Take nothing but photos
and leave nothing but footprints…

Is there a monsoon season in January? Is it suitable to view the turtles laying eggs at this time? Or is only hatching?

Hi, Is it possible to book by myself and not through an agent? I feel like their fees are really high,

Thanks,

Iman

Hello! Is there an option for not spending a night on Turtle Island- but leaving after seeing the hatchlings?

Hi,

We we’re wondering if it would be possible to book a 1D/1N at the turtle island for 2 persons on the 20feb or the 21feb.
If yes, what are the prices?

Thank you for your help!
Kind regards,
Eveline

I would like to take a tour in December, from the 13.12 to the next day as a single traveller; is anyone around to put down the costs as another single traveller?

look forward to hear from you

Hello all!
Im going to travel solo to sandakan on the 10th.
I am planning to visit the turtle island on the 12th or on the 13th of October, 2015, and stay over for a night.
Any chance someone is planning on going there in the same time? and we can share the cost of the accomodation?

Hi there,

Can you tell me how long it takes to get from the Crystal Quest’s jetty to the Sandakan airport? I am looking flying out to Mulu at 10.55am and wanted to know if I’d have enough time to make that flight after staying at Turtle Island.

1- What time the boat arrives back to Sandakan
2- How long it takes to get to the airport from the jetty

Many thanks in advance

Anton

Hi
Were hoping to book a 2 day 1 night tour to Turtle Island / Sepilock Orangutan between the 16th – 20th of January.

If you could please contact us ASAP so we can start organising our trip it would be greatly appreicated.

Kin Regards
Kristy

We would like to visit turtle island from 9th August to 11th. is it possible ? How much is it?
Thanks Dominik

Hi all, I just returned from turtle island this morning with my girlfriend and we had a fantastic time. We struggled to find much useful info online so thought I’d try to help.

Our trip to Sabah was quite last minute so I only emailed a few days prior to wanting to visit turtle island. We tried all the email addresses mentioned on this website and others and eventually (within a few days) received a response from rowenapcm@gmail.com and (Mark) jumat@stwadventure.com. I received the emails whilst at Kuala Lumpur airport just before our flight to sandakan so I figured we’d leave it and check the situation when we got there before responding to the emails.

Rowena said there was no availability for our preferred day (the following day) and quoted us 1120RM (£205 / $340) for an overnight stay on the island followed by a trip the orangutan centre and rainforest discovery centre in sepilok the next day. We weren’t interested in the second day as we planned to do these activities separately ourselves.

Mark quoted us 700RM (£128 / $213) for the one day one night trip on the day that we wanted (which made me think Rowena’s response was a little strange).

We arrived in sandakan around 2pm and started to ask around as we wanted to leave the next morning. Our hostel quoted us 650RM and after asking 3-4 places on the high street we booked with Sandakan Hotspot for 610RM (£110 $185). If you are going to spend a day in sandakan before you go, I would suggest this is the best approach to booking (at least it worked out for us – might not have so much luck in high season). I felt a lot more comfortable deals I with people face to face rather than email.

The way the booking seems to work is that Crystal Quest run the show and are the only company controlling trips to the island and other travel agencies work as a third party and make a booking with them on your behalf. There is no way of booking accommodation or trips as an individual, you have to go through CQ.

There is no point in going if you don’t stay over night as you won’t really see anything. The laying of the eggs, their burying in the hatchery and the release of the youngsters all happens at night (for us it was roughly 9-10pm, depends when the first turtle arrives). I would also suggest there was no point in staying more than one night as you will just see exactly the same thing the next night.

I was a little worried that we were going in low season, as it happens this doesn’t matter as you only see the first turtle that arrives laying eggs and one batch of young released. So whether one turtle or 100 turtles land on the island on the night you are there you have roughly the same experience.

The island has a lovely beach, with a desert island feel – you can walk around the coast in around 20-30minutes. There was great snorkeling with amazing coral and to many species of fish to count. The accommodation was better than we expected – clean, air conditioned, private bathroom. The food was reasonable and we were never hungry. But you’re not paying your money for the food and accommodation, you’re paying for the incredible experience.

All in all, more expensive than we would normally like but we’re only going to visit Borneo once and this shouldn’t be missed.

Hi Mark,
Would it be possible to make reservation for 2 persons on23 of january, please? Thank you.

May I have the email contact for the booking? I tried to use jumat@stwadventure.com but it fails to deliver.

Thank you.

Hi,

Do you know if it is possible to volunteer on the island? I’ve been trying to find information, but I cannot seem to find anything other than general information about Turtle Island.

Hello

i travel with my wife and children with 2 years old. January is the season nesting? what is the best season to see the turtle nesting?

Regards

Hi,
we like to visit the selingan turtle island by February 2014, i have called the Crystal Quest but no one answer and emailed the agent that you recommend but still no answer, do you know any other agent that i can contact to booked for the island trip.

thank you