Sukau-Tabin Wildlife Experience
Featuring a combination of Sukau Rainforest Lodge and Tabin Wildlife Sanctuary for the more budget conscious. Explore the Borneo rainforest by river in Sukau and on foot in Tabin.
Tour Highlights
- Observe Orangutans at the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center
- Learn and get a glimpse of Sun Bears at the Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre
- 02 Nights stay at Sukau Rainforest Lodge, National Geographic unique lodges of the world, Superior Room. Travel to SRL by speedboat
- 02 afternoon river cruises and 01 early morning river cruise in search of Borneo's wildlife and birdlife
- Nature walk along Hornbill Boardwalk and Attenborough Boardwalk to learn about the flora in the area and maybe even sight some wildlife and bird life.
- At Sukau Rainforest Lodge, enjoy a night safari river cruise through Kinabatangan River to spot nocturnal wildlife (Optional Tour)
- After breakfast in Sukau Rainforest Lodge, explore the elephant migration path on a 2-hour Rasig Wildlife Trek (Optional Tour)
- Experience the uniqueness of Gomantong Cave and its surrounding in search of wild orangutans and then witness the amazing bat exodus at dusk (Optional Tour)
- 02 Nights at Tabin Wildlife Reserve
- Explore Lipad Mud volcano
This tour includes a stay in our Superior rooms and travel to SRL by speedboat. For an upgrade to our new Villa rooms, please see the Rates tab.
Ex-Sandakan
DAY 1 : SEPILOK - SUKAU RAINFOREST LODGE 
On arrival at Sandakan Airport, transfer to Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. We proceed to watch a video show about the plight of the Orang Utans and the rehabilitation efforts ongoing at the Centre. Walk ten minutes through the rainforest on wooden boardwalks to witness the feeding of the orang utans at 1000hrs then we continue to the newly completed enclosed nursery area for young orang utans. Thereafter visit the Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre to learn about conservation of the world's smallest bear.
After lunch, transfer to Sandakan jetty for 2½ hours boat journey to the multi awards winning Sukau Rainforest Lodge along Sabah's longest river, Kinabatangan with opportunity to view birds and wildlife. Take a river cruise using electric motor in search of wildlife and birds. Enjoy candle light dinner overlooking the riverbank followed by slide show and interpretation by naturalist guide. Stay overnight at the Sukau Rainforest Lodge. (Lunch & Dinner)
Note on Camera Use at Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre:
For any camera with zoom lens from 100 to 400mm, video camera or other video recording equipment for personal use are chargeable at RM10.00 per unit. For any camera (fixed-lens - 400mm and above ) or any film-making equipment are chargeable at RM1,000.00 per unit. Mode of payment is cash only.
DAY 2 : SUKAU RAINFOREST LODGE
Take a 0600hrs morning river cruise up the Kinabatangan River to Kelenanap oxbow lake to view more birds and wildlife. After breakfast, proceed for an educational tour along our Hornbill Boardwalk located behind the lodge with our in-house naturalist. In the afternoon, we proceed for another river cruise for more wildlife. Stay overnight at the Sukau Rainforest Lodge. (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner)
Experience profound relaxation and comfort at Halia Spa, Sukau Rainforest Lodge, as we provide an 'escape from the ordinary' by offering you a blend of both traditional and modern Spa treatments. Enjoy special deals when you book online!
DAY 3 : SUKAU - LAHAD DATU - TABIN WILDLIFE RESERVE
After breakfast, proceed 2.5 hours overland to Lahad Datu before travelling another 1.5 hours drive on gravel road to Tabin Wildlife Reserve. In arrival, enjoy lunch before visiting the Lipad mud volcano later in the afternoon. Trek to the elevated bare area of the mud volcano that is known to be frequented by wildlife and birds. After dinner, enjoy a CD or Slide presentation on Tabin’s natural wonders, followed by a night safari to look out for nocturnal wildlife and birds. (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner)
DAY 4 : TABIN WILDLIFE RESERVE
Join the early morning bird walk to discover some of Tabin’s rich collection of almost 300 bird species. After breakfast, visit bird watching tower and trek through the lush green jungle to visit Lipad’s Waterfall. Take a dip in the natural pool. Explore the surrounding vegetation or just relax. Return to base in the afternoon. In the evening, take a dusk drive to find wildlife and birds within the reserve. After dinner, look out for nocturnal wildlife along the trail nearby the resort. (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner)
DAY 5 : TABIN - KOTA KINABALU
After breakfast, free and easy until check out. Transfer to Lahad Datu Airport for late afternoon flight to Kota Kinabalu. (Breakfast & Lunch)
THINGS TO BRING: Please bring along swimwear, change of clothes, binoculars, drinking water bottle, insect repellent, leech socks, long sleeve shirts and long pants, short pants, raincoat, sun hat, comfortable trekking shoes (two pairs needed), torchlight, personal toiletries and camera.
