Overview

This is a tour designed for explorers, from the city sights and sounds of Kuching to the markets of Malay Kampongs, from the national parks to river cruises and trekking. The exploration of the extensive cave system of Borneo is followed by understanding the conservation efforts for the native wildlife. Kayaking to reach a native Bidayuh village to some relaxation at the Permai Rainforest Resort. The excitement never ends as you go looking for the estuarine crocodile the mangrove fireflies and the elusive ​Proboscis monkey. Enjoy incredible views of Mt Kinabalu soaring 4,059 metres above the wild jungles of Borneo. Shop to your hearts delight at the local markets. Trek to the wild and try to spot the endemic Nepenthes Rajah and explore more flora in the Botanical Gardens. Go snorkeling or simply swim at an island in the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. Finally head to the town of Beaufort to embark on a river cruise. See we told you, these 9 days are full of adventure. 

8 Nights 9 Days Available on request Kuching International Airport
Inclusions/Exclusions
What we'll give. What we won't

What is included in the tour

  • The package includes 8-nights accommodation, 5 in shared twin/triple room with air-conditioning (AC) and private bathroom and 3 based on lead in room.
  • Meals are included as per the detailed program
  • All tour and transfers are with local English-speaking driver or guides in as air-conditioned vehicles
  • All entrance fees and/or boat fees as stated in the program
  • Drinking water available on the vehicles
  • Package includes GST 6% (Good and Service Tax)

 

