Tawau Hills Park Sulphur Hot Spring

What you find at the end of the trail

The Geological Survey mapped eleven springs along about 250 m of the upper Tawau River in 1989, at roughly 370 m above sea level. They measured 25 to 33.7°C and get warmer towards the south (upstream). Several outlets are on the riverbed or just below the waterline, so the spring water mixes straight into the river. A 2010 visitor called the water lukewarm, 25 to 30°C.

The main spring is a calm, shallow pool of clear, cyan-tinted water under a silicified rock. That visitor described white sulphur-coated stones, creamy yellow foam on the surface, soft white sediment and hair-like sulphur threads swaying in the current. You smell hydrogen sulphide (rotten eggs) from about 150 m before the first spring. In dry spells the flow can drop to a trickle.

The water

This is acid sulphate water: pH 3.68 to 4.1 at the springs, against about 7.5 in the river upstream. The one spring that was gauged gave only 0.15 litres a second at 31.5°C, into a river carrying about 1,600 litres a second. Geologists think it is either steam-heated groundwater or groundwater mixed with gas, rising on the edge of the Maria volcanic complex, probably from the same heat source as Apas Kiri and Sungai Balung, a hotter group of springs inside the park with no public trail to it.

Locals believe the water helps skin complaints, and a 2000 study said bathing there was popular. There is no pool or changing room, though visitors in November 2024 and January 2026 found a small shelter at the end of the trail with the springs beside it on the river bank. Dip your feet if you like, but there is no soak to be had.

The trail

Follow the Kolam Air Panas signs from park headquarters. The suspension bridge over the Tawau River at 1.5 km is the halfway mark, and the trail gets hilly after it. In 2010 a visitor found missing signs and an unmaintained path: the marked trail ended at the river short of the main spring, and reaching it meant pushing about 200 m upstream through forest, which took over half an hour. A park guide that day first said there was no hot spring at all.

Researchers in 2000 put the walk at about an hour each way. The 2010 visitor, walking slowly and stopping for photos, took three hours. Their first attempt, in 2006, ended when heavy rain flooded the river and cut the trail.

Recent Google reviews put the walk at 3.5 to 3.7 km from the gate. In November 2024 a visitor found most of it flat but the last kilometre muddy and hilly, with fallen trees on the track, and in January 2026 a large fallen tree still made the final stretch hard to get past. That January visitor also found rubbish in the shelter and the spring water only a little warmer than the river. In July 2026 a visitor described warm water seeping up through the rocks and riverbed, with hundreds of butterflies over the river.

The park

Tawau Hills Park covers about 280 km² of lowland rainforest and was gazetted in 1979 mainly to protect Tawau's water catchment. Sabah Parks runs it. Chalets, hostels and a restaurant are run by KOKTAS, the Sabah Parks staff cooperative, and the park is popular with campers.

Combine it with

The Bukit Gelas waterfall trail (2.5 km) and a 900 m trail to a tree that eTawau calls the second-tallest tropical tree in the world start from the same headquarters. Closer to town, Tawau Hot Springs at Kampung Air Panas has built pools you can soak in, though recent reviews say it is run-down.