Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary – Join a Wildlife Adventure (Kinabatangan Nature Lodge), Sabah, Borneo
The Kinabatangan River is the longest river in Sabah, flowing 560km to the Sulu Sea on the east coast. The lower 70 – 100km of the river form the Kinabatangan Floodplain. In 2005, 26,000 hectares of the Lower Kinabatangan were designated as a Wildlife Sanctuary – known today as the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. The Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary protects the area immediately alongside the river – a ‘protected corridor’. This makes it highly likely during river cruises and short treks in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary that you will see a wide range of wildlife including elephants (if they are in the area), orangutans, proboscis monkeys, macaques, gibbons and lots more. The Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary is also home to 200 species of birds including hornbills, kites, crested serpent eagles, egrets, blue-banded and stork-billed kingfishers and oriental darters. The Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary is one of only two areas in the world inhabited by ten species of primate, four of which are endemic to Borneo. The Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary is also one of two places in the world where four medium-sized colonies inhabit the same place: namely proboscis monkey, silvered langur, maroon langur, and Hose’s or grey langur. The Sanctuary truly is a special place for a wildlife adventure in Sabah.
Join a Range of Wildlife Encounter Activities during the 3D2N Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary Trip
During your 3D2N Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary Trip, you will join a range of wildlife viewing activities. The first stop on day 1 will be a visit to world-famous Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre to watch the morning feeding session. “Natives” to Malaysia and Indonesia, Orangutans are only found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. After lunch, on day 1 you will then be transferred to your Lodge located in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary where you will join 4 river cruises, 2 guided night walk and a guided walk to the Bilit Ox-Bow Lake.
During this 3D2N Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary Trip, you spend two nights at a Lodge along the banks of the Kinabatangan River located in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (Kinabatangan Nature Lodge located near Kampung Bilit). The Lodge offers basic, clean accommodation in private chalets. You will stay in an Agamid Chalet (twin or double bed, aircon and ensuite shower room). If you’re looking for high-quality accommodation for your visit to the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary then check out our 3D2N package at the Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort.
On the last day of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary trip, come and discover the valuable and edible birds nest in the largest limestone cave in Sabah where millions of swiftlets make the cave their home. These caves are located directly in the heart of 3,297-Hectares Gomantong Forest Reserve of Kinabatangan district. You will then be transferred to your drop off location in Sandakan or Sepilok area.
If you want even more from your Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary trip then why not add on an overnight stay at Turtle Island to have the chance to watch a Turtle nesting and turn this trip into a 4D3N Turtle Island & Kinabatangan River Cruise Trip – a great combination for seeing Turtles and wildlife in Sabah, Borneo.
Trip Itinerary – 3D2N Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary Trip (Kinabatangan Nature Lodge), Sabah, Malaysia
Day 1 (Meals: L & D)
Today follows the same outline itinerary as Day 1 of the 2D1N Kinabatangan Riverside Lodge Trip – find a more detailed daily itinerary on the 2D1N Trip page.
If you are flying into Sandakan Airport this morning to join the 3D2N Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary trip you need to book a flight that arrives at Sandakan Airport before 8:00hrs.
This morning you will visit Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and watch the morning feeding session, followed by a visit to the Sun Bear Conservation Centre. At Sepilok, you will come up close and personal with human’s closest relative, the Orangutans. For most visitors to Sabah seeing Orangutans is at the top of their list. You get to tick this off before lunchtime on day 1 – cool! It’s then time for lunch at a Lodge near Sepilok.
Early afternoon you will be transferred to the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge located in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, a ~ 2-hour transfer by minibus. You will then start your river cruise adventures with a late afternoon river cruise to search for wildlife and bird-life along the Kinabatangan River banks. Later, after dinner, you will join a guided night trek into the secondary rainforest behind the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge in search of nocturnal birds, insects and wildlife found in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.
Overnight at the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge in an Agamid Chalet (with twin/triple/double bed, aircon and ensuite Shower Room). Click here to see photos of the accommodation at the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge.
