13 best wildlife tours and nature trips in Borneo

The island of Borneo - which is divided between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei - is home to some of the world's best diving sites, along with a huge variety of plants, birds and mammals, some unique to the country. Given all that you will find some amazing Borneo wildlife tours here and learn that its superb natural assets are worth more alive than felled.

This article is inspired by our Rough Guides guidebooks — your essential guides for travelling the world.

1. On the Rafflesia trail in Sabah, Malaysia

Sabah’s Rafflesia Forest Reserve exists to protect the rafflesia – the world’s largest flower. The quest to find this rare plant begins in Kota Kinabalu, where you can take a bus upwards of 1500m through thick pockets of Bornean mist to the Tambunan waterfall.

Then the trail leads into the forest; scrambling through the trees, stepping around enormous buttresses and over fallen logs you come to a clearing. And there it is, lying on the ground in splendid isolation: the unmistakable blood-red bloom, spotted with white markings – a lone and beautiful rafflesia.

Tucked away on the island of Borneo is the state of Sabah, a true nature-lovers paradise. From whitewater rafting down wild rivers to scuba diving in crystal-clear waters among exotic marine life, this tailor-made trip to Nature in the Wilds of Sabah has something for anyone looking to experience nature in its purest form.

2. Watch turtles in Sabah, Malaysia

When you see a turtle hatchling take its first steps towards the sea it becomes instantly clear what conservation is all about. You can witness this remarkable sight at the Turtle Islands National Park, which is made up of three small islands (Selingan, Bakkungan Kecil and Gulisan) in the Sulu Sea off the east coast of Sabah.

Visitors may only stay on Selingan (numbers are limited to 38 per night divided between three chalets) though you can visit the two other islands during the day. At night, a ranger will take you to watch green turtles nesting on the beach and in the morning you’ll get the privileged chance to see their young being released into the sea.

The egg-laying season for turtles is between July and October. For entrance fees see www.sabahparks.org.my.

3. Stay with the locals in Sabah, Malaysia

Ecotourism is a much-bandied term in Borneo, but this place fits the bill perfectly. Stay with a local host family in one of four villages in Batu Puteh Community, located in the wetlands of Lower Kinabatangan.

You’ll go on river cruises and Borneo wildlife tours into the jungle with naturalist guides. Here you might come across gibbons, lemurs, tarsiers, some of the two hundred bird species or perhaps the bizarre-looking proboscis monkey, with its long, protruding nose and large belly.

Combine the culture and traditions on this tailor-made trip to Traditional Malaysia & Wild Borneo. From lively Kuala Lumpur to desert island beaches, highlands and dense rainforest, this is a wonderful introduction to Southeast Asia.

4. Explore Kinabulu National Park in Sabah beyond the Mount Kinabalu

Sabah holds no more impressive sight than Gunung Kinabalu (Mount Kinabalu), 85km northeast of KK and plainly visible from the west coast. Revered as “aki nabalu” (home of the spirits of the dead) by the Kadazan/Dusun, it’s 4095m high and dominates the 750 square kilometres of Kinabulu National Park, a World Heritage Site renowned for its ecology, flora and geology.

Although there are other hikes within the park, the prospect of reaching the summit fires the imagination of Malaysian and foreign tourists alike. If you dash headlong up and down Gunung Kinabalu and then depart, as many visitors do, you’ll miss out on many of the national park’s riches.

Its diverse terrains have spawned an incredible variety of plants and animals, and you are far more likely to appreciate them by taking some of Borneo wildlife tours in this region.

5. Witness marine life in Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Sabah

Named after Malaysia’s first prime minister, and just a short boat trip away from KK, the five islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park (TAR Park) represent the most westerly ripples of the Crocker mountain range. The islands’ forests, beaches and coral reefs lie within 8km of the city, with park territory as close as 3km off the mainland.

Snorkelling is popular around the islands. Although careless tourists have damaged much of the coral, there’s enough marine life around to make it worthwhile. Scuba divers will find the best conditions from January to March, although visibility is still typically just 5m.

Discover the magnificence of Malaysia with this comprehensive tailor-made trip through the Culture, Wildlife and History of Malaysia. Stroll around picturesque tea plantations, and trek through dense rainforests. Watch elephants in the wild and laze around on paradise beaches. Explore immense religious monuments and much more, all with this fantastic trip.

