Sukau Rainforest Lodge

Everything starts in Sandakan, about 45 minutes by air from Kota Kinabalu, and the lodge suggests arriving the day before your package begins. A guide meets you at Sandakan Airport or your hotel. The boat transfer leaves Sandakan Yacht Club, 15 minutes from the airport, at 1:30 pm and takes about two and a half hours up the Kinabatangan, the lodge's pick for wildlife on the way. By road it is 129 km through oil palm plantations, around two hours in an air-conditioned vehicle with Wi-Fi, ending with a five-minute boat ride from Sukau jetty.

Your room depends on the package. The Overland safari uses a Deluxe Room, 26 square meters in a longhouse-style wing, with a private indoor sunroom facing the forest in place of a balcony. The Villa safari uses one of 20 Borneo Villas, 32 square meters with a private balcony, a mosquito-screened sliding door and free in-room Wi-Fi; two villas are wheelchair friendly. Both have inverter air conditioning, a ceiling fan, hot showers, a hair dryer and universal sockets. Rooms are only sold with a package, and laundry is not offered at the moment.

On the first day the package stops at the Sepilok orangutan feeding on the way in, then brings a late-afternoon cruise and, after dinner at the Melapi restaurant, a naturalist's slide talk. Day two opens with a boat to Kelenanap oxbow lake, then a walk on the Hornbill Boardwalk and a second cruise later in the afternoon. The one-hour night cruise, 8:15 to 9:15 pm, costs a little extra and the lodge recommends it, and add-ons include a four-hour pygmy elephant search and an afternoon at Gomantong Caves. Day three ends in Sandakan in time for a 2:30 pm flight.

You need at least two people to book. Children 3 and under stay free when sharing, ages 4 to 11 pay a child rate, and kid-size life jackets are on the boats. Tourism tax is paid at checkout, ideally in ringgit cash, and the camera fee at Sepilok is cash only. Wi-Fi reaches the lounge, library, restaurant and villas, but phone signal is weak. Pack waterproof walking shoes, water shoes or sandals, a headlamp, a light rain jacket, biodegradable insect repellent and binoculars. The six-day Big Five package continues to Borneo Rainforest Lodge in Danum Valley.

Much of the lower river is protected as the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. Malaysia's national biodiversity register lists it at 26,103 hectares in ten separate lots, gazetted on 11 August 2005 and managed by the Sabah Wildlife Department. The lodge gives the river's length as 560 km, the longest in Sabah. For the wider trip, see our Borneo rainforest guide.