Tawau Hot Springs (The Gaharu Resort & Hotspring)

The pools

Reviewers describe a set of descending hot pools divided by partitions, from very hot at the top to comfortable at the bottom, some under a roof, with a separate area of cold pools to cool down. Several mention a sulphur smell. The resort has not published a water temperature or chemistry. Older park listings give about 30°C to 60°C across the pools, for full soaking or foot soaking, and a 2022 visitor wrote that nobody knew the temperature, but the top pool felt hot enough to cook an egg.

Before the park was built, eTawau estimated about 100 spring heads across the site, on the stream banks and in the stream itself. Its older write-up, with photos taken before 2010, describes eight sulphurous springs along a 50 m stretch of mountain stream, as hot as household bath water. The water is acidic and you can smell hydrogen sulphide before you reach it.

What recent visitors say

The most recent detailed reviews are mixed. In March 2026 a visitor had the place to themselves on a Monday, but noted the stairs have no handrails for older visitors and the shower stalls were hard to use. In June 2026 another found the hot springs still hot and the grass well kept, but the toilets very dirty, the cold pools dirty-looking, litter in the river, empty stalls at the entrance and a rusting roof over the hot pools. A September 2025 reviewer put the problems down to a change of management.

The old park's own listings have gone quiet. Its Tripadvisor page has one written review from the past year, posted in August 2026, which calls the place dirty, badly managed and looking abandoned. Its separate Google Maps listing, Taman Rekreasi Airpanas Tawau, gives no phone, website or opening hours and has a single review from November 2025 with no comment.

Rooms

The resort's Trip.com listing says it opened in 2024 with 33 rooms. Check-in is 3pm–midnight and check-out is by noon. An April 2024 guest stayed in a jungle chalet and found some fittings not working, and mentioned newer, more modern units. Three Trip.com reviews from November 2024 praise the clean, large rooms and the natural hot spring. Room rates are only published on booking sites.

Is it the same as Tawau Hotspring Resort?

Possibly. A property called Tawau Hotspring Resort is listed on the same road, Jalan Hot Spring Extension, with 20 air-conditioned rooms, hot spring access and free parking. It has no reviews on either Trip.com or Tripadvisor. We could not confirm whether it is the same place under another name, so check the exact property and address when you book.

From public stream to resort

The stream was public land and a popular bathing and picnic spot until 2010, when it was leased to a private developer. Locals have paid to enter since then, and traditional blessing rituals at the spring are no longer allowed. The eTawau writer says the result was not what the public had hoped for.

When the park opened, it had a jogging track with 20 rest huts, chalets, toilets, a canteen, a restaurant, a prayer room and a bird house. Reviews from 2016 to 2018 describe an empty site, no one at the counter on a weekday, and a receptionist who said there was nothing inside except the spring showers. A May 2017 visitor paid RM10, found the pools small and the water "not so hot", and complained of mosquitoes, unfriendly staff and shade too far from the pools. We could not confirm which of the 2010 facilities survived the renovation.

The 2006 roadside spring

A 2006 blog post describes bubbling vents in a small stream off Jalan Ayer Panas Lama, reached by a short path from the road, with steam, white deposits and a drain-like sulphur smell. It does not mention a fee. We cannot tell whether this is a separate spot or part of the stream that is now inside the resort, and we have no report on it from the past 20 years.