Borneo Wildlife Holidays

Sample itineraries

How a journey fits together

Nothing below is a departure you can book. They are shapes that work.

Sabah rewards going deep in a few places rather than moving every second night. The internal flights are short but they eat half a day, the drives into the interior are long, and the river is best at dawn and dusk, which means sleeping beside it. Most of our guests end up somewhere between eleven and seventeen nights.

These three are here to show the shape of a well-built trip: where the hard walking goes, what follows it, and why the coast belongs at the end rather than the beginning. Yours will not look exactly like any of them.

15 nights

The long way round

Three forests, one river and the coast, in the order that works.

Priced on requestEvery journey is costed individually

Suits: Naturalists and photographers with a fortnight or more, who would rather go deep in four places than tick off eight.

  1. Nights 1–2

    Kota Kinabalu

    Arrive, sleep off the flight, and meet your guide. A day in the city and along the coast while your body catches up.

  2. Nights 3–6

    Maliau Basin

    In to the studies centre, then camp to camp on foot. The hardest and quietest part of the journey, taken first while you are fresh.

  3. Nights 7–9

    Danum Valley

    Old-growth lowland forest and a change of pace. Trails, towers and river.

  4. Nights 10–12

    The Kinabatangan

    Boat mornings and boat evenings along the river corridor. The easiest wildlife watching of the trip, and the busiest.

  5. Nights 13–15

    Semporna coast

    Sea, islands and the maritime communities of the east coast. A deliberate decompression before the flight home.

Adapt this journey

12 nights

The interior

For people who came for the forest and not for the beach.

Priced on requestEvery journey is costed individually

Suits: Repeat visitors to Borneo, and first-timers who already know what they want to see.

  1. Night 1

    Kota Kinabalu

    Arrival and briefing.

  2. Nights 2–5

    Imbak Canyon

    Into the canyon by four-wheel drive, with Yayasan Sabah’s permission arranged in advance. Four nights in a forest almost nobody has walked into.

  3. Nights 6–8

    Danum Valley

    Two hours south and several decades of research away.

  4. Nights 9–12

    Tabin

    Mud volcanoes, birding towers and night drives, and the softest bed of the trip at the end of it.

Adapt this journey

7 nights

A first week

The short version, without pretending it is the whole thing.

Priced on requestEvery journey is costed individually

Suits: A first visit, a limited window, or the wildlife half of a longer Asian trip.

  1. Night 1

    Kota Kinabalu

    Arrival.

  2. Nights 2–4

    Tabin

    The most reliable wildlife watching in Sabah for the least walking.

  3. Nights 5–7

    The Kinabatangan

    River mornings, and an easy transfer out through Sandakan.

Adapt this journey

What is not on this page

Prices
We cost every journey individually, because the number moves with your dates, your party size and where you choose to stay. Ask and you will get a real figure for your trip rather than a headline that turns out not to apply to it.
Departure dates
There are none. You tell us when.
A list of inclusions
That belongs in your quotation, in writing, where it is specific to you — not on a page that would quietly go out of date.
Promises about wildlife
We will tell you what is likely, what is possible and what would be remarkable in the season you are travelling. We will not tell you what you are going to see.

Start with your dates

Tell us roughly when you would like to travel and how long you have. We will come back to you with a suggested route through Sabah and what it costs.

Start an enquiry