Planning on climbing Mount Kinabalu, SE Asia’s tallest mountain?
Some climbing packages include transportation from Kota Kinabalu, but if you are wanting to save some ringgit by doing it yourself, it’s easy and inexpensive to make the journey on your own.
Here’s how to get from Kota Kinabalu (KK), Malaysian Borneo’s capital, to Kinabalu National Park, the location of Mt. Kinabalu.
How to get from KK Airport to the City Centre
Transportation to the Park leaves from the city centre. If you are flying in to KK Airport, the cheapest way to reach the city centre is by the airport shuttle bus. Tickets cost RM5 for adults and RM3 for children. The bus departs from both Terminals 1 & 2. A recent visitor has informed us that the ticket counter at Terminal 1 is located next to Tourism Malaysia’s office right outside the arrivals hall. Shuttle buses stop at Centre Point, Horizon Hotel, and Padang Merdeka. For onward transportation to Kinabalu National Park, you’ll be wanting to get off at Padang Merdeka.
Here is the timetable as of February 2014
Terminal 1 - Terminal 2 - Kota Kinabalu
08:00, 08:45, 10:00, 10:50, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00, 17:00, 18:00, 19:00
Terminal 2 - Kota Kinabalu
08:30, 09:20, 10:20, 11:20, 12:20, 13:20, 14:20, 15:20, 16:20, 17:20, 18:20, 19:20
Terminal 2 - Terminal 1
08:00, 09:30, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 13:30, 14:30, 15:30, 16:30, 17:30, 18:30, 19:30
Alternatively, pre-paid taxis operate for RM30 to any address in the city centre.
How to get from KK City Centre to Kinabalu National Park
You can catch a mini-bus to Kinabalu National Park from Padang Merdeka.
Just look out for the vehicles bound for Ranau. There is no timetable for such services and they operate on a “when they fill up” basis, which means you may need to wait a while for it to depart.
While the drivers obviously want to leave with a full bus, they too have limits and ours said that he would be leaving at 2pm regardless. Despite there still being a couple of seats left, we did depart at 2pm (an hour and a half wait), as promised.
We paid RM25 each for the two hour journey. Don’t leave your journey until too late in the day as public bus services tend to wind down late afternoon. As a general rule of thumb, departures are usually more frequent until noon so heading there in the morning should decrease waiting time.
Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: How to get from KK to Kinabalu National Park
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