Where to stay in Tunku Abdul Rahman Park

• For stunning views: The Aru Hotel at Aru Suites
• For price and quality: Hotel 7 Suria

Find more accommodation options to stay in Tunku Abdul Rahman Park

6. Take a tour of Gaya Island

The site of the British North Borneo Chartered Company’s first outpost in the region, Pulau Gaya is the closest of the islands to KK and also the largest. It doesn’t feature standard island-hopping routes. Tourists can only visit by chartering a boat, staying at one of the island’s resorts, or booking the Borneo wildlife tours with an operator such as Tanjung Aru Tours & Travel.

If you do make it over, you’ll find idyllic stretches of sand such as Polis Beach as well as lovely hiking trails; Downbelow runs a dive shop. The eastern end is taken up by a stilt village inhabited by Filipino immigrants.

7. Embrace the diverse wildlife of Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Sabah

Tabin Wildlife Reserve, a government-owned tract of land twice the size of Singapore, holds a single resort managed by a private company. It’s around 44km northeast of Lahad Datu airport, where the reserve office is based, of which the last 25km is unsurfaced. Although just eleven percent primary dipterocarp forest, Tabin offers excellent opportunities to see wildlife.

Local Borneo wildlife tours offer opportunities to come across pygmy elephants, macaques or wild boar as they cross the tracks from the forest to the plantations in search of food. Orangutans can also be spotted, and even the rare clouded leopard. Birdwatchers can look out for such endemic species as the Bornean bristlehead, blue-headed pitta and all eight local species of hornbills.

A visit to Tabin will typically include a walk to a mud volcano, used by animals as a mineral lick; a nearby tower allows guests to observe the scene and you can even sleep there by arrangement. Serious trekkers can explore the virgin forest of the Core Area, although this is not part of the normal schedule.

Where to stay in Sabah

• For backpackers: Island Backpackers
• For city stays: Maison life 小居屋 The Loft Imago
• For Gaya Island: Gaya Island Resort
• For beach stays: Bigfin Beach resort

Find more accommodation options to stay in Sabah

8. Visit an Iban longhouse, Sarawak, Malaysia

Beyond the towns and cities, the majority of the population of Sarawak leads a traditional life that revolves around the longhouse (a communal wooden house on stilts) and the river. There are several disingenuous showcase village tours, but for a more authentic experience head for the Nanga Sumpa longhouse – located a two-hour longtail boat ride from the Batan Ai jetty on the Ulu Ai River.

For the last twenty years, Kuching-based Borneo Adventure has developed tours with the owners of the longhouse, home to about thirty Iban families who provide guests with river transportation, local guides and cooks. Based at a nearby jungle lodge, you’ll go fishing with the Iban, hike through jungle trails to waterfalls and visit the longhouse for an insight into today’s rural Iban lifestyle.

9. Combine visiting the caves with Borneo wildlife tours in Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak

Gunung Mulu, Sarawak’s premier national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is named after the 2376m mountain at its heart. The park’s best-known feature, however, is atop another mountain, Gunung Api – the dozens of fifty-metre-high razor-sharp limestone spikes known as the Pinnacles.

The park also contains the largest limestone cave system in the world. It was formed when surface water eroded vast amounts of material, dividing the limestone belt that runs southwest–northeast across the middle of the park into separate mountains as well as carving cave passages within.

Attractions aside, Mulu is a national park like no other in Sarawak, for the simple reason that it has been privatized. While the Sarawak Forestry Corporation remains in overall charge, most things to do with tourism, including accommodation, are now run by Borsarmulu, the firm that owns the Royal Mulu Resort.

Local Borneo wildlife tours are timetabled and formatted, and you can explore a few parts of the park unaccompanied. The tours are certainly well run, the guides are better communicators than at any other Sarawak park, and close supervision has helped prevent the poaching of valuable plants.

