Tell me about your Borneo trips

[Stowickthevast]

Hello, considering Borneo for Easter 25. Can anyone give me some potential itineraries, must-dos etc?

Also flights. Do you stop over in KL?

What do you like doing? If wildlife is a priority, Kinabantangan river trip and Borneo Rainforest lodge should feature.

Yes we're into wildlife and would like to get some beach time in too. So perhaps 8 days wildlife/rainforest and a few days beach at the end? Kids will be teens, 15 & 13.

Should add I'm thinking 2 weeks/15 days. I may need to take kids out a couple of days early to avoid flying on a birthday!

Just landed this morning after an amazing 15 days in Borneo . We had a mixture of beach time and rainforest/ wildlife ( probably about half and half). We flew into Kota Kinabalu and stayed for 3 nights at Gaya Island resort, which was very nice- for chilling and getting over the journey. We then flew to Sandakan, staying at Sepilok Forest Edge resort in their glamping villa, which was great and saw the orangutans and sun bears. We did a Kinabantangan river trip for a few days , which was okay- we didn't see loads on it tbh. After that we went to Selinigan Turtle Island for an overnight , which was an amazing experience ( accommodation very basic but fine for one night). We finished up with 5 nights at the Shangri La Rasa Ria , which was nice to relax after all the rainforest stuff before flying home. We went with our two children ( aged 14 and 10). We flew with Royal Brunei airlines via Brunei , which came in at about half the price of Malaysian Airlines and Singapore Airlines and they were very good . We really loved Borneo and are already planning to go back to explore other parts.

@Ilovegoodison sounds incredible! I would love to go but can’t take anti malarials for health reasons at the moment and my Drs feel it’s too risky to go without it (bloody immune system’!) but I really hope one day I can go.

We had a house boat into the Tanjung Puting park, it was amazing.

That sounds wonderful.

I hope I'm not being rude but who did you book with and what was the cost. Thanks.

We had a few days stopover in hong kong when we went, which I loved. Having been to KL before, would definitely suggest Hong Kong for a stopover if you have time to stop for a day or two

We also stayed at the Gaya resort which was lovely, we kept it for the end though, a few days of chilling and relaxing and eating in a lovely resort to end the holiday.

Lots to do in terms of wildlife/rainforest etc and food markets in the cities are a really interesting experience.

DD and I went to Borneo in June flying after her A levels, that was an excellent time to go. We were wildlife focussed. Flights I had Air Asia credits from 2020 still so KL to Sandakan was with those. UK to KL was Air Malaysia but soon BA will also be an option to KL. We did stay in KL on both way out and way back. Various routes to get there but that was most direct route to Sandakan for us. Flights were excellent and on time and when we had to cancel one flight with less than 24 hours notice we got almost all refunded.

We went to Kinabantagan and saw so much wildlife, stayed at Last Frontier Jungle Resort, which is high up in the jungle, 600 wooden steps, and they collected us from Agnes Newton Keith's house and the tearoom in Sandakan where had a lovely visit of house, gardens and tearoom gardens all to ourselves, and drove us to their hotel. It only has 4 rooms and they provide all meals and drinks as part of staying there which were excellent, local curries etc. Wild orangutans around the property at times. We went on three boat trips from there, each one saw pygmy elephants, crocodiles, lots of beautiful birds, various types of monkeys including probiscus ones and one trip saw orangutans. The 6am trip was especially nice with river more or less to ourselves and sunrise, mist over jungle. Sepilok we stayed at Sepilok Nature Resort, the original one by the orangutans which has a lake and the lake bistro, there are two places with same name now. That has tropical gardens and lovely restaurant and lovely staff. Room was beautiful, self contained chalet which was very spacious. Went to orangutans, sun bears and rainforest discovery centre. Another place that looked worth going but is new and was full by time found out about it was Utan rainforest lodge https://www.borneoecotours.com/lodge/utan-rainforest-lodge/. We booked everything direct and didn't use travel agents at all, no issues and a lot cheaper.

Also did not need anti malarials anywhere and no issues. Doctor wasn't concerned as staying in hotels, did take deet. Elephants on river cruise, the baby one was putting grass on their head with his trunk.

The turtle island trip is supposed to be good but is on list of places not to go on FCO travel advice and can invalidate travel insurance, it's supposed to be good and don't think risk is high all all but that's why we didn't do that, also June was borderline on season for it.

Original 2020 plan was Perhentians after for beach and snorkelling, short flight from KL at Bubbles Dive Resort.

I just booked last week for next year!

