not a district-wide one. The private and community-run attractions sit at a flat double.

Carry the physical MyKad. Every one of these gates prices on the card, not on the accent.

Where the age bands stop matching

This is the part that trips up families, because the five operators here draw four different lines.

Sabah Parks (Kinabalu Park and Poring): free for Malaysians 12 and below, RM5 for 13 to 17, RM10 from 18. Malaysians aged 60 and above and persons with disabilities also enter free.
Desa Dairy Farm: free below 7, RM7 for 7 to 12, RM10 from 13. Persons with disabilities free.
Sosodikon Hill: free 6 and below, RM3 for 7 to 12, RM5 from 13.

A ten-year-old Malaysian therefore walks into Kinabalu Park free and pays at both the dairy farm and the hill. A fifteen-year-old pays RM5 at the park, RM10 at the farm and RM5 on the hill. There is no single "child" price in Kundasang, and no operator here honours another's definition.

What a two-day Kundasang trip actually costs at the gates

Take two Malaysian adults and two children aged 8 and 11, doing the standard circuit.

Kinabalu Park HQ: RM10 plus RM10 for the adults, children free. RM20.
Kinabalu Park Botanical Garden: RM4 plus RM4, children RM2 plus RM2. RM12.
Poring Hot Springs conservation fee: RM20 for the adults, children free. RM20.
Desa Dairy Farm: RM10 plus RM10 adults, RM7 plus RM7 children. RM34.
Sosodikon Hill: RM5 plus RM5 adults, RM3 plus RM3 children. RM16.

Total gate spend: RM102 for a family of four across the five gates that are open. The Poring canopy walkway would have added RM16, but it is closed — see the section below.

Now run the identical itinerary on foreign passports, and watch what happens to the children.

Kinabalu Park HQ: RM50 plus RM50 adults, RM25 plus RM25 children. RM150.
Kinabalu Park Botanical Garden: RM5 plus RM5 adults, RM3 plus RM3 children. RM16.
Poring Hot Springs conservation fee: RM50 plus RM50 adults, RM25 plus RM25 children. RM150.
Desa Dairy Farm: RM20 plus RM20 adults, RM10 plus RM10 children. RM60.
Sosodikon Hill: RM10 plus RM10 adults, RM5 plus RM5 children. RM30.

Total gate spend: RM406, almost exactly four times the Malaysian bill for the same five gates.

The gap widens past the headline five-to-one because of the children, and this is the single most-copied error in Kundasang trip budgets. Sabah Parks admits Malaysians aged 12 and below free; the international column has no free band at all — its remarks field is blank where the Malaysian one carries the exemption. So an eight-year-old on a foreign passport pays RM25 at Kinabalu Park and RM25 again at Poring, where a Malaysian eight-year-old pays nothing twice. Carry the free-child rule across to the international table, as most published estimates quietly do, and you understate the foreign bill by RM100 on this itinerary alone.

One thing in this guide is closed right now

Sabah Parks' noticeboard, re-checked on 29 August 2026, carries a standing notice repeated on the Poring park page itself: the canopy walkway at the Poring Hot Springs substation has been temporarily closed since 30 July 2025 and remains closed until further notice, for major maintenance and upgrading works. That is more than thirteen months, with no reopening date given.

The RM5 Malaysian and RM10 international walkway rates are still printed on Poring's published fee table, which is exactly why they keep reappearing in itineraries and trip budgets. They are not currently chargeable. Nothing else at Poring is affected: the hot baths, the slide pool, the enclosed bathtubs and the Rafflesia blooming observation all stand as listed.

The same page settles a second thing almost every guide has wrong. Poring is open 8am to 5pm, Monday to Sunday — the same window as the main park, not a shorter one — with the gate's last entry at 3pm. The 9am to 4pm figure in wide circulation is the Butterfly Farm's hours. For a day trip out of Kota Kinabalu the 3pm last entry, not the 5pm closing time, is the number that decides whether you make it.

Now the eight, with what each one publishes.

Published entrance fees read from Sabah Parks, the Desa Dairy Farm ticketing portal and Sabah Tourism Board on 29 August 2026. "Not published" means no official source states a fee, not that entry is free. The international column is adult-only: unlike the Malaysian table, it has no free band for children, so a foreign child pays RM25 at Kinabalu Park and RM25 again at Poring.