Borneo Eco Tours is moving towards a plastic-free environment, so, please join our movement by bringing your own refillable water bottle during your time with us.Please ensure you are holding air ticket to Lahad Datu.
INCLUDES
Tours and transfers, accommodation and meals as specified, entrance fees and English speaking guide.
EXCLUDES
Domestic airfare, camera fee and items not mentioned, Tourism Tax (TTx) flat rate of RM10 per room per night.
Note on Travel Insurance
Customers are encouraged to purchase their own travel insurance before travelling to Borneo. We recommend you to select a travel insurance policy that covers not only your medical expenses (including emergency repatriation) but also personal liability, cancellation, curtailment and loss of luggage. Doing so can prevent major disruptions and additional costs.
| RATES PER PERSON | SINGLE SUPPLEMENT | |
|---|---|---|
| Superior | RM 4558 | RM 1535 |
Villa  |
RM 4938 | RM 1835 |
High season surcharge: MYR 160 (July & August)
Upgrade to villa: All our 20 new villas are now up and ready for guests. If you have booked a superior room in advance but want to upgrade to a villa, you can! Just pay the price difference and you’re all set!
The following discounts apply to tours that include Sukau Rainforest Lodge ONLY:
- Children age 3 and below - Free
- Children ages 4 to 12 may share a room with ONE adult - 25% discount
- Children ages 4 to 12 may share a room with TWO adult - 50% discount
Giving Back: Every international adult guest who stays at SRL contributes MYR20 for Conservation Contribution (CC).Read More
Rates are valid from 01 April 2018 till 31 March 2019.
Effective 1st September 2017, foreign guests will be charged a flat rate of RM10 per room per night for all Tourism Tax (TTx) registered hotel classifications in Malaysia.
Borneo Eco Tours Are Fantastic!
Borneo Eco Tours are fantastic. Highly recommended! Our tour consultant Oviera was extremely helpful, offered advice tailored to our needs, and ensured no detail was overlooked. All guides were friendly and knowledgable. More importantly, they are all passionate about sustainable tourism, which is great to see. Special shout out to Eryanto, our guide for 3 days - an absolute champ. Thanks to him, we spotted all the big 5, and had a great time in Borneo.
Ani Vemulpad, , Sept 2017
An experience that will stay with us for life. We stayed for a few days at the Sukau lodge, and enjoyed a variety of the tours and excursions on offer. Amongst the group of welcoming local guides we were lucky to have the benefit of Steven's deep knowledge of the forest. I heard a handclap in the street yesterday and was transported back to the story Steven told of communicating between members of his tribe...
Mark S, , July 2017
We spent 4 days at this wonderful lodge The accommodation was excellent and the food was great. The fantastic excursions up and down the river with exceptional guides was all we could ask for + more. A fantastic experience for all ages.
njhaining22, Australia, Sept 2017
We stayed here as part of our honeymoon trip. Our room was adequate but a little on the dark side and no view at all out of the window unfortunately. They are building new lodges though which look superb. The best part about this place though are the guides and river cruises. It's simply amazing. Marty our main guide was exceptional. As was Steven who was with us for the first cruise. How they can spot a tiny kingfisher at night from a distance I will never know! Marty made sure we saw everything possible - the top 5 were all ticked! He was very knowledgable and a genuinely nice guy. The food here is very good and plentiful.
