Our favourite Borneo tours and excursions

From multi-day rainforest treks to tribal longhouse stays, Borneo offers some of the most unforgettable travel experiences on the planet.

You don’t come to Borneo to do things by halves. You want the very best guides, in the very best locations, with the very best range of activities, or nothing. In the world’s greatest wildlife destination, why settle for anything less?

By its very wild and untamed nature, much of Borneo impossible to explore without a guide – and we’re only interested in working with the very best. You can always spot them: they’re the ones who’ve never stopped being enthused about the sheer magnitude of the forest, and the ones who are as excited by a big cat’s pawprint as by the tiniest rare spider, even after years of guiding. Those are the people we want to show you Borneo.

Borneo isn’t just an untouched rainforest paradise. It’s a living, breathing island full of culture and contradictions, with street-food markets to explore, mountains to climb, coral reefs to marvel at, conservation challenges to face, and scores of different indigenous groups with whom to share an evening and a little tuak rice wine. These are the experiences that’ll get you beneath the surface.

Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre

Established in 1964, this sanctuary (the first of its kind in Borneo) rescues baby orangutans orphaned by logging or the illegal pet trade and rehabilitates them so that they can be released back into the wild.

It’s a process that can take up to seven years, and at the SORC you can see them at every stage of development – from youngsters being cared for in indoor nurseries through to adolescence and release. After release, the orangutans might still come back to the centre for bananas and sugarcane (although the meal is kept monotonous to encourage them to find their own food), so keep your eyes peeled to see them playing in the branches and swinging down from the trees.

Canopy walkway in Danum Valley - Claire Allison

Exploring Danum Valley

Exploring the Danum Valley is an experience we’ll never forget. Miles upon miles from anywhere, surrounded by rainforest that’s never been logged, settled, or interfered with in any way, this is one of the richest natural wonderlands on Earth.

Wander through the treetops on a canopy walk 25 metres above the ground. Tube downriver looking out for gibbons and orangutans. Work up a sweat as you trek between towering tropical trees to catacomb-like caves, then head out at dusk to meet the forest inhabitants who only emerge under cover of darkness. Getting here may not be fast, cheap or easy, but what else would you expect from one of the world’s last true wildernesses?

Meeting the Iban people

Borneo’s Iban people may have abandoned their former practice of headhunting, but thankfully their traditional culture survives in many other forms.

Iban live in longhouses with up to 30 families under one roof, and in the evenings, these houses are filled with drinking, dancing and general merriment. Spend the night and be prepared to be plied with tuak rice wine and roped into a dance or two, to the inevitable amusement of your hosts! The Iban way of life may not have all the mod cons (or privacy) you’re used to, but it affords a sense of community that’s long faded from Western culture, and for us it’s one of the highlights of a trip to Borneo.