Sukau Rainforest Lodge

The established lodge on the Lower Kinabatangan, Sabah's great wildlife river, sold as packages that bundle the room with the boat safaris, meals and guides that are the whole reason to come. The lodge markets itself around Borneo's Big Five, and the floodplain forest along this river is where you have a real chance at all of them: wild orangutans in the fig trees, Bornean pygmy elephants at the water's edge, troops of proboscis monkeys at dusk, rhinoceros hornbills overhead and estuarine crocodiles in the shallows. Rooms come in Overland and Villa grades, with the deluxe rooms being refurbished in phases at the time of writing. The three-day, two-night Kinabatangan Wildlife Safari starts at RM 2,650 per person in an Overland room and RM 3,955 in a Villa, and there is a six-day Borneo Big Five circuit at RM 10,770. Transfers run from Sandakan. Book on the lodge's own site.