On arrival at Sandakan Airport, you will be met by your guide and transferred to your hotel for the night. You will have time to relax and enjoy the hotel facilities.

Sabah Hotel

From Sandakan travel by boat to Selingan Island, an important nesting site for green and hawksbill turtles. Enjoy the day swimming, snorkelling and just relaxing on the island’s fabulous beaches.

After dinner, the park ranger will call everyone to the beach where you will have the chance to observe turtles laying their eggs, followed by a visit to the hatchery to see the babies just before they are released into the sea. Later, retire to your national park chalet which offers simple but comfortable accommodation for your overnight stay.

Turtle Island Resthouse

Lunch and dinner

The following morning return to the mainland and travel to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, established in 1964 as a refuge for orphaned animals rescued from logging sites or being illegally kept as pets. Take the boardwalk through the forest to the feeding platform where you will have the chance to see this most graceful primates feed.

From the orangutan sanctuary you’ll visit the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, also home to rescued animals that cannot be returned to the wild, but instead enjoy life in their large forested enclosures. Observe and admire these shy creatures, with their almost comically long tongues, used for extracting honey from bees nests!

Next, it’s a scenic drive through rustic countryside to Sukau, located in the Kinabatangan river basin, where you’ll head into the rainforest to your riverside lodge. After check in, enjoy a late afternoon river cruise, in search of primates, bird life and other wildlife.

Bilit Rainforest Lodge (or similar)