We are doing 3 nights KL
1 night sandakan
1 night sepilok
2 nights kingabatan river
1 night sabah tea garden
3 nights Kota Kinabalu (shangri la tanjung aru)
2 nights Singapore

Ours includes all breakfast, airports transfers, private driver / guide for the cross Borneo part and lunch / dinner in cross Borneo part.

I am sooo excited!!!!

as of November BA fly direct to KL, we are coming home via Singapore as it was cheaper then KL so thought we may add a couple of nights there as well.

We are away 15 nights (13 on holiday + 2 travelling)

We skipped turtle island as I believe it's on FCO no go list and I didn't want insurance issues.

@mellongoose

See my post above detailing what's included my booking was 9.6k for 3 of us. Thats all in one room as we don't mind sharing.

Thanks so much @Ilovegoodison @Penguinsa @Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky @Hazydetailonlife @confusedlots for the detailed inventories. This is exactly the info I needed. I'm planning on booking it all directly rather than using an agent.

I've got Avios points so looking at BA and Malaysian Air at the moment but will check out Brunei too. Will also look at the Singapore route. I went to HK years ago (pre handover) but don't think we have time to do it justice this time round.

@Stowickthevast

A lot of the river lodges offer bundles - so you get yourself as far as sandakan and then get a package of the nature stuff direct from them and they pickup up drop back etc.

Perfect, thank you!

@Penguinsa

What clothes did you find you needed for the wildlife part of the trip. There is loads online and it talks about lech socks and all sorts.

What clothes / shoes did you wear for that part? We will have a couple of river trips and I guess maybe a couple of walks but I assume we won't be doing the full on hiking I assume a lot of people are talking about.

Most people on the boats (this was June) were in t shirts and shorts or similar, would get cotton or linen things. No need for leech socks, no leeches. Footwear bizarrely our one with 600 steps advised flipflops but I had like pumps, I liked slip on ones. In the restaurants and the visit to the house you do take shoes off and eat / visit barefoot, socks are allowed if prefer socks but very hot. DD had like the trainer socks. I wore linen dresses as well and linen tops and shorts. People sometimes wore different clothes to evening meals, like I think a lot of people changed into dresses or long trousers and top, I think some had showers after trips. The walks was similar, t shirt and shorts and pumps or trainers, some walking in sandals. They also said take a raincoat and torch, we didn't use raincoat, torch we more used light on phone but can be useful, though that was likely as we were in a jungle at top of hill. Take deet, suntan lotion. You are also sometimes advised to avoid very bright colours like red as these can attract orangutans. Sometimes the advice seems to alter place to place but Sepilok and Kinabantagan were like that. Though some places in Kinabantagan you get to by boat only and our one was the only one high up.

Thanks @Penguinsa

We are staying on the river. Did you find you needed to wear long sleeves / trousers a lot for mosquitos?

I would say most people were in short sleeved and shorts, though I would take a combination. Walks and boats I preferred shorts to long as it's hot. I tended to wear long sleeved tops but that was more for sun protection. We did get bitten a bit but not ill at all. I am not sure the deet does much as I wore it and got bitten more than DD who didn't but they advise you to take it. Long clothes are probably more effective but it is hot so we were advised to wear t shirts and shorts to stay cool. I was fine in linen or cotton but once I tried a dress that had polyester in and was sweltering in 5 mins.

Thanks - I think I need to go clothes shopping before this trip to get more summer wear. I don't generally like hot weather and go on cool holidays usually so don't have vast quantities. Thanks for the info.

I also normally go to cooler places and was expecting to struggle with heat but was fine though may have helped that it was heavy forest in our jungle one and in Sepilok the room had air con.

I am thinking to have our honeymoon there. Very interesting to read. When I first googled I did find that FCDO advises against all travellerls to Sandkan due to kidnapping risk that happened there many years back. Was it safe ? Does travel insurance still valid if you visiting countries that FCDO advises against. I asked trailfinders and they didnt even clue that it was advised against.

I am not scared my self but my future husband to be is comfortable traveler and I think if he would know that he may not like the fact….

we would fly Kuala-Lumpur - Sandikan - Kota Kinablu- Kuala Lumpur -Uk

havent narrowed down where to stay yet

and most important question ( don’t laugh ) going on the boat trips are they very long ? My bladder is pee size and I get bit anxious if i don’t know where when can I have use the loo

@Lutricia007
Yes regular travel insurance will be invalidated if you travel to foreign office no-go areas.
It's not worth the risk.

@Lutricia007 as far as I am aware it's just the islands (including turtle island) and coast that are no go. We are flying into sandakan and staying one night in the city before starting our tour.

Sorry yes - agree with @Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky
Islands are no go, Sandakan and mainland areas are fine.