How to Get from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei

If you are travelling in Borneo and want to get from Sabah to Sarawak, the natural way is to go through Brunei! We flew into Kota Kinabalu and decided to travel via 2 boats to get to Brunei. In this post, I am going to explain how to get from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei. From Brunei, you can take a bus onward to Miri if your final destination happens to be Sarawak. However, who wouldn’t want to stay a few nights in the wonderful country Brunei?

How to Get from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei

You Take 2 Ferries!

This is the best route to connect you from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei. All the blogs that I have read recommend that you buy tickets the day before. By the time we realized that the ticketing agent was already closed for the day—whoopsie!

We decided to wing it since we wanted to take the 8 am ferry on Friday morning. We woke up extremely early so we could get to the ferry terminal at 7 am. Since we are travelling at the end of the busy season so we had no problem getting on the ferry!

Where to Catch the Ferry

You catch the ferry from Jesselton Point. As mentioned, if you are travelling during the busy season (May-September) then it could be smart to purchase your ticket the day before. The ticket counter is open 6:30 am-4:00 pm.

We took a cab from our hostel to Jesselton Point since we did not feel like carrying our heavy bags. It only cost 4 MYR (1.25 CAD/8.5 SEK).

Price of Tickets

The tickets cost 63.5 MYR (20 CAD/136 SEK) each which includes the tariff, which is an extra tax. This is quite expensive compared to your other costs in Malaysia.

Ferry Route

1. Arrive at Jesselton Point at least 30 minutes before the time of your ferry. Our ferry left 5 minutes early, so be there on time since they board early!

View of the ferry and Jesselton Point Harbour

2. If you take the 8 am ferry like us, the ferry leaves Jesselton Point punctually at 8 am and arrives at Labuan around 11:30 am. This is a rocky journey, so my plans of blogging when straight out the window. Make sure you use gravol if you are prone to being seasick like me.

PRO TIP: Sit up front so you get extra leg room (since no one is in front of you) and you are close to the TV to watch movies. On our ferry, they played Deadpool 2!

 

 

3. Once you arrive at Labuan, you will have some time to eat lunch and shop at duty-free. The ferry to Brunei leaves at 1:30 pm. If you want to buy alcohol, now is your chance. You can not buy alcohol in Brunei. We had no need to buy it though!

• PRO TIP: Eat across the street at Soon Hoon Coffee Shop. It was very cheap and delicious!

4. At 1 pm, they will start boarding for your ferry. You have to go to the ticket agent first to pay 5 MYR (1.50 CAD/11 SEK) each for leaving the ferry terminal. I didn’t understand how you could even stay in the terminal since it kind of forces you to walk out. Oh well, you have to walk out if you want to shop duty-free or eat!

5. This boat ride is shorter (but still rocky!) and we arrived in Brunei shortly before 3 pm.

6. Oh, wait! You are not where you want to be. You are at Serasa Ferry Terminal.

7. If you are like us and want to go to Bandar Seri Begawan (aka BSB, the capital city) then you have 2 options to get there.

• The easy/expensive option: You pay a taxi around 20 BND (19 CAD/130 SEK). Just remember to get out of the terminal quite fast since there are not many taxis.
• The harder/cheaper option: This is the option we did since we like to save money. You wait outside the ferry terminal and eventually, a bus will arrive (it took about 30 minutes). The bus looks like a shuttle bus! You climb aboard and pay 1 BND (1 CAD/6.5 SEK) and the driver will give you a receipt. Keep this! The bus will take you even further away from BSB to a port town called Muara. Another bus (once again, it looks like a shuttle) was waiting for us there and we just showed our receipt to ride that bus all the way to BSB Bus Station.

8. The journey takes just over an hour from the ferry terminal to downtown BSB. But it costs 1 dollar! Then we took a local bus (still looking like a shuttle) 2 stops near our hotel. We did have to pay the fee again (a ferry steep fee of 1 BND, hehe!).

 

9. So, we ended up arriving at our hotel closer to 5 pm. It was quite a long travel day.

 

Well, that’s how to get from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei. Taking the bus from the ferry terminal in Brunei to BSB is a bit confusing but definitely worth the money that you save! My one recommendation is to look up which bus line (or at least bus stop) your accommodation is near to so you know what bus to take once you arrive at BSB Bus Station.

xx

Jasmine