Where to stay in Sarawak

• For budget stays: Starlink Hotel
• For families: Cove 55
• For luxury: Miri Marriott Resort & Spa
• For jungle stays: Permai Rainforest Resort

Find more accommodation options to stay in Sarawak

10. Come face to face with an orangutan, Kalimantan, Indonesia

One orangutan has the strength of seven men. To see these rare creatures in the wild (from a respectable distance) go to the lowland rainforest of the Tanjung Putin National Park in Kalimantan, home to one of the largest buffooneries of orangutans in the world. Stay at Rimba Lodge, a simple and comfortable 35-room lodge by the Sekonyer River, from where you can hire guides and walk into the park…cautiously.

For details about visiting the park either on your own or as part of a tour group, as well as information about volunteering with the Orangutan Foundation, see www.orangutan.org.uk.

From your base on Bali's renowned beaches, you'll island-hop your way around glorious Hindu temples and heritage sites. See komodo dragons, partake in a traditional Balinese ceremony, meet with a Hindu High Priest and visit local villages: this tailor-made trip to Indonesia ticks all the tropical getaway boxes.

Where to stay in Kalimantan

• For tranquil stays: Bukit Raya Guesthouse
• For price and quality: ibis Pontianak City Center
• For modern stays: Four Points by Sheraton Balikpapan

Find more accommodation options to stay in Kalimantan

11. Head into the jungle on a Kinabatangan River Cruise

Sabah’s longest waterway, the 560km Kinabatangan River, ends its journey to the Sulu Sea southeast of Sandakan Bay. Whereas logging has had an impact on the river’s ecology upstream, the area covered by the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary offers some of the state’s best opportunities for seeing wildlife – days of trekking in Sabah’s jungle reserves may yield paltry rewards by comparison.

Day trips from Sandakan and Sepilok are possible with tour operators like SI Tours, but book at least a one-night package to get an evening and a morning crack at the river or a trek. With a few exceptions, most lodges are located either in or around the villages of Sukau or Bilit, from either of which you can visit the Gomantong Caves, where edible swiftlet nests are harvested. Note that from November to February, rainy-season floods can disrupt trips or close some lodges.

12. Go jungle trekking through the Danum Valley Conservation Area

The Danum Valley is “perhaps the last area of primary lowland forest in Southeast Asia which remains truly pristine”. That glowing description isn’t from a tour operator brochure, but from the South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, an international scientific collaboration that’s been based here since the 1980s – and you can meet their biologists if you stay at the field centre.

Wildlife includes bearded pigs, orangutans, proboscis monkeys, elephants and more than 320 species of bird, and the area is also home to the world’s tallest known rainforest tree, a 94m Shorea. Be aware that, as ever, spotting animals in dense jungle is a challenge.

There are just two (very different) places to stay here, located apart from each other. Packages at the slick, pricey Borneo Rainforest Lodge include the services of professional guides who accompany you on a 300m canopy walkway, a 3km trek to a burial cliff and a night drive, for example.

At the prosaic Danum Valley Field Centre, it’s possible to trek to waterfalls up to three hours away, and rangers can be hired as guides – though their skills in this area vary.

13. Swim in the jungle streams of Bako National Park

East of the Santubong Peninsula, and no further away from Kuching, a second peninsula is occupied by the fabulous Bako National Park, named for its location at the mouth of the Bako River.

Sarawak’s oldest national park (once a timber reserve, it attained its current, fully protected status in 1957), it’s also among its most memorable.

Its steep coastal cliffs, offering huge vistas over the South China Sea, are thrillingly different from the rest of the predominantly flat and muddy Sarawak coastline, and there are opportunities to spot proboscis monkeys, swim in jungle streams or at isolated sandy coves, and hike through terrain that takes in rainforest, mangrove and kerangas, with pitcher plants easily visible on some trails.

Bako is such a gem that trying to pack it all into one day is not ideal, though you can make a go of it if you set out early from Kuching and pay a boatman at the park to take you out to a remote beach, then walk back to the park headquarters; this gives you a good taste of the park without having to do a trek in both directions.

A stay of at least one night is still preferable, though, and there’s a range of accommodations to choose from – this also gives you the chance to see many of the park’s nocturnal animals. Note that the entire eastern side of the park (east of the Tajor Waterfall) is closed for path renovation with no date set as to its completion.

With its diverse flora and wide selection of Borneo wildlife tours, Borneo is perfect for a family trip. Looking for more inspiring family holiday ideas? Find some inspiration in our guide to the best places to go with kids.

For more inspirational travel tips check our Rough Guide books.

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