Borneo Family Adventure

Join a guided walk through the verdant trails of the Rainforest Discovery Centre near Sepilok, one of Sabah’s most important conservation hubs. As you make your way to the 25-metre-high canopy walkway, pause to learn about the centre’s ongoing habitat restoration projects and efforts to protect local wildlife. From the top, take in sweeping views across the rainforest, keeping an eye out for hornbills and eagles overhead, flying squirrels gliding between branches and the occasional orangutan moving through the canopy.

Begin at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre within the Sepilok-Kabili Forest Reserve, where rescued sun bears are cared for and prepared for life in the wild. Learn about their rehabilitation process and the centre’s vital work to protect the world’s smallest bear species. Continue to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre to witness the afternoon feeding session, which provides a supplemental food source for semi-wild orangutans. This carefully managed process helps them develop the skills needed for independent life in the forest while allowing you to observe their natural behaviours up close.

Set out at first light for a quiet cruise along the Kinabatangan River to Kelenanap Oxbow Lake. The calm backwaters attract wildlife from every direction. Watch for hornbills overhead, proboscis monkeys feeding by the riverbanks and crocodiles basking on the sandbanks.

Drive 27 kilometres from the river lodge into the forested hills near the lower Kinabatangan to reach Gomantong Cave in Sabah. Follow a 15-minute boardwalk through lush rainforest to the cave entrance, where you might see more than two million bats take flight and hear raptors calling overhead.

Inside, swiftlets cling to the limestone walls, and the vast cave system forms a self-sustaining ecosystem – nutrient-rich guano supports a thriving web of insects and small creatures, which in turn feed larger species throughout the surrounding forest.

Join a boat transfer from the community jetty in Batu Puteh to the reforestation site, where you’ll help restore the floodplain rainforest by planting native tree saplings along the waterways. Learn about KOPEL’s ongoing conservation efforts – from planting more than 400,000 trees to reconnecting habitat corridors and protecting local wildlife.

Follow a rainforest trail to the Lipad Mud Volcano, a mineral-rich salt lick that attracts a wide variety of wildlife. Look for tracks of pygmy elephants, wild boar and deer imprinted in the soft mud, and pause to observe the birdlife flitting through the trees along the way.

Soothe your feet in a herbal soak infused with local rainforest plants, long used by the communities of Sabah for their natural healing properties. The treatment blends warm water with lemongrass, ginger and wild herbs gathered from the surrounding forest. As you unwind, listen to the sounds of the rainforest and absorb the stillness before evening settles in.

Follow a primary rainforest trail to Coffin Cliff, an ancient burial site of the Kadazandusun people, one of Sabah’s largest Indigenous groups. Believed to bring the spirits of ancestors closer to the sky, the cliff holds hardwood coffins carved from single tree trunks and tucked into the rock face – a tradition that has endured for centuries. Continue to the viewpoint for sweeping vistas of the valley below.

Begin at the riverside launch point near the rainforest lodge and step into an inner tube that carries you gently downstream along the Danum River. This is a great chance to experience the rainforest from the water, with trees lining the banks and roots reaching into the river, surrounding you on all sides. Gradually, the current slows and the jungle closes in, wrapping you in its dense green stillness.

Hike through lowland forests to two of the Danum Valley’s hidden waterfalls – Fairy Falls and Serpent Falls. Cool off with a swim in the pools, then pause to take in the jungle’s tranquil sounds as mist hangs softly in the air.

Spend a day or half day alongside local villagers as they share their traditional ways of living – from rice planting and rubber tapping to fishing with hand nets and foraging for seafood along the foreshore. Depending on the season, you might help prepare coconuts for market or learn the age-old process of de-husking rice.

Dive or snorkel among vibrant coral gardens where green and hawksbill sea turtles glide through clear shallows. Schools of parrotfish, butterflyfish and batfish move gracefully between the corals, and in the deeper blue you might catch sight of rays or reef sharks drifting past.