Borneo Natural Sukau Bilit Resort — Hotel in Borneo

Hi guys!

As many are planning to go to Kinabatangan, let me share my personal experience and some tips that may help you with your stay!

Especially as a backpacker, it is not that easy to find a good deal to go to Kinabatangan river. But after checking with more than 10 resorts and guesthouses their prices and offers, this is the cheapest option you can find around Kinabatangan: Borneo Natural Sukau Bilit Resort. Briefly, for the cheapest option, one bed in a 6 mixed dormitory room you pay as low as 411 RM! (even if you book with them directly, even if you book for example with Sandakan Backpackers Hostel).

What's included? 2 nights of accommodation 2 breakfast, 1 lunch, 2 dinner, 2 tea-coffee breaks in the morning and 2 in the afternoon (before each cruise) 2 morning cruises ~1h each 2 afternoon cruises ~2h esch 1 jungle trek ~45 min - 1h (around the resort) Transportation from and to Sandakan or Sepilok. You can be picked up and dropped anywhere on the way, incl. near Kinabatangan town to catch the bus to Lahad Datu, Semporna or Tawau

Pluses Free water refill, cold and hot Hot showers with a really good pressure! Free towel, toiletries (shampoo and shower gel), toilet paper Each bed has its own bed lamp, hangers, and are spacious The food was really good, always a buffet with enough options to accommodate everybody. I mentioned I don't eat meat and I got an extra plate with vegetables and tofu every time I asked for it. They also offer rental boots, binoculars and sell several items including leech socks (but there are none in the area). You can spot lots of macaques at the resort as they are everywhere, pretty butterflies, giant monitor lizards, etc. - based on luck. In the evening you can even see small loris (some saw them in a tree in front of our dormitory). Staff is very polite and friendly, happy to talk to you and share their knowledge. The boat tours were nice. Overall, we didn't see much during the morning cruises but we saw a lot during the afternoon ones, more precisely all the big 5 (pygmy elephants, rhinoceros hornbill, proboscis monkeys, estuarine crocodile, orang utan) plus silver langur, long tailed macaque, many birds, umbrella trees. The jungle trekking tour is so-so, as most probably you won't spot anything exciting. However, you will learn more about the Kinabaganagan river, trees, plants and so on. The night jungle trek is not included in the price, and is based on your luck to spot something or not - it cannot be guaranteed. My group saw nothing the second night, but they spotted tarsier and small loris during the first night. There is the option of extension if you'd like to stay more nights. You must ask them during your reservation about the costs and availability. They can accommodate a maximum of 148 people including dormitories (20 ppl). Btw, the resort opened in 2015 and it has a sister resort in Sepilok. Two more resorts will be open soon, in Semporna and Kota Kinabalu (on one of the islands nearby).

Minuses No lockers (may have been drawers under the bed but you would need your own locker to secure it) I contacted their listed nr. from google maps in Whatsapp, but unfortunately they aren't very responsive. So in the end I booked with my hostel as the price was still the same. I got a phone number from the company which should be more responsive and able to help with future bookings: Farah +60 13 266 0742

Conclusion I would definitely recommend this place, as it's the best you can get especially as a backpacker from a value cost perspective. My recommendation is to book in advance especially during peak season (July - August) when many groups are coming and the rooms are filling quickly.

You can follow me on instagram for more budget tips and trips around Borneo and Asia (iuliaalexandraciobanu). P.S. I am not an influencer, I don't advertise any place for money, so my help is...

This is a very nice place to see wild animals. We enjoy our time and stay in borneo natural sukau bilit resort. We saw many animals and all guide are doing their best to show you animals.

Good point , buffet food was very good. Dorm room was good and confortable with hot shower, AC and fan. Lobby, dining area was good. The resort was very clean. The lodge is well localised with river view.