Attraction	Malaysian adult	Malaysian child	International adult	Hours
Kinabalu Park HQ	RM10 (18+)	RM5 (13-17), free 12 and below	RM50	8am-5pm daily
Kinabalu Park Botanical Garden	RM4	RM2	RM5	Last entry 3pm
Mount Kinabalu climbing permit	RM100	RM50 (17 and below)	RM400	Advance booking only
Poring Hot Springs	RM10	RM5, free 12 and below	RM50	8am-5pm daily, last entry 3pm
Poring canopy walkway	Closed	Closed	Closed	Closed since 30 Jul 2025, no reopening date
Desa Dairy Farm	RM10 (13+)	RM7 (7-12), free below 7	RM20	Online booking only
Sosodikon Hill	RM5 (13+)	RM3 (7-12), free 6 and below	RM10	6am-5pm daily
Kundasang War Memorial	Not published	Not published	Not published	Not published

Kinabalu Park headquarters: a World Heritage Site for RM10, and a botanical garden that is billed separately

Gazetted in 1964, Kinabalu Park covers 754 square kilometres and was Sabah's first park. Its centrepiece is Mount Kinabalu at 4,095.2 metres, which Sabah Parks describes as the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea. The park is open **8am to 5pm, Monday to Sunday**. The **conservation fee is RM10 for Malaysians aged 18 and above and RM5 for those 17 and below**, with Malaysians **aged 12 and below, above 60, and persons with disabilities admitted free of charge**. International visitors pay **RM50 and RM25**. Two things catch first-timers. First, the **Botanical Garden inside the park has its own separate fee**: RM4 for a Malaysian adult and RM2 for a Malaysian child, RM5 and RM3 for international visitors, with **last entry at 3pm**, an hour and a half before the park itself closes. Second, the park boundary stretches more than 100 kilometres across three districts and is monitored from substations at **Sayap, Serinsim and Monggis**, each charging the same conservation fee as headquarters. If you are heading for one of those rather than the main gate at Kundasang, you are still paying the park entry, not a cheaper local rate.

Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Climbing Mount Kinabalu: the permit is only the start of the bill, and the insurance schedule tells you who it covers

Sabah Parks publishes the climbing fees separately from the park entry, and they are the sharpest citizenship split in the district. The **Mount Kinabalu climbing permit is RM100 for a Malaysian aged 18 and above and RM50 for a Malaysian aged 17 and below**, against **RM400 and RM200 for international climbers**: a four-to-one gap on the same trail. What the published permit does not include is the conservation fee, the compulsory mountain guide, accommodation on the mountain or transport, all of which are booked separately, which is why a climb quoted end to end runs into four figures for a Malaysian and considerably more for a visitor. Sabah Parks also publishes the climbing insurance coverage schedule in full, and it is worth reading before you assume you are covered: **accidental death is covered at RM70,000 for a climber aged between 13 and 75, and RM50,000 for a climber under 13 or above 75**, with lifelong disability resulting from an accident covered on the same two bands, and accidental costs at **RM5,000**. Permits are limited and issued through Sabah Parks' reservation system rather than at the gate on the day, so the mountain is the one thing in Kundasang you cannot decide on at breakfast.

Photo: kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Poring Hot Springs: the most itemised price list in Sabah, right down to the locker

Poring sits about 40 kilometres from Kundasang on the Ranau side and is open **daily from 8am to 5pm, Monday to Sunday, with the gate's last entry at 3pm** — the same window as the main park, not the shorter 9am to 4pm most guides quote, which is actually the Butterfly Farm's hours. Plan around the 3pm cut-off rather than the 5pm close. Entry is the same **Sabah Parks conservation fee: RM10 Malaysian adult, RM5 for 17 and below, free for Malaysians 12 and below, above 60 and persons with disabilities; RM50 and RM25 international.** Everything inside is then priced separately, and Sabah Parks publishes all of it. The **canopy walkway is listed at RM5 for a Malaysian adult and RM3 for a child, RM10 and RM8 for international visitors — but it has been closed since 30 July 2025 and Sabah Parks confirms it remains closed until further notice** for major maintenance and upgrading works, so that line is currently unchargeable. The **slide pool is RM3 per Malaysian for three hours and RM5 per international visitor for three hours.** For the hot baths themselves: an **open bathtub is RM10 per unit for the first three hours and RM10 for each subsequent hour**, charged at the same rate to Malaysians and international visitors; an **enclosed deluxe bathtub is RM35 per hour per room** and a **standard enclosed bathtub RM25 per hour per room**, with **locker rental at RM5 for the whole day**. Two rarities are also on the list: a **Rafflesia blooming observation at RM15 for Malaysians and RM30 for international visitors**, which only runs when a flower is actually open, and an **orchid species adoption at RM100 per person**. The nearest waterfall to the hot springs is Kipungit.