Day 2 (Meals: B, L & D)
06:00hrs: Join an early morning river cruise and see the wildlife as they awake from a nights sleep. Various species of wildlife may be seen during your river cruise in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary such as Proboscis Monkeys, Leaf Monkeys, Macaques, Gibbons and even the Orang Utans.
07:45hrs: Return back to the Lodge for breakfast at 0800 hrs.
09:00hrs: After breakfast, you will start your trek through the nearby secondary lowland rainforest to the nearby Bilit Ox-Bow Lake. You will be led on the trek by your Nature Guide who will explain more about the plant life and insect life found in the rainforest in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.
11:30hrs: Return to the Lodge for lunch at 1200 hrs.
13:00hrs: You now have a chance to rest and chill out at the Lodge before your late afternoon river cruise.
16:00hrs: Join another late afternoon river cruise along the Kinabatangan River for more wildlife sight-seeing in ‘corridor of life’ located alongside the banks of the river, the protected area forming the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.
18:00hrs: Return to the Lodge. Dinner will be served at the Lodge. After dinner, as an optional extra during your Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary tour, you can choose to join a local dance session. The Lodge team will teach a traditional dance from one of the tribes found in Sabah such as Sumazau (a KadazanDusun dance) or daling daling (a Bajau dance). An opportunity for learning more about Borneo’s rich culture and having a bit of fun!
~20:00hrs: Join a guided night trek following a different trekking route behind the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge.
Overnight at the Lodge – stay a second night in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.
Day 3 (Meals: B)
Today follows the same outline itinerary as Day 2 of the 2D1N Kinabatangan Riverside Lodge Trip – find a more detailed daily itinerary on the 2D1N Trip page.
It’s an early start today with the last early morning river cruise of your 3D2N Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary trip. After breakfast at the Lodge you will be transferred to visit Gomantong Caves before continuing your journey back to Sandakan (if you are catching a flight from Sandakan Airport at the end of the trip it is recommended you book a flight departing from 14:00hrs onwards).
Trip Inclusions – Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary Trip
- Return road transfer from Sandakan or Sepilok area and return boat transfers to the Lodge from Kampung Bilit.
- Meals (2 Breakfasts, 2 Lunch & 2 Dinner).
- Visit (and entrance fees) to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, Sun Bear Conservation Centre and Gomantong Cave.
- At the Kinabatangan River, located in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary: 4 x river cruises (2 mornings & 2 late afternoons), 1 x guided trek to an Ox-Bow lake, 2 x Guided night nature walk. The Kinabatangan River cruises included with this trip will travel as far upstream as ~7km to Pontian Point and downstream maximum of ~ 10 km to Tenegang Besar Point.
- Two nights accommodation in an Agamid chalet (twin/double/triple beds, ensuite shower room and toilet, aircon) within the Agamid Wing of Kinabatangan Nature Lodge.
- Guiding throughout your trip by an experienced, friendly and English-speaking licensed Nature Guide.
- Access to free-flow coffee/tea and fresh water at the restaurant at the Kinabatangan Lodge.
- 0% Sales & Service Tax on the tour price as applicable from 6th May 2019.
Trip Exclusions
Camera/video conservation fee at Sepilok Sanctuary (RM10 per item), Sun Bear Conservation Centre (RM10 per item) and Gomantong Cave (RM30 per item), soft drinks or alcoholic drinks, flights from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan. There is a single supplement of RM200.00 on top of the trip price if you book this trip on your own (for single sharing a Chalet). The new Tourism Tax – the Tourism Tax is currently set with a flat rate of RM 10 per room per night and will be charged to Non-Malaysian or Foreign tourists from 1st September 2017.
The Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary Tour price is based on joining a shared trip – surcharges are applicable if you add on a private boat for river cruises, a private Guide or private minibus transfers.
Recommended Packing List – Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary Trip
To get the most from this trip, please bring with you a raincoat, cap/hat, insect repellent, sun cream, good walking shoes, a comfortable cotton T-shirt, long sleeve top, long trousers (long trousers are required for the Oxbow Lake trek), long shorts, binocular for observing wildlife, head torch for night trek, camera and personal medications (if needed). Please take your passport with you on this trip – your passports will be checked at the Kinabatangan Lodge.
