Danum Valley Field Center Lahad Datu Office — Attraction in Borneo

Disappointing!! One of the main reasons why I came all the way to Borneo was to see the primary rainforest. Apparently rules are changed in the last years and the only way to access the Danum Valley is with a organized tour that is very expensive. There is no other way to access the park independently. I went to the Danum Valley Research Field Centre, 400euro for 3days/2night in hostel dorm option (the cheapest) with meals. Is not really 3 days since you arrive in the afternoon and they only let you walk around for 1,30h and the third day you leave the centre at 9:30am. The staff is friendly and prepared at the centre, even if you won’t get much explanation about the research they are doing, but rather the names of the insects you find. At the Danum Valley Centre in Lahad Datu, I had a uncomfortable experience trying to understand how to get to the park while the only answer I was getting was that I had to pay the tour, end of conversation, not professional staff. If you can afford it, the park is still worth it, 80m trees are impressive to see, wildlife is all around the centre, since they are used to humans, so not really wild… I was hoping for a completely different experience, it’s sad seeing how all Sabah is turning into a Disney Land format where most of the places are accessible just by...

Booked our stay in Danum Valley directly through the office. Found it to be a very straight forward booking experience with quick email responses throughout. Transportation, Food and Accommodation were booked in advance but excursions within Danum Valley could be booked once at the centre.

Roughly half the price of booking a similar tour through Sticky Rice. It seemed that the Sticky Rice travel times gave you slightly longer in the rainforest than the DVFC shuttle and their guides that we met were excellent. However booking directly did save us a lot of money on what was still quite an expensive trip. For budget conscious travellers, direct booking is probably the best route. For those less concerned with budget, from what we saw the overall experience through Sticky Rice was probably slightly better.

Danum Valley Field Centre itself was well worth a stay. Some wonderful rainforest to be explored. We were lucky enough to see an orangutan, along with a variety of other wildlife, such as civets, owls, hornbills, giant flying squirrels, mouse deer, bearded pigs, pig tailed macaques, maroon langurs...the list could go on...

Very much...

Could have been so much better . Firstly, this is a great place to come and see wildlife , the first day alone, we saw orang utans , red leaf monkeys, a pit viper and spiders and frogs . The array of animals here really is amazing ! The jungle walks are good ,with plenty of variety and different animals to spot along the way . The guides are good and very knowledgeable, and they are great at spotting all the animals for you . But , being a research centre , I was expecting a little more from this experience to elevate it above any of the other national parks we had visited . I would have expected maybe some talks or presentations by the scientists to show visitors what sort of research was being carried out and maybe a tour of the research facility to see the scientists in action . In reality, the research centre is a complete separate entity to the tourist side of the operation , with no integration between the two . So don't come here expecting to gain a deeper understanding of the jungle or to learn new things . This is still a great place to see...