But we had somes issue which didn't let us enjoying fully our stay : Borneo natural sukau bilit resort it's à massive boat tour company. With the amont of people we saw during our 3 days of stay this reasort make us feel like were part of a big factory tour. I think we were up to 80 peoples in the resort. Too many people at the same time leaving for each activies : During our stay and for every cruise around 8 boats were living at the same time. The night walk was Disney Land walk. On the first night 7 groups of 8 peoples was walking behind the resort . On the 2nd night 4 groups of 20 peoples. Our boat was massive full with 28 peoples at everycruise. (4 times). We didn't felt not very welcome ; As soon we arrived à staff member explained us all 3 days program in 2 minutes with an english not very great. (Other staff member had better english skills). The resort should take time to explain the programme but also put a sign with the timetable for us to remember it. (Everyday it's same programme anyway). We felt few time not "important" enought for the resort. Fir exemple, peoples like us, staying in dorm are the last living all boat tour activities even if the "dorms team" are ready before. The tour operator tourist are always first and all others are waiting them to be ready before been able to sit in the boat. Once we been ready at 3:45pm and were waiting in the queu up to 4:15 tour operator tourist be ready to be able to have the autorisation to sit in our boat. How stupid is that ??? Some dinner tables are reserved. On one afternoon we were sitting at one table with other tourist talking when at one point one staff member put a "table reserved" sign on our table. And 15 min after she kick us out of the table. Sale think happen to other tables. Stop taking pictures of us !! This agency have the very bad habbit to take pictures of everygroupe before starting à new activity. Exemple 1 day : Morning and afternoon cruise / morning and evening walk. So for groupes pictures in 1 day. Boat guide need to organise better the boat tour to the small river called Koyak. One afternoon we were supposed to do a cruise in this river but we only stay 5 min before coming back to the lodge. (We only stop twice during 5min in total). And this small river looked so promising ! Very narow river , full of animals. Our boat (the big one) was too slow anyway (in comparaison to smaller boat) to reach this river early enough to enjoy this place. Alternatively start this boat tour earlier please !!! Village next door don't care about environnement. In the village localised 500m away from the resort we saw people littering. River is full of plastic , even just on the bank of the resort. Sometimes you think seeing animals but was à plastic bags in reallity. All lodges, resort making money thanks to the river treasure so local should make something at one point to clean the river and educate local community. To be honest with this amont of boat we saw, tourists will appreciate for sûre seeing 1 boat cleaning the river and bank during the tour. Thanks to that, they will understand their money no only help local community but also cleaning the river. It's such a shame to see palm oil during river cruise just few meter behind à "false" tree line...

We booked a full week of action at this lodge, which was apparently the record duration there. So let's first start with the stuff most people are interested in. Food was very good, not too spicy for Westerners, but just about right. Beef, chicken, and vegetables are always served, some days feature extremely delicious seafood - try this if you can. The rooms were clean, ac working well - everything you expect in a lodge is there. A usual action packed day starts at 5:40 with tea (local) / coffee. They have creamer and sugar given it's a 2 hour drive to the next bigger city that's fair game. At 6 a morning cruise at the river starts, which lasts about 1-2 hours depending on weather and other conditions. Then breakfast is served at 8. They have the scary English sausages, scrambled eggs, beans, toast, jam and fried noodles (Malaysia is a noodle maniac country :D). After breakfast, there is always an activity, morning walk, hikes, trekking of about 2 hours. After a return to the lodge there's again some yummy food to be devoured. After that you can chill out or take a nap in one of the many hammocks around the main building or just go to sleep to your room. At 15:30 there's cake (try the green pandan stuff and get addicted to it quickly!) and tea and coffee just before a cruise at 16:00. After the following dinner, there's usually a night activity like a walk through the forest in rubber boots (optional but take them, you will need them) or a night cruise. Usually we got to the room at 9:30 pm and were pretty exhausted but very happy. We completed the Borneo big 5 just there and a lot of other animals can be seen here. But there's more to this lodge than just their professional guiding - Ryan and July who took great care of us were so good in spotting animals! One of the best guide teams we ever had. The folks over at the lodge are very special. The whole team loves animals and their jobs and you will notice that. For any need that arose they had a solution at hand that was feasible. Mind that you are in the middle of a jungle, so you won't get your "fancy vegan soy avocado creamy frappe" or Wi-Fi :) but if you visit Borneo you are probably there to see the nature and not Starbucks. For us, this was the best lodge experience overall so far and we were more than happy to have spent our honeymoon here. We made new friends with some guys and gals from the crew and almost felt like at home. And, yes, we would totally book again and recommend the lodge to everybody who...