Sam S, , Sept 2017
Sukau Rainforest is a nice place in the middle of the jungle. The staff is very friendly and helpful. The tours/cruises and tourguides are fantastic with lots of wildlife around! Rooms are good but a little noisy. The WiFi is an issue, they have a daily limit on data resulting in no internet if another customer has been on Youtube in the morning... They should fix this by providing a datalimit per customer instead of a joint datalimit.
alfredballie88, , Sept 2017
Our lodge was far more luxurious than I expected. The staff were super friendly and helpful. Tours and activities were fantastic and all the tour guides were excellent- and went the extra Mir to make sure you enjoyed the tours- especially Nexter!! We saw all big 5 animals and many many more. Cannot recommend this lodge enough. Food is so-so but you don't go for the cuisine!
Amazing experience.
fvr1021, United Kingdom, Sept 2017
We had the experience of a lifetime. We saw the Big 5 of Borneo, Pygmy Elephants, Orangutans, Proboscis Monkeys, Crocodiles and Rhinoceros Hornbills.Up at 5am everyday for boat tours, boat tours in the evening and additional activities.We stayed in one of the new villas. It's not 5 star more 3.5 star but it was clean, spacious, good shower and good air con. We weren't there for the accommodation! The food is ok and the staff are wonderful. Happy and can't do enough for you. But what really made this experience was our guide Hamit. What a lovely, funny, intelligent and informative man. He really enjoys his job and it shows. He went above and beyond to make sure our stay was the best. He is an absolute credit to the Lodge. If you get the chance, BOOK IT! You won't regret it.
Karen L, United Kingdom, Sept 2017
Our two day stay here was quite an experience. Marty, the guide who accompanied us on all our river cruises was excellent, very knowledgeable and very patient too! In fact all the staff were helpful and attentive. We didn't get to see Pygmy elephants or any crordiles but this did not detract from our enjoyment in any way. We stayed in one of the original standard rooms which was ok but quite dark and had no view to speak of. However they are in the process of building new chalet type accommodation which looks lovely. Some of them are already in use. The food was plentiful and quite tasty.
Elizabeth T, United Kingdom, Sept 2017
We stayed in a family room with our 12 year old son. We reached the river lodge by boat from Sandakan. The room was fairly small but quite adequate. The bathroom area was fairly big. The aircon worked well. The food was good but they did run out of some things if you weren’t quick! They did replenish it but it took some time. We were lucky to see the resident orangutans, Lucky & Day. We also saw the rest of the big 5 on our boat trips. There is a pool but there weren’t enough sunbeds or towels when we were there. Be warned that there were a lot of mozzies around and they loved me! Overall we had a great stay and loved wearing our sarongs at dinner (see photo)!
CaleyS, United States, July 2017
If you have got this far - you have probably already reserved - Well done!!
I made all the inquiries directly and found the communication with Cindy at Borneo Eco Tours excellent. We stayed 3 nights at the lodge (most people cram it into two days, which seems doable). Collected at Sandakan Airport and from that moment on, we sat back and enjoyed the ride. Our guide was awesome, spotting Viper snakes in the rainforest and hard to find Orangutans. We saw the big 5 in the first day and on the second and third (we were lucky). The lodge offers buffet food for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the food quality is really good and tasty.
A typical day - early morning cruise, breakfast - down time (option to walk along the rainforest floor canopy), lunch, Orangutan talk, tea/afternoon cruise/bat exodus, dinner, evening cruise, bedtime.
NALondon, United Kingdom, Sept 2017
NOTE: Wheelchair-friendly and adapted rooms are also available at the lodge.
We’re also proud to announce that Sukau Rainforest Lodge is now certified with the Travelife Gold Certification! To know more about the certification and Travelife, go here.
Presently, Sukau Rainforest Lodge has 40 rooms; 20 Superior Rooms and 20 Borneo Villas. The lodge has also been branded as a National Geographic Unique Lodges of the World and has received numerous awards and recognition namely, the Best Nature Lodge in Sabah by Sabah Tourism in 2013/2014, Asia’s Leading Green Hotel for the 17th World Travel Awards 2010, and Best Independent Accommodation by PATA InSPIRE Awards 2015.
The ecolodge was built in 1995 in the style of traditional Malay architecture using several Borneo hardwood species. Erected on stilts on the banks of Kinabatangan River, Sukau Rainforest Lodge offers a nature and wildlife experience that goes hand in hand with luxury and comfort. The lodge also includes the Melapi Restaurant on the pier, Gecko Lounge and Bar, a plunge pool, Gomantong Hall meeting area, Hornbill Boardwalk and Attenborough Boardwalk for nature walks, Kadai gift shop and also Halia Spa amongst other conveniences.
