Borneo Travel Forum

Hi,

My partner and I are trying to arrange a trip to Borneo next year, and have a maximum of 3 weeks to play with.

We are still undecided how to visit this county. Whether to simply arrange a 2 or 3 week stay at a particular hotel and arrange sight seeing trips from that location, or arrange a tour of Sabah and Sarawak and add on say a week relaxation time at a particular resort at the end of the tour.
We are most likely to arrange a tour with a company rather than try to arrange it all oursleves. We are just finding it difficult to find a tour that incorporates all the things we want to see, so we are not sure if it might be better to simply book a couple of weeks in one hotel and do trips oursleves? How possible is this? If we did do this we would most likely book a hotel in Kota Kinabulu, very possibly the Shangri Las Rasa Ria. But we are not sure if it is possible to do trips into Sarawak from here, is it too far away?

Can anyone whos been give me tips on the best way to do Borneo (Sabah/Sarawak)? I would like to hear from people who have done a tour and people who just stayed at a single hotel to see what people think of the different options?

We definitely want to see some particular sights - Sepilok Orangutan sanctury, Sandakan, Kota Kinabulu, Kinabulu National park, water villages, river tour, Iban tribes and possibly the Mulu caves. We would also like to spend some days relaxing at a nice hotel. We have been looking at the Shangri Las Rasa Ria hotel and we think we would defintiely like to spend at least some days there as it seems a good location to relax and also has the advantage of being next to a nature reserve.
Can anyone who has stayed at the Rasa Ria give me some tips on what it is like? How cheap is the food and drink there?

I would also like to know what excursions are available to organise from the Shangri Las Rasa Ria hotel? Does anyone know this information?

Any tips gratefully received. We are still researhing and learning about Borneo so please excuse my ignorance if I'm talking rubbish!

Another help would be if anyone has contact details (email in particular) for the Shangri Las Rasa Ria in Sabah? I've been trying to find their email address with no luck. It may help me if I can contact the hotel direct to ask a couple of things.

Sorry for wanting so much....!! I'm in awe of this place and I cannot wait to go, I just want to make sure everything will be perfect for us and we do everything right!

Cheers for any help,

Kelly

we toured Borneo in 2002 on a fully escorted tour with Thomas Cook, our local guides were Boneo Adventure http://www.borneoadventure.com/public/home/default.asp
they do lots of great tours, its a fabulous place and if we were going again Id book flights and hotel independantly and book tours with them
dont forget to visit Seligan Island, there is info about it on my Sabah pages, also on Sim1`s pages

I suggest you also consider the Shangri La Tanjung Aru resort. The staff there are very warm and friendly. It's also much closer to town if you get bored in the resort.

For kota Kinabalu, you have to climb Mt. KK and go to hot porings as well as the canopy walk. There's also some water sports in the hotel that you can sign up. I think even horse riding too. Food there is cheap, but don't expect fantastic fanfare. Not much shopping too, but if you are in KK, the best thing is to explroe the place, absorb its culture and trek its mountains.

hi, borneo island is shared by 3 countries ie brunei, sabah n sarawak of malaysia and kalimantan of indonesia. if you have 3 weeks, you need to travel a lot and not stay at a hotel. check previous posts on borneo for itineraries.

from sabah to sarawak you can go by road, boat or fly. road and boat trips will pass thru brunei, then on to mulu and niah caves in miri. the other end of sarawak, kuching is best to fly!

water village is in brunei, and ibans are mainly in sarawak and a little bit in brunei, none in sabah. enjoy your trip!

