Gaya Street Sunday Market

Gaya Street Sunday Market is a weekly open-air street market held every Sunday along Gaya Street in central Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Stretching for about one kilometre in the historic city centre, it is one of the city's most popular visitor attractions. The market features hundreds of stalls selling local handicrafts, souvenirs, batik, antiques, plants, pets, street food and produce, reflecting Sabah's multicultural heritage and offering a vibrant local shopping experience.

Visitors can expect a closed-off, pedestrian-only stretch of Gaya Street lined with hundreds of canopy stalls on both sides for about one kilometre. The market offers a dense, bustling environment with vendors selling handicrafts, batik, pearls, wood carvings, antiques, orchids, local snacks, fresh produce and street food. The surrounding area features historic shophouses, colonial-era buildings and cafes. Visitors can walk the full length, browse stalls, sample food and interact with local traders.

Gaya Street was originally known as Bond Street during the British North Borneo period in the early 1900s. It served as the main commercial street of Jesselton, now Kota Kinabalu, lined with shophouses. The Sunday market tradition developed as a weekly community trading event and has become a long-standing local institution in the historic centre.

The market reflects the multicultural heritage of Sabah, with vendors and products from Malay, Chinese, Bajau, Kadazan-Dusun and other communities. It serves as a community gathering place and a showcase for local crafts, traditional foods, and artisanal products, offering visitors insight into Sabahan culture and daily life.