Photo: Arthuralee, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Desa Dairy Farm: the one gate in Kundasang you cannot pay at, and a timetable worth planning around

The 199-hectare highland farm run by **Desa Cattle (Sabah) Sdn Bhd (Co. No. 042957-P)** is the postcard picture of Kundasang, and it is also the one attraction here that has stopped taking money at the door. Tickets are sold through the farm's **own online ticketing portal only**, you must register with a valid email address to make a booking, and the calendar shows availability by date with peak-season pricing flagged separately. Turning up without a booking is the single most common way to waste a morning in Kundasang. The published fees are **RM10 for a Malaysian adult aged 13 and above and RM20 for an international adult; RM7 for a Malaysian child aged 7 to 12 and RM10 for an international child; and RM0 for children below 7 and for persons with disabilities**, with children required to be accompanied by a parent or guardian throughout. The farm also publishes its activity timetable, which is what actually determines when you should arrive: **milk processing and packaging viewing through a viewing panel from 8am until the order is completed; cow barn viewing 8.30am to 12.30pm; calf feeding activities 8.30am to 4.30pm with an animal break from 12pm to 1.30pm; and milking process viewing, again through a panel, from 2pm to 4pm.** Arrive at 1pm and you will find the calves resting and the milking not yet started.

Photo: Wiki Asmah, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kundasang War Memorial: four gardens, established 1962, and no published fee anywhere official

The memorial commemorates the Australian and British prisoners of war who died at Sandakan and on the death marches to Ranau during the Second World War, and Sabah Tourism Board's own page also credits the people of North Borneo who risked their lives to help them. **Established in 1962**, it was one of the first memorials of its kind. It is laid out as **four gardens: the Australian Garden, the English Garden, the Borneo Garden, and the Contemplation Garden and Pool**, each representing a different nationality, planted with pine and roses so that walking it feels closer to an English garden than a Bornean hillside. Visitors can also watch a short video on the history of the Sandakan Death March. Here is the honest gap: **Sabah Tourism Board's page for the memorial publishes neither an entrance fee nor an opening time**, listing only a product contact, Mr Sevee Chararuks on +60 19 899 2041, with the page last reviewed on 18 September 2024. Third-party listings circulate a MyKad rate of around RM3, a rate of about RM2 for students in uniform and MyKid holders and about RM10 for foreign visitors, along with hours of roughly 8.30am to 5pm, but no official source we could reach states any of it. Treat those numbers as unverified, carry small notes, and ring the contact number if the visit matters to your schedule.

Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sabah Tea Resort, Ranau: a longhouse bed for RM80, and a war memorial hidden in the tea

About 22 kilometres from Ranau town, the working tea estate at Sabah Tea publishes its full room rates, and the spread between them is unusually wide for one property. A **Longhouse room is RM80 per room** for up to three adults, with a shared bathroom, walk-in showers with heaters, mosquito nets, ceiling fans and individual door locks. A **Cottage is RM250 per room** for up to three adults with air-conditioning, a flat-screen television, a walk-in shower and a water heater, **plus a RM30 surcharge from April to September**, which covers most of the school-holiday season. At the top, the **Sunrise Bungalow is RM1,500 per unit** with four bedrooms sleeping up to nine adults, and the **Garden Bungalow is RM2,700 per unit** with six bedrooms, also up to nine adults, both with a private kitchen and barbecue area. Every rate is stated as **not inclusive of meals and activities**. The estate also holds a piece of history most visitors drive past: the **Quailey's Hill Memorial**, built by the Sabah Tea management for Private Allan Quailey, an Australian soldier among the 1,500 Australians moved from Singapore to the Sandakan prisoner-of-war camp, who survived the camp's forced labour, was placed on the January 1945 march to Ranau and was killed when he could not keep up. Historians Lynette Silver and Tham Yau Kong traced the march route and found it ran through what is now the tea garden. The memorial is included in the Sabah Tea Garden Tour.

