Advice on booking a budget Malaysia and Borneo holiday with teenagers.

[user1485786362]

Help looking for advice on booking holiday to Malaysia and Borneo for myself and two teenage daughters. Budget isn’t huge so trying to do it all without spending a lot. Is there a way to book safari/river cruise/wildlife experiences when we get there? Would it be possible to book as we go or am I likely to get ripped off or not able to do anything? Thank you for any advice. Thinking of going end of April/beginning of May

I don’t know about your budget but we’ve just got back from Malaysia and Vietnam. I had quotes from trailfinders and travel bag but by booking the flights direct with the airline and hotels direct I shaved £2k off their quotes for a family of 4

I haven’t been to those places but in Sri Lanka and Vietnam we booked safaris and excursions through the hotel, they were definitely better value than booking through an agent in the UK.

I used an Indian based fixer for a trip to India that worked out around half the price of uk based tours through trailfinders et al. Also my trip to Vietnam is £1500 cheaper than the rates through trailfinders etc… I don’t have a fixer suggestion for you but it’s worth exploring

Thank you for your comments I have been in trailfinders and they told me to forget it with my budget but I have been looking at flights etc and trying to decide if I am crave enough to go it alone. Your comments have given me more confidence

Intrepid are really good. Have you compared? I find Trailfinders extortionate.

I've done it with my then teenage daughter booking independently. Flights to Kuala Lumpur (we stayed overnight) then flight next day early to Sandakan. We then got a taxi (£5) at airport to tea house and had drinks / tea (£10ish) and the first hotel picked us up from there - we looked round Agnes Newton-Keiths house whilst there. Went to Last Frontier Boutique Resort booked in advance through Booking.com - that included all meals and river safaris on Kinabatangan river - we did 3, one extra one was very early and that one was great as had river to ourselves. Saw lots of wildlife pygmy elephants, orangutan, crocodile, probiscus monkeys, other monkeys, beautiful birds etc. Very reasonably priced. Then they took us back to Sepilok - booked hotel there, about £100 a night - Sepilok Nature Resort by the orangutan place (there are 2 hotels with same name this is one with tropical gardens). You can walk from there to sunbears, orangutans and rainforest discovery centre and tickets for those are cheap and get them there. Its very safe and easy to book yourself and not too expensive apart from flights.

We used Destination 2 for 2 weeks in Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi. It was about £2,500 for B & B at three four star hotels, private airport transfers, and all the flights. We could have stayed in five star hotels for a few hundred more each.

DH went on the internet and booked local guides for birdwatching (his big hobby). They were all great.

The hotel in Langkawi was set in the rain forest and over the sea. We could go for a walk and see dusky leaf monkeys and macaques around our chalet, plus numerous birds.

If we ate dinner in the hotels, they were at Western prices. However, generally we ate out at local cafes and restaurants. Lunch like chicken fried noodles could be £1.20 each plus a drink; and dinner was about £25 for two for two courses plus drinks. We were never ill.

@user1485786362 what is your budget?
I've done different budget, backpacking style trips in S.E. Asia just me and 2 teens.
I economise on accomodation, freeing up money for experiences.
We've just done 3 weeks in Indonesia averaging £23 a night - one place on Bali had a pool for that too.
All safe, all clean, but simple.
Also book flights with a stopover rather than direct, and book sooner rather than later for flights. The rest can be sorted later.

For Borneo, this homestay was a big highlight
www.kopelkinabatangan.com/experiences/miso-walai-village-homestay

I cannot speak for Borneo, but Malaysia is really good value, flights to KL are pretty cheap for the SEA area, and hotels, food and ubers are cheap, local transport is even cheaper, it is very safe. People are lovely. You can get a hotel with small pool in KL for about £30 per night if you shop around. KL airport is a long way out but there is a rail link (probs cheaper in an uber if there are 3, although not quicker) get an e-SIM. Food is cheap, and nice. Fake markets have teenagers in raptures. We also went to Genting Highlands (this isn't everyone's cup of tea but it is teenager paradise) again, only about £15 in an uber, maybe £40-£50 for hotel. Went up the coast on the train (again, cheap, easily bookable, stayed in Ipoh, and Taiping (not particularly recommended, but nice enough) then over to Penang (actually, one place I am not keen on, been twice, dirty and overcrowded) then flew to Langkawi (great place, good beaches, nice island). I would probably just fly from KL to Langkawi if I did it again. We stayed in a real budget place on langkawi first time (£22 a night, Casa Idaman, and it was fine enough, small pool, basic) but we stayed this time at the Bayou hotel, at around £55 and it was fabulous, brilliant pool, fab breakfast, spotless, great staff, stuff for kids etc. free snacks, 10 mins walk to main stuff, normal bar. Go to Kuah the capital when the night market is on. Such a lovely country to visit. I would not do a "tour thing", I would do it myself, half the cost, and much better opportunities with a bit of research. xx

We looked at this but couldn’t go and went to Sri Lanka.This was mainly I could tag it to our family visit to India and had good flight timings and lesser travel time .
It was easy to organise yourself, hotels were superb in their communication and were willing to sort out airport transfer, drop to next hotel etc.,
you need an itinerary, decide on hotels and contact them.
Borneo - Sepilok, Kinabatangan river cruise and Danum valley was our plan, hopefully will be able to go sometime soon.

It's dirt cheap in Malaysia. We were finding nice hotels for around £35 a night. Food is around £5 or less for noodles. Use Grab - they're cheap transport.

