Where to Stay in Tawau, Sabah

What is Tawau known for?

Tawau grew through the 1980s on lumber and cocoa farming, which turned a relatively new town into the third largest city of Sabah behind Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. Islands follow the harbour. Sebatik, Nunukan, Tarakan, Jolo and the Semporna islands all lie within reach by boat, and the crossings to them give Tawau its role as a transit point.

What are the main landmarks in Tawau?

Two fixed points, no more. The Tawau Japanese War Memorial records one part of the city's past and Holy Trinity Church covers another, and together they make up most of what a visitor walks to in Tawau District. Water supplies the rest.

Cowie Bay, the Celebes Sea and the boats out to Sebatik and Nunukan carry more of the city's interest than any building does.

What is the history of Tawau?

Most of the city is new. A founding year of 1658 sits in the record, but little of the modern city comes from that far back, since Tawau reads as a relatively new town whose growth belongs to the lumber and cocoa boom of the 1980s. Two industries did the work.

Timber from the interior and cocoa from the farms around the city carried Tawau past most of Sabah, leaving it third in the state behind Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. Malaysia holds it inside Sabah, and Tawau District takes its name from the city. Borneo is the island under all of it. The border has always mattered.

Tawau sits on the Semporna Peninsula against the frontier with North Kalimantan in Indonesia, with the Sulu Sea to the east and the Celebes Sea to the south at Cowie Bay, a position that gives the city its role as a transit point for the islands around it. Sebatik and Nunukan lie in that water. Tarakan, Jolo and the Semporna islands complete the group, and the movement between them fills the harbour of Tawau Division as much as any single industry ashore.

Holy Trinity Church and the Tawau Japanese War Memorial are what the built record keeps.

Where is Tawau?

Water surrounds three sides. Tawau occupies the Semporna Peninsula with the Sulu Sea to the east and the Celebes Sea to the south at Cowie Bay, and the frontier with North Kalimantan closes the land side. Borneo carries all of it.

Sebatik, Nunukan and Tarakan lie offshore within reach of the harbour, which leaves Tawau District turned outward rather than inland.

What is the climate of Tawau?

The Celebes Sea keeps it even. Tawau lies in the tropical band with water on two sides of the Semporna Peninsula, so the daily range stays narrow and the air holds its moisture from one month to the next. Downpours set the pattern.

The cocoa farming that built the city depends on them, and crossings to Sebatik or Nunukan answer to the state of the Sulu Sea rather than to any change of season.

How do you get to Tawau?

Sea crossings do most of the work. Sebatik, Nunukan, Tarakan, Jolo and the Semporna islands are all reached by boat from Tawau, which is the connection the harbour is known for. The land route runs long.

Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan both lie well away across Sabah, so arrivals from inside the state are a serious journey rather than a hop, and the border with Indonesia adds its own movement from North Kalimantan.