Image: Sabah Tea Resort

Sosodikon Hill: 400 metres, ten minutes, RM5, and no guide required

The best view-to-effort ratio in the district, and the one attraction here that a grandparent and a seven-year-old can do together without booking anything. The name comes from the Dusun word **sodik**, a traditional trap once set on this hillside for deer, squirrels, birds and other small animals; **Sosodikon** means the place where traps are laid. The entrance sits **adjacent to the dairy farm village entrance near Desa Dairy Farm, about 800 metres off the main road towards Kampung Mesilau**. From the starting point to the peak is approximately **400 metres, and the walk normally takes about 10 minutes**. Sabah Tourism Board states plainly that the trek is suitable for families and all ages including children and the elderly, that **no guide is required**, and that visitors simply register by walk-in at the counter during operational hours. The **counter and access are open 6am to 5pm daily**, which makes this the only sunrise-legal viewpoint in Kundasang with a staffed gate. Fees are **RM5 for a Malaysian adult aged 13 and above and RM3 for a Malaysian child aged 7 to 12; RM10 and RM5 for international visitors; and free for children aged 6 and below.** The board notes the price is correct at time of publication, which is a fair reminder to carry a little extra.

Image: Sabah Tourism Board

The Kundasang market and Pekan Nabalu: the two stops that cost nothing

Kundasang's roadside vegetable market is the reason half the vehicles on this road are pulled over, and it is free. This is highland farming country, and the stalls run to the produce that only grows well up here, alongside fruit, nuts, leafy greens, pickles and condiments sold by the growers themselves. Twelve kilometres before Kinabalu Park, **Pekan Nabalu** is the other free stop and the one locals treat as the standard pit stop before Kundasang town. Sabah Tourism Board describes it as a small row of shoplots with a wide parking area, food and handicraft stalls run mostly by people from the area, **public washrooms, a mini-market and rows of restaurants**, and, above all, **a lookout point with Mount Kinabalu as the backdrop**. The board's own advice on when to shoot it is worth taking: the view is normally at its best in the morning and towards late evening, when the mountain is not covered in cloud. Getting there without a car is straightforward: take a minibus or taxi from **Jalan Padang Bus Station in Kota Kinabalu** heading for Kundasang or Ranau and tell the driver where you want to be dropped.

Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Poring canopy walkway open in 2026?

No. Sabah Parks' own noticeboard, checked on 29 August 2026, states that the canopy walkway at the Poring Hot Springs substation has been temporarily closed since 30 July 2025 and remains closed until further notice, due to ongoing major maintenance and upgrading works. No reopening date has been given, and the notice appears on both the Sabah Parks homepage and the Poring park page. The confusing part is that the walkway's fees are still printed on Poring's published fee table at RM5 for a Malaysian adult and RM3 for a Malaysian child, RM10 and RM8 international, which is why the RM5 keeps reappearing in trip budgets. It is not currently chargeable, so take RM16 out of the gate spend for a family of four. Everything else at Poring is unaffected: the conservation fee, the slide pool at RM3 per Malaysian for three hours, the open and enclosed bathtubs, the RM5 all-day locker and the Rafflesia blooming observation at RM15 Malaysian all stand as listed. Poring itself is open 8am to 5pm daily with the gate's last entry at 3pm.

Do I need to book Desa Dairy Farm in advance, or can I just drive up?

You need to book. Desa Cattle (Sabah) Sdn Bhd sells admission through its own online ticketing portal at farmbooking.desaplus.com, and the portal requires you to register with a valid email address before you can make a booking. The calendar shows availability by date and flags peak-season dates separately, so a busy school-holiday weekend can be full before you leave Kota Kinabalu. Published rates are RM10 for a Malaysian adult aged 13 and above, RM20 for an international adult, RM7 for a Malaysian child aged 7 to 12, RM10 for an international child, and free for children below 7 and for persons with disabilities, with children required to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Plan your arrival around the farm's published activity schedule rather than the opening hour: milk processing and packaging viewing runs from 8am, cow barn viewing from 8.30am to 12.30pm, calf feeding from 8.30am to 4.30pm with an animal break from 12pm to 1.30pm, and the milking process is viewable from 2pm to 4pm. Arriving at 1pm puts you in the one window when the animals are resting and the milking has not begun.

