Anyone been to Borneo with children?

[swimster01]

Was it a holiday of a lifetime and can you share any tips? Many thanks

I have been to Kota Kinabalu - great beaches, national parks, orang utans, fab food. My children were 5 and 11 at the time.
Also been to Kuching - went kayaking, visited long houses and other traditional houses, saw orang utans in the wild, great city to walk around and great food.
We combined the Kuching trip with a few days in Brunei -kids really enjoyed trekking in the rain forest there.
Unlike a lot of SE Asia Borneo is dry in July/August.

I've been to Borneo without kids and it is the most amazing place. Started in Kota Kinabula, then Mt Kinabalu, then some beach, then jungle and the Orangutans. That was pre kids but I would take kids there. I've done lots of long haul travel with my young son including Thailand, Cambodia and Uganda. Borneo was on my Easter list but ended up choosing India instead - much cheaper! How old are your children OP?

I lived in Borneo as a child - we did a lot of travelling and had an amazing time.

Roughly how much would a holiday in Borneo cost? I like nice hotels but when I have looked in the past it has seemed that food and drink costs could add a lot on to the holiday

I'm going next week so will report back!

Food and drink in Borneo is reasonable and lots of great local restaurants.

Bumping this for fresh feedback. Thinking of 3 weeks next year in July/Aug. Kids will be 7 and 5... We’ve backpacked before but pre-kids and it was a long time ago now....

Posting from Borneo right now! We are at the Sukau Rainforest Lodge on a 3n/4d tour with Borneo Eco Tours. I am with dd 16 but there are a few young children here and there are craft activities put on for them.

I'd definitely recommend it but it might depend on their ages. Our itinerary involves a lot of rides up the river looking for wildlife. We haven't always found it because wild animals don't always appear on schedule so they would need to sit still on the boat and be patient. It's worth it for the chance to see animals in their natural habitat though.

We are only in Borneo for long enough to do this tour and then moving on to KL and then Indonesia. I wish we'd arranged to stay longer. People on our tour have been to turtle island and brunei and raved about it. Let me know if you want more info.

I would highly recommend www.familiesworldwide.co.uk. They are experts at keeping children amused and you travel with other families.

In our experience they don’t use top class hotels but we thought the experience of their holidays outweighed this. We didn’t go to Borneo with them, but I would trust them to get it right. Travelling with other families is a bonus and the holidays are geared to what children would enjoy. They do holidays to Borneo and it would be my top top for a hassle free holiday!

Yes I have been with a 5 year old.

I wouldn't go to Borneo just to go on a beach holiday. The beaches there are ok but they are quite dirty and there are definitely better places to go for nice beaches but a few days added on at the beach before or after a jungle trip is nice as there are nice hotels.

The main reason to go to Borneo is definitely for the wildlife. Have a look at the website for Borneo Eco Tours as someone mentioned earlier. You can choose a tour for you to experience the rainforest. You can't really do this on your own so it is worth booking a package.

We saw the "Borneo Big 5" which was amazing. Loved the Sukau Rainforest Lodge. The basic rooms are small so personally I would upgrade to the villas. Early starts each morning (5:30am) to go out on boats to spot animals. Then back for breakfast at 7. Usually something else on in the afternoon and out on the boat again in the evening. There is also a small pool that kids like. There are very few kids there. You are grouped up with other people (maybe one couple) for your guided parts and that could be make or break for you because you might get stuck with someone who doesn't like children and that can make things uncomfortable. You could pay extra for just your family for a guide I am sure.

There is also the Borneo Rainforest Lodge in the Danum Valley. This is really nice and more luxurious but I actually preferred the river lodge. Again I would upgrade the room if travelling with children.

Our 5 night/6 day trip cost over £6,000. So this included the food and transfers to and from the airport and between hotels and the tours to see the animals. You would also need to tip your guide. Obviously you would need to add up the cost of flights to Borneo, internal flights in Borneo, what other hotels you stay at etc on top of this.

Kota Kinabalu itself is not great. There are cheap hotels there but they are awful. Nice hotels in Borneo are not cheap.

Overall it is a an amazing holiday. Whether your kids would enjoy it I would say mainly depends on the type of kids. If your kids like playing in the pool all day and are not good at getting up very early and sticking to at timetable, eating different types of food etc then I don't think they would enjoy the rainforest experience. If they are whining you won't enjoy it either and will be stressful for you.

We took kids aged 1 and 5 last year. We did a few days in KL and surrounding areas first and then over to Kota Kinabalu and kinabatangan. I agree that KK wasn’t amazing (unless you want to climb the mountain), but fine for a few days stop. The kids loved it!

We booked through Southall travel.