I went before I kids, so my experience is not particularly recent, but in my backpacking days everything got organised the day before, none of this planning months ahead. Borneo is fab. Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, these types of places usually have loads of travel agents dotting the streets and you can just book things with them on arrival, everyone wants your ringgit. Yes, you may not pay the absolute minimum price you can get the excursion for, but you will certainly pay less than booking it from the UK through trail finders. You may also not squish quite as many excursions into your entire holiday, because some time is spent on the ground organising, but that is not always a bad thing.

I took my family reasonably cheaply to Malaysia and Borneo reasonably cheaply with independent travel, although this was probably about 8 years ago.

We flew with either emirates or Qatar to kl. After a few days we went on to kota Kinabalu in cheap air Asia flights. We stayed in a villa on the most amazing white sandy beach. The water was clear and shallow and felt safe with kids.

We had a day doing water sports off an island very close by. We got to go to Sepilok to see orangutans by taking a short flight, I think either on Malaysian air or air Asia.

We then flew back to KL to spend a few days doing Batu Caves etc before flying home.

It really was a fabulous holiday. Not long after we got home I heard that the local secondary school was organising a trip to Borneo - the cost per pupil was almost as much as I had spent for a family of 5.

I think the key is being able to find reasonable flights to KL, (or Singapore which is busable to Malaysia) then build your itinerary around that. Although I would leave a minimum of a day between flying low cost carriers and your flight home, just to make sure any delays don’t cause you to miss your flight.

I have also been to Kuching on Borneo a few times, although that was over 20 years ago. I know trekking was available back then.

I do love Malaysia when I visited as a young adult (a long time ago) I did find it the easiest country in Asia to get around when I was travelling alone. Most people I came across spoke a good level of English, which made navigating much easier. Their language is also relatively easy to learn a few words of.

We have been to Borneo & Malaysia several times.

We book our own flights & accomodation

It is cheaper to book excursions whem you are there or hire a taxi driver for the day as a guide

It was extremely hot (march april) when we have been, so be prepared.

Buy travel insurance

Could I just ask about vaccinations too. It seems to be really expensive to get them. Any advice?

Just got our vaccinations via the GP, there can be a charge depends on vaccine.

I did a month in Malaysia with kids on a budget- it was very easy and much cheaper than booking a package. We didn’t go to Borneo though.

I booked everything independently - cheapest flights were Qatar via Dubai, booked hotel with rooftop pool in KL via booking.com for v little to acclimate for a few days on arrival. Then we used trains, taxis and buses to travel around. I only booked accommodation in advance for the rainforest and Perhentian islands, everywhere else we just booked hotels and trips as we went along. We had a rough plan for the month but didn’t stick to it as we found a few places we liked and wanted to stay longer- was nice to have that flexibility.

do it, you’ll have a great time!

Some in Borneo do get booked out in advance, like the one we stayed at only has 4 rooms though there will still be options somewhere. We booked things with free cancellation wherever possible. We had trips booked with local companies from the UK, free cancellation, no prepayment as on a tightish timescale.

On our trip (see the "Malaysia/Indonesia/Brunei AMA" thread) It didn't occur to us to ask about vaccinations. At no point did we see the kind of public health situation that would make us think we needed them. We had fewer insect bites than we would get the same period of time in Greece.

Malaysia is a fairly rich country, to the point that its citizens do not need visas for the UK or Schengen, unlike people from Indonesia -- in fact middle-class Malaysians often employ Indonesians as domestic help.

Accor, the French hotel chain group, operates in a lot of Malaysian cities. We stayed at the Grand Mercure end of the range as we could afford to, but you can get a clean and comfortable double at the Ibis for £30 in many places, if you don't want to risk local standards (which are probably fine).

By booking yourself you will save a ton of money. First the UK agent will add 30%. Then they will send your request to a local incoming agent who will also add 30%. Then you will pay VAT. I don't think I would travel to India on this basis, but Malaysia is another level up -- think Portugal, perhaps 20 years ago, in terms of the overall standard of living of the people.

@user1485786362
@samarrange
Not having recommended vaccinations could invalidate your travel insurance for health claims.
We left it too late to get them at the GP so paid at boots instead. GP needed at least a month before travel. You might as well get them done soon for free!
See what you need here. We got any 'all travellers' and 'most travellers' ones that had lapsed.
travelhealthpro.org.uk/countries/indonesia#Vaccine_Recommendations

The insurance can only refuse to cover you if your illness is related to not getting that disease. If you don't have Hep A coverage and you break your leg, they're not going to deny coverage for that.

As far as I can see the recommended vaccines for Indonesia are tetanus (which everyone presumably has), hepatitis A, and typhoid. Your chances of getting either of those as a tourist visiting family destinations are homeopathic. For what it's worth DP and I are up to date on hepatitis A due to other travel, but if we thought that there was a realistic chance of picking up typhoid in a country we wouldn't be travelling there anyway.

Of course, everyone has to make their own choices about this, but these things can be expensive and everything in life is a risk/benefit/cost tradeoff. Again, at no point in our trip did the question of infectious diseases cross our minds; it's a civilised country. (DP said at one point "This place feels like the future", and it really does.)

It looks like the vaccines needed are currently free on the NHS. I don't remember paying anything. The Hep A there is a booster after 6 months which makes it last 30 years which is worth having.

https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/travel-vaccinations/

Tetanus, Hep A and Typhoid are free on the NHS as they are public health related. Where i live GPs don't do them but the health trust runs travel clinics which do. They book out months in advance so book in soon. Google your local arrangements.

www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/travel-vaccinations/

Great minds!

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/malaysia