It's About Green in Sabah Tea Resort

Besides Cameron Highlands, Sabah also has its own homegrown tea plantation in Ranau, a town that takes more than 3 hours drive from the city center of Kota Kinabalu. Currently known as Sabah Tea Resort, it is the largest single commercial tea plantation as well as the top tea exporter in Borneo. Apart from that, Sabah Tea is the one and only organic farm tea in Borneo and one of the few in the world. 

GETTING TO SABAH TEA RESORT

Situated in Ranau town, Sabah Tea Resort is accessible by road and it is approximately more than 3 hours by car from Kota Kinabalu passing by Kinabalu National Park. Hence, I don't recommend to do  in a day trip cause you will be exhausted for driving more than 6 hours back and forth. It's wise to do 2 days 1 night trip and you can consider to overnight in either Kundasang or Mesilau. (If you need any recommendations for the stay and car rental, you can drop me a comment or send me an email)

#1: Ranau - Home of Sabah's tea

SABAH TEA RESORT

I have never been to this place before, not until recently and I went twice within a year - August last year and June this year. Like I expected, the place was pretty crowded cause many visitors came with a group of family and friends. There is a parking space provided for the visitors and it's free but it's wise to come early, especially before the lunch time cause it will be packed and sometimes might be ran out of parking space. There is no entrance fee to visit Sabah Tea Resort, except for the factory tour and also for the latest attraction which is climbing up the tree house.

#2: The latest attraction in Sabah Tea Resort - Climbing up a Borneo tree house. Entrance fee: RM5 for adult and RM3 for student and children below 12 years old. 

OPEN-AIR RESTAURANT

I have to say that majority of the visitors came here to have lunch at the open-air restaurant with overlooking the lush green tea plantation. Besides serving a wide selection of both local and Western cuisines, the most popular on their menu would be the one-of-a-kind dessert which made using Sabah tea, such as scones, waffles, pancakes and even ice-cream. All of these desserts are only available in Sabah Tea Resort and now you know the reason why this place is attractive to the local and foreign visitors. 

#3: Menu of Sabah Tea Restaurant - Must try the one-of-a-kind dessert when visiting Sabah Tea Resort

#4: We tried both tea pancakes (RM12) and tea waffles (RM15) and both served with honey.

#5: Don't forget to pair with the freshly harvest tea and now they produced in 8 different flavours of tea - Cinnamon, ginger, pandan, lemongrass, tongkat ali, geranium, agarwood and misai kucing (cat's whiskers). The tea is naturally rich in flavour without any added colouring.

#6: For the sake of the Gram - Yellow photo frame with Mount Kinabalu and lush green tea plantation as the backdrop. 

#7: Sabah Tea Resort map

Besides sampling their food, there are other recreational activities can be done here - such as tea harvesting where you can hand plucking of the tea leaves. However in compliance with the health safety SOPs, no traditional costume and rattan basket will be provided for use. Even the popular programme like factory tour is temporarily not available for the walk-in visitors during this MCO. For more info, it's best to contact them which I share as follows. 

SABAH TEA RESORT
Opening Hours: 8am to 4.30pm (Best to visit before noon time)
Admission Fee: Free
Contact: +6088-440882
               +6088-423448