How much does the Kinabalu Park conservation fee cover, and is the climbing permit included?

They are two separate charges and Sabah Parks lists them on separate lines. The conservation fee is what you pay to enter the park at all: RM10 for a Malaysian aged 18 and above, RM5 for a Malaysian aged 17 and below, and free for Malaysians aged 12 and below, aged above 60, and persons with disabilities, against RM50 and RM25 for international visitors. The Mount Kinabalu climbing permit is a separate RM100 for a Malaysian adult and RM50 for a Malaysian aged 17 and below, or RM400 and RM200 for international climbers. Neither includes the Botanical Garden inside the park, which charges its own RM4 for a Malaysian adult and RM2 for a Malaysian child, with last entry at 3pm. Neither includes the compulsory mountain guide, accommodation on the mountain or transport, which are booked separately. Note also that the same conservation fee applies at the Sayap, Serinsim and Monggis substations, so entering the park away from the main Kundasang gate does not get you a cheaper rate.

Why does a Malaysian child get in free at Kinabalu Park but pay at Desa Dairy Farm?

Because the two operators use different age bands and neither is obliged to follow the other. Sabah Parks admits Malaysians aged 12 and below free of charge, charges RM5 from 13 to 17, and RM10 from 18, and also admits Malaysians aged above 60 and persons with disabilities free. Desa Dairy Farm, a private company, admits children below 7 free, charges RM7 from 7 to 12, and RM10 from 13, with persons with disabilities free. Sosodikon Hill, run by its own management, admits children aged 6 and below free, charges RM3 from 7 to 12, and RM5 from 13. So a ten-year-old Malaysian enters Kinabalu Park and Poring free but pays RM7 at the dairy farm and RM3 on the hill. A fifteen-year-old pays at all three, at RM5, RM10 and RM5. The practical advice is to work out each gate separately rather than assuming one child rate travels with you, and to bring the physical MyKad or MyKid, because every one of these prices is set on the card rather than on where you say you live.

What else is worth adding around Ranau if I have a third day?

Bombon Marakau Village, which Sabah Tourism Board lists as roughly 10 minutes from Ranau town and about two and a half hours from Kota Kinabalu. Opened to the public in 2014 and managed and developed by the community itself, the village practises bombon, also known as tagal, a river fish conservation system in which a stretch of river is closed to fishing so the stock recovers. The board says there are more than 20 species of habituated fish in the Mansahaban river, and that what makes Marakau distinctive is the brightly coloured koi visible through clear water. The same visit can be paired with a hike up Dompurungan Hill at 901 metres, from which the board describes a panorama of 45 surrounding villages and a glimpse of Mount Kinabalu, with an occasional chance of a Rafflesia in bloom on the trail. The village lists a community contact, Hamdan, on +60 13 856 1101. Also in the district are Mount Kinabalu Golf Club, an 18-hole course whose 14th is a 142-metre par three played across the Mesilau East River, and Miki Survival Camp, reached by an approximately three-hour hike from Kiau Nuluh village with leech socks strongly advised.

#Kundasang#Ranau#Sabah#Kinabalu Park#Mount Kinabalu#Poring Hot Springs#Desa Dairy Farm#Entrance Fees

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8 Things to Do in Kundasang and Ranau, Sabah 2026: What Every Gate Charges, and the Age Bands That Match Nowhere

The two-tier system, in plain numbers

Where the age bands stop matching

What a two-day Kundasang trip actually costs at the gates

Total gate spend: RM406, almost exactly four times the Malaysian bill for the same five gates.

One thing in this guide is closed right now

Related reads

Kinabalu Park headquarters: a World Heritage Site for RM10, and a botanical garden that is billed separately

Climbing Mount Kinabalu: the permit is only the start of the bill, and the insurance schedule tells you who it covers

Poring Hot Springs: the most itemised price list in Sabah, right down to the locker

Desa Dairy Farm: the one gate in Kundasang you cannot pay at, and a timetable worth planning around

Kundasang War Memorial: four gardens, established 1962, and no published fee anywhere official

Sabah Tea Resort, Ranau: a longhouse bed for RM80, and a war memorial hidden in the tea

Sosodikon Hill: 400 metres, ten minutes, RM5, and no guide required

The Kundasang market and Pekan Nabalu: the two stops that cost nothing

Frequently Asked Questions

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