Notes – 3D2N Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary Trip (Kinabatangan Nature Lodge), Sabah, Malaysia
If weather, or other factors (e.g. landslide), makes an activity unsafe, the Lodge will adapt the trip itinerary for safety reasons. There will be no refund if a trip itinerary needs to be adapted on the day due to safety reasons.
The Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary headline trip price shown is a price per adult based upon a minimum of 2 Adults staying in 1 Chalet and is valid for trips taken up to 31st December 2023. When you are adding the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary trip to your basket, the trip price is based on a per chalet basis (choose the number of persons staying in a chalet you want to book), and for the add-on activities, it is based upon the group size you want to book the activity for.
Brian Hall – KL, Malaysia –
We did have a great time. Perfect weather – no rain! Our guide, Ramzan, had an amazing vision for animals…and we had some luck too. We saw elephants on each boat ride (they say it’s rare to see them once) and on our final morning ride we’d not seen much (well, the elephants) and were speeding back to the lodge and suddenly he stops and points to the shore and says he’s seen a baby orangutan (mind you, we had his binoculars) and sure enough, there it was, quite hidden, and even more hidden the mama. What a great ending. He was proud and we were thrilled.
Pamela Fruin –
My family 15 of us, spanning three generations, aged 75 to 10 years old had the most extraordinary experience at the Nature Lodge on the Lower Kinabatangan.
Our guides were exceptional Amirul who met us and escorted us to Sepilok and then onto the Lodge was very friendly and very informative. Visiting Sepilok to see the orangutang nursery was a delight. Much to our joy, four played on the ropes, ate fruit and coconuts and tumbled on the grass. Unfortunately the orangutans didn’t appear at the feeding platform. Sunbears could be seen in the trees, stretching on the ground and one came really close and showed us how skills of climbing a tree.
At the Lodge we were welcomed by Beatrice and her team and ably accommodated when one of the rooms was unsatisfactory The meals prepared by Helen and her team were fabulous and the children, much to their surprise were treated to milo flakes at breakfast and fish and chips at dinner. As one said, “ I didn’t even have to ask.”
AJ and Ramzin our wildlife guides were absolutely amazing. While Ross and I visited the Lower Kinabatangan 10 years ago, this first ‘jungle’ experience for everyone else and the thrill of just being in the jungle was fantastic. The wildlife was certainly on show, with a sighting of Pygmy elephants, a mother and her calf appearing out of the mist as we approached on our first morning cruise. What a joyful moment this was for everyone as most hadn’t seen elephants in the wild before. They cruised the river shoreline feeding and then proceeded to swim across the river, bobbing up and down filling their lungs with air and spouting water. We understood that this was a very rare sight. Ramzin said that in 12 months he’d only seen elephants on 9 occasions and AJ hadn’t seen elephants since November. This gave us all appreciation of how fortunate we were seeing elephants and this phenomenal sight. Troupes of monkeys, proboscis, long and pig tail macaques and red and black and white langurs played in the trees close to the river banks performing wonderful, aerial acrobatics showing their leaping prowess. Mothers rescued babies getting dangerously close to the end of branches and cuddled them and old alpha males watched out for a lonely monkey who unfortunately missed his branch and landed in the river. Swimming against a strong current, he made it to the other side and was waiting for an opportunity to return to the protection of its troupe. Our guides also told us how fortunate we were to see this unusual sight. Orangutangs could be seen were high in the durian trees on each river cruise and a large mother and her baby were very close to the carpark at the Gomantong Caves. Proboscis monkeys performing high wire walking crossing the river was a joyful and funny for us all to see. Watching the alpha males reaching up, pulling the highest wire down so the smaller monkeys could reach it to walk upright as an alternative to balancing on a single wire, losing balance and flopping on the wire to rest before getting up and walking again. We saw a rhinoceros horn bills and about 10 oriental pied hornbills, kingfisher, egrets and snake necked cormorants, white belied sea eagle and bulbul were the main birdlife seen. AJ and Ramzin were excellent and safe boatmen and especially when other boats were around, skilled in positioning us at the best vantage point to the observe the wildlife and take memorable photographs. The guided jungle walk at night and to the lake were unique experiences too. AJ managed to have a leech encounter which was interesting for us all to see.