What is NOT included in the tour

  • Air-travel Domestic or international to/from Malaysia, this can be quoted separately by us on request
  • Any optional tours you opt for
  • Charges for arranging guides for other languages if requested
  • Personal expenditure, such as drinks, souvenirs, laundry, camera fees, communications – including phone bills, postage, gratuities and the likes
  • Meals and services other than mentioned in the program
  • Personal travel insurance
  • Drinks with meals and bottled water
  • Porter charges, certificate, and the likes
  • Hotels may charge for early check-in and late check-out, this can be covered only if it is explicitly mentioned in the program
  • Activities at Permai Rainforest Resort are charged separately
Highlights
What makes this tour special
  • Explore the native lifestyle with a visit to a Malay wooden stilt house
  • Take a bicycle ride through Kuching and see stunning Malay kampongs
  • Explore the extensive and unique cave system of Borneo
  • Understand the Orangutan conservation program and go kayaking through lush rainforest
  • Discover a Bidayuh village & trek in serene Bako National Park
  • Discover the sights & sounds of Kota Kinabalu
  • Get stunning views of the pristine Borneo Jungles from the top of Mt Kinabalu
  • Go shopping for tribal products at the local market
  • Trek to find the Nepenthes Rajah growing in the wild
  • Enjoy a river cruise from Beaufort
Itinerary
Day 1: Kuching Arrival
  • A courteous English-speaking guide will be at the Kuching International Airport for facilitating your arrival and hotel check-in. You will be the guests of the Pullman Hotel, Kuching. It is a 30 min drive from the airport. The hotel offers stunning panoramic views of Kuching City and the Sarawak River.
  • The hotel is well equipped for young travelers including a children’s swimming pool. The rooms are spacious and designed for families as the core audience. Each family room (Triple Room) has a king-size bed and a single bed. The rooms are large enough for an extra bed to be added if need be.
  • The day is designed to give you some time to get used to the tropical climate and to relax away any jet lag that you may experience. The night stay at the hotel will surely be refreshing and luxurious. The hotel offers an exquisite range of dining options where the chefs take pride in local sourcing and quality produced ingredients for creating a lavish and extensive menu. Options include full-service restaurants, bar/lounge, and a café.
  • Meals included: None
Day 2: Kuching Cycling Tour
  • The day starts with a cycling tour (Half day – 5hours). The children have a choice of kid bikes and junior bikes in a variety of sizes. Protective sports helmets are provided for the entire family.
  • The cycling trip covers as much of the heritage sites as possible. It takes you through the countryside and allows you to explore the Malay Kampongs (Local villages of indigenous people). These villages are dotted all along the banks of the great Sarawak river creating a striking contrast with the urban center that is Kuching. We will ride on wooden bridges and on the banks of the river. You will enjoy a relaxed and leisurely bicycle tour through the villages. Your guide will help you experience first-hand how the kampong people live. You will be visiting a traditional Malay wooden stilt house full of historical stories to tell. The local folks are friendly and like to interact, they never fail to bring a smile to everyone’s face.
  • We cycle to the local markets (most colorful during the weekends) called Kubah Ria. Experience the diverse color of tropical fresh fruits and vegetables, shop for local handicrafts, and discover a whole range of jungle produce including unique wild ferns, exotic vegetables, and even orchid plants. The market also provides a great chance to explore local delicacies, deliverance for the food lover in you. 
  • We now return to our hotel for a relaxed afternoon. Enjoy the hospitality of the hotel and relax the rest of the evening. Overnight stay at the Hotel.
  • Meals included: Breakfast
Day 3: Kuching – Semenggoh Nature Reserve & Rainforest Kayaking – Damai
  • A day of activity starts with a sumptuous breakfast at the hotel and checkou t from Kuching.
  • Our first stop is the Semenggoh Nature Reserve, originally built to protect the Orangutans and to rehabilitate captive and orphaned ones back to the wild.
  • The reserve has its own rare flora and fauna including the giant squirrel, pigmy squirrel and splendid variety of birds. Trekking trails make Semenggoh an ideal place for wildlife photographers and nature lovers.
  • The highlight of the visit is a chance to see an Orangutan, your guide will help spot one during the morning feeding time. This is when the Orangutans swing down from the trees for a free handout of fruit. This reserve is one of the few places in the world where humans can interact with their shy jungle cousins.
  • We now start our journey to Bengoh village in the Borneo Highlands. This is a 40 min drive from the nature reserve. Bengoh will be the start point for our Borneo Rainforest Kayaking tour. Once on the banks of the Sarawak Kiri river, you are introduced to the equipment and given a detailed safety briefing along with the basic know-how of kayaking. We start the adventurous trip down the river, halfway down we stop at a delightful Bidayuh village to explore village life and to have a traditional local lunch. The kayaking continues with lush green forest covering the river and the limestone hills towering above. Every bend of the river opens new and exciting views to absorb. The river does offer a few class 1 and class 2 rapids for the adventure lovers to enjoy.
  • We now take a drive to the Permai Rainforest resort for the evening. This is a 90 min drive. The resort is a distinctive eco-resort build next to the shores of the south china sea in the middle of the pristine rainforest at the foot of the mystical Mount Santubong. The resort is designed with nature as the muse, everything here minimizes the human impact. It still gives you an experience you will remember for a lifetime. The resort has 10 treehouses, built on stilts 20 feet above the ground. These tree houses offer a unique experience of sleeping amongst the canopy of the trees.
  • Besides the treehouses, the resort also offers cabins designed to host as many as 6 persons each. Enjoy the rich forest views you may even get a glimpse of one of the three different species of monkeys that do occasionally roam in the resort's premises.
  • The night stay is planned in the resort.
  • Meals Included: breakfast and lunch
Day 4: Mangrove Swamp and Fireflies Cruise