Hi there,
Borneo makes up mainly 3 different state/country i.e. Sabah, Sarawak with Brunei tucked in-between these two Malaysian states. You may like to visit your travel agent to view your flight options, freqencies/schedule and rates (depending on your point of origin) and plan from there. The Malaysia Airlines might have offers to foreigners for travelling inter state. For Sabah hotels, check out Sutera Harbour (www.suteraharbour.com), Shangri-la (www.shangri-la.com -- click Kota Kinabalu). For Kinabalu Park, go to www.suterasanctuarylodges.com for their eco lodges. Rasa Ria is a idyllic beach resort, 45 min away from the city but do expect 5-star rates. These major hotels would normally have room packages (usually room with breakfast) from agents in your home countries, so do check it out and they even have joint package with airlines. The website for Sabah is www.sabahtourism.com and for Sarawak it's www.sarawaktourism.com. Once you have ascertained your flight routes and hotels, it's easy to book for your day excursions/tours from any of the major hotels. Hope this helps. All the best!

Kelly

We stayed at the Rasa Ria last year and it's a lovely hotel, but I think that if you want to visit Sarawak for more than a one-day trip, you would probably be better off splitting your stay between the two areas. I can't remember the name of the company that operate trips from the hotel, but most of them seem to do similar trips at pretty similar prices and this will give you an idea of where and how much - http://www.wildlife-expeditions.com/index.htm

We thought that the hotel restaurants were all very good and very reasonably priced for that standard of hotel. Three of them did all-inclusive buffets on different nights of the week and I think it was about 65 ringgits each (April 2004). The only one that didn't do this offer was the more upmarket Coast, but the food there is so good that it's worth splashing out on at least once during your stay. The email address for the hotel is rr@shangri-la.com

Have a brilliant time - I'm sure you will!

hi kelly..my husband and i visited july last year ..had great time ..4 days in KL for shopping then 10days in kk/stayed at Sutera magellen wing which was fantastic..would def recommend..no beach but wonderful huge pool area to relax in. Great snorkelling 10 mins by boat..water villages nearby..Food fantastic..you dont need reserve if going to sepilok/ We stayed 10 days and went on a 2 day side trip in the middle to turtle island where we stayed to see turtles come in overnight then orangutans [saw 13] at sepilok 2nd day ..hot but great..found this worked really well much easier as left everything at hotel just carried overnite bag while others lugged suitcases around.. came straight back to our room end of 2nd day./we think sutera best place to stay as closest to town for shopping eating etc.has shuttle every hour..other resorts too far away and told by people we met a bit isolated as yu tend to go to town a lot and is a long and expensive trip..buffet dinner only about$18 per head so ate resort most of the time otherwise in town..we booked side trips through agent at home..much easier that way.no worries on the holiday and good quality. enjoy

Hi,

We've just come back from a 16 day trip to Borneo 2 days ago so hope this helps. If you're going for 3 weeks it would be a real shame to stay in one or two places, there's so much to see and you've got plently of time to do it. You can book the whole thing with a tour operator if you want to make the trip really expensive but it's really easy to book it yourself direct with the hotels and tours over the internet before you go. We did everything you want to do. I'll tell you our itinerary as it worked really well. We flew into Kuching and went to The Damai beach area to recover from the flight (paradise- you can stay at the Damai Lagoon or Damai Beach. Then a couple of days in Bako national park, (basic accomm. but true rainforest). Spent a day at Semengohh Orang Sanctuary, a day at Kubah National park. Then flew to Mulu to explore the caves for a few days (only place to stay is Royal Mulu Resort). Then flew to Sandakan where we did a 3/4 day tour with Ecotours, visiting Selingan turtle island, Sepilok Orangs and then a river trip to see probiscus etc. Then back to KK where we stayed at the Meridian (gorgeous - lived like kings) but I also hear that the Rasa Ria is nice although full of English and Australians. From KK you can explore the islands and chill out on beaches and climb Mount Kinabalu if you're feeling energetic. Anyway, whatever you do you'll have a fantastic time. Borneo is an amazing place, food great, accommodation is very high standard and cheap and the people are friendly and kind. Have a great trip.

Hi all,

Thankyou all so much for all your suggestions and tips etc.
We have booked our trip and are so looking forward to it (see my posting on the main Borneo forum page).
Your responses have whet my appetite and now I just can wait to go and experience this all for myself. I don't think I'll want to come back!

Cheers,

Kelly