In comparison to Ross’ and my first visit, the wildlife was more prolific, closer to observe and we were delighted by the unusual sightings of elephants and monkeys swimming.
The new bathrooms in the chalets were lovely. Hooks behind the bathroom door and hooks on the walls would be helpful to hang clothes. The size range of wellington boots was excellent.
Ify & Ed –
We had a great time. We loved most that we got to see orangutans and pygmy elephants in the wild. Truly special! Mohammed was a great guide, very knowledgeable and friendly.
Jacqueline Quero Heredia –
We absolutely loved our trip on the river. It has been the highlight of out holiday so far. We are in Bali at the moment and we are diving tomorrow.
We enjoyed everything about it and it’s hard to say what we liked the most.
Our guide was amazing and we saw nearly everything apart from the elephants but we didn’t really expect to see them.
There is nothing you could change to make it better, it was truly amazing.
Heather Livingston –
We absolutely loved our trip. Thank you so much for the great experience: lodging, food, guide, and staff. An incredible operation.
johnbD8832IX London, United Kingdom (TripAdvisor) –
3D2N in Borneo jungle at Nature Lodge – Enjoyed being up close to nature on the river and in the jungle at Nature Lodge. As others have said the accommodation was basic but as expected. Staff were all very friendly and seemed to know everyone’s name very quickly. Food was acceptable, though not very varied, considering they were catering for numbers. Unfortunately, the trip was let down by the poor guide called Joe (same guide for trips along the river and into the jungle). He only provided basic information on the animals we saw. For example, when he spotted a large bird in a tree he told us it was a ‘large hornbill’, that was it. He did not know what type of hornbill (there seem to be at least 8 species in Borneo and a quick Google search later suggested it was either a wrinkled or wreathed hornbill), He did not tell us what they feed on, how common they are etc…). During the jungle trip, he told us almost nothing about the plant life (which is basically most of the jungle and seemed to spend all his time looking for mammals). On the return trip through the jungle, he let us go on alone, and we got (slightly) lost, which was very unprofessional With a better guide this would have been a great trip, though you have to appreciate that you might or might not see certain animals – there are no guarantees with wildlife. Finally, 2 days and 3 nights are probably too much, a shorter trip would probably do.
Tammy (Melbourne, Aust) –
Stayed as a group of 3 families consisting of 6 adults and 5 kids aged 8-12. Our stay was amazing – well above all expectations. We witnessed a huge array of animals in their natural habitat, ate delicious and plentiful food (even for fussy kids), enjoyed spacious, comfortable rooms (loved the outdoor shower), appreciated the wealth of knowledge of our guides and loved experiencing the natural beauty of the rain forest. We were even treated to an amazing thunderstorm which we woke to. The friendly service and attention to detail from staff was impeccable. It truly was a wonderful life experience for all within our group. I’d definitely recommend and would readily rate it 5 out of 5. Thank you for a magical stay!
Jude Dawson –
Thank you for assisting my daughter and I to book online a wonderful experience along the Kinabatangan River in Sabah. The staff at BorneoDream were always very quick to return my emails, answering all queries clearly and in detail. We booked the 3D2N tour and were more than satisfied with our adventure. We travelled between each venue in a clean and comfortable vehicle. Our tour guide/wildlife spotter James was professional and reliable. All the cruises left on time and he was amazing at locating and identifying many species of wildlife on each occasion. We always felt safe on the small boat which James manoeuvred with great skill to provide the best viewing for all passengers. Our air conditioned accommodation at the lodge was better than I’d expected for a simple cabin in the jungle! I would have no hesitation recommending this trip to friends and family in both Australia and the UK. I hope one day to revisit Borneo and do it all again.