  • We spend a relaxed morning and some great breakfast at the resort. The early afternoon is available to relax at the beach or the cooling nature pool at the resort. The resort has a lot of activities which you can indulge into. Some of the popular ones include nature walks, obstacle courses, compass reading games. You can go to the beach or enjoy indoor games. Do note the activities are charged by the resort separately.
  • A great option is to go for a visit to the nearby Sarawak Cultural Village (not covered in the tour, charged separately). We like to call these villages “living museums”, they provide a glimpse into the traditional lifestyle of the Sarawak tribes and the villagers organize a colorful demonstration of the traditional native dances.
  • The day's adventure starts in the late afternoon. Your guide takes you out on a mangrove cruise which will take you to the Santubong river delta. The route goes through the mangrove forests of Kuching National Park. Be amazed by the breath-taking views of the mangrove swamps and understand how nature has built complex symbiotic relationships between animal and plants of the wetlands. The best-described case if of the mangrove trees and the proboscis monkeys.  If the skies are open, you will witness a beautiful sunset over the mangrove forests of Borneo.
  • As dusk spreads we go deeper into the mangroves in search of the elusive estuarine crocodile. These are the local predators and hunt in the night. They have distinctive eyes which shine a bright shade of red when a torchlight is shown on them.  The other delight of the rainforest is a large number of fireflies which gather around the mangrove trees making them shine like Christmas trees. The evening adventure ends with a trip back to the resort. Relax at the treehouse or the cabin.
  • Meals included: breakfast
Day 5: Bako National Part Tour
  • We have breakfast at the resort a nd start for a 30 min drive to the small village called Bako. From here we take a 20 min boat ride to reach the national park. The national park covers the northern tip of the Muara Tebas peninsula and is spread over an area of 27 sq km.  Bako contains a wide range of vegetation – swamp forest, scrub-like Padang vegetation, mangrove forest, dipterocarp forest, delicate cliff vegetation and more. Bako also contains a rich variety of wildlife and a coastline covered with small bays, coves, and beaches. The park has a number of well-marked trails offering interesting walks ranging from short pleasant strolls to serious full-day hikes. Visitors to Bako are almost guaranteed to see wildlife.  Long-tailed macaque monkeys and silver leaf monkeys are ever present, wild boar is often found rummaging around the park HQ, squirrels and monitor lizards are also common. There is every chance of seeing the rare and unusual proboscis monkeys on trails such as Telok Paku and Telok Delima, particularly if you go out late in the afternoon.
  • Once the tour is over we transfer back to the resort for some leisure time. We spend the night at the ever so pleasant Permai Rainforest Resort.
  • Meals included: breakfast and lunch
Day 6: Kuching Departure
  • We check out of our Kuching Hotel at 12:00 noon but you get a lot of time to enjoy the morning after a good breakfast at the resort. The transfer to the Kuching international airport will bring back memories of the last few days. Time to take your flight to Kota Kinabalu. A courteous English-speaking guide will be at the Kota Kinabalu Airport for facilitating your arrival, transfer by AC vehicle to your hotel of choice and hotel check-in. The rest of the day is designed to give you some time to get used to the tropical climate and to relax away any jet lag that you may experience. Night stay at the hotel.
  • Meals included: Breakfast
Day 7: Kota Kinabalu - Kinabalu Park and Poring Hot Spring
  • We enjoy breakfast at the hotel and take the road through the ridges of the Crocker Range to the Southern end of the Kinabalu Park. At Poring, we will join a jungle trail that will take us to the extremely pictures canopy walk made of a series of bridges built about 40meters above the ground. The Canopy bridge provides a bird’s eye view of the ancient rainforests. The hot springs are famous for the therapeutic value of the sulfur baths if time permits do take a rejuvenating dip in the hot waters.  We now break for lunch and proceed to the Kinabalu Park Headquarters. Your guide will take you to the exquisite Mountain Garden in the park. You will be able to see a large collection of rare orchids and plants endemic to Borneo in this garden. After completing the park visit we return to the city and relax at the Hotel.
  • Meals included: Breakfast and lunch
Day 8: Island Free and Easy – Mangrove River Cruise
  • After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we reach the Jetty for a 20 min boat ride that takes us to one of the coral islands within the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. The islands have shallow reefs and pristine beaches, spend the day swimming in blue waters or snorkeling amongst the corals or just relaxing on the beach. We have a simple box lunch for the day and after a quick shower return to the mainland in mid-afternoon.
  • We will start our journey for the river cruise at 14:30hrs – This starts with a 2-hour long drive to the town of Beaufort. The drive will take us through the beautiful countryside while we pass through small towns and native villages to reach the Klias Wetlands and Mangrove Forest Reserve. We stop for some light refreshments and then start on our exciting river cruise where we go searching for wildlife. We can possibly spot the long nose Proboscis monkeys, long tail macaque, silver leaf monkeys, and birds. As the evening sets in and the sunsets, the spectacle of fireflies gathering at the tree canopies gives the appearance of glittering Christmas lights, the sight is spectacular, to say the least (may be difficult to see if full moon or raining).
  • Enjoy a local Malaysian dinner at the riverside restaurant before returning back to the luxury of your hotel. Night stay at the hotel in Kota Kinabalu.
  • Please note that all boat transfers and always on a shared basis.
  • Meals included: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Day 9: Kota Kinabalu Departure
  • Enjoy a relaxed breakfast and sometimes at leisure at the hotel before a transfer to the airport is arranged. Take your departure flight for onward journey from the Kota Kinabalu airport.
  • Meals included: Breakfast
Pickup point
Directions.
Kuching International Airport (KCH/WBGG) (KCH), 900B, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia View on Map