Sukau Rainforest Lodge is doing its best to uphold its ecolodge ethos by using a Green & Sustainable policy as a guideline which both staff and guests are encouraged to follow. Some of the lodge’s sustainable practices includes rainwater harvesting for shower and solar heating to generate hot water supply. All rooms are also equipped with energy saving inverter air-conditioning and LED light bulbs. Besides that, river safari cruises are conducted by boats powered by electric motors and eco-friendly outboard engines.
The Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary which covers an area of 26,800 hectares, forms part of the Kinabatangan region which is the largest floodplain the Malaysia covering a total of 23% of the land area of Sabah or 16,800 sq.km. Gazetted in 2005 as a gift to the Earth, it has a diverse ecosystem from coastal mangrove swamp, to riparian, freshwater and dipterocarp and oxbow vegetation teaming with wildlife supporting ten species of primates including more than 1,000 orang utans, proboscis monkeys, more than 300 Borneo pygmy elephants, 50 species of mammals, 20 species of reptiles and over 1,026 species of plants.
Birdlife is especially rich here (over 325 species have been sighted in the area) including eight species of hornbills, kingfishers, darters, owls, kites, eagles, broadbills, doves, storm storks, herons, hawks, ospreys, falcon, pheasants, parakeets, bee eaters, woodpeckers, pittas, bulbuls, forktails, babblers, warblers, flycatchers, orioles, flowerpeckers, spiderhunters, among others.
AWARDS
- 2014-2015 Malaysia Tourism Awards - WINNER / Best Hotel Services / 3 Star Hotel Category
- 2015 PATA InSPIRE Awards - WINNER / Best Independent Accommodation
- 2015 - 2011 TripAdvisor Hall of Fame (Five-Time Winner of the Certificate of Excellence from 2011-2015)
- 2013 Sabah Tourism Awards - WINNER / Best Nature Lodge
- 2013 Wildasia Responsible Tourism Awards - WINNER / Most Inspiring Responsible Tourism Accommodation Provider
- 2010 - 17th World Travel Awards - WINNER / Asia's Leading Green Hotel
- 2009 Sabah Tourism Awards - Finalist, Excellence in Hotel Services - Nature Lodge
- 2009 - 16th World Travel Awards - Finalist / World's Leading Eco-Lodges
- 2009 - 16th World Travel Awards - Finalist / Asia's Leading Eco-Lodges
- 2009 - National Geographic Adventure's Magazine (Top 50 Ecolodges / Jungle Category)
- 2008 - 15th World Travel Awards - Finalist / Asia Leading Green Hotel
- 2008 - 15th World Travel Awards - Finalist / World's Leading Eco-Lodges
- 2006 - ECOCLUB.com Ecolodge Awards - 3rd Prize Winner
- 2006 First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards - Highly Commended/ Best small hotel
- 1999 IH&RA Green Hotelier Awards - 1st Runner-up
- Top 10 Ecotourism Hotspots by ShermansTravel.com
- 1999 The Green Hotelier of the Year 1999 Award - Winner
- 1997 British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award - Best Lodge Pacific Region Winner
We are incredibly excited to unveil our newly built Villas! The villas are exquisitely designed and furnished with a unique Borneo flavor that we hope will provide you with extra comfort and will further heighten your Borneo experience during your stay with us.
Highlights
- Villas are 60% larger than our superior rooms
- En-suite bathroom features Hans-Grohe hot water rain and hand showers and are 100% larger than our Superior room en-suite bathrooms
- Private balcony with patio chairs
- Option of double bed and queen-sized bed arrangements
- Energy saving inverter air-conditioning supplemented by ceiling fan
- Villa rooms are fully mosquito netted. All windows and balcony doors have insect screens
- 100% LED lighting
- Decorated and furnished with Borneo styled crafts and motifs
- More privacy, away from main areas
Photos
OUR GUESTS WHO VIEWED THIS TOUR ALSO VIEWED
Borneo Eco Tours are fantastic. Highly recommended! Our tour consultant Oviera was extremely helpful, offered advice tailored to our needs, and ensured no detail was overlooked. All guides were friendly and knowledgable. More importantly, th... (Read More)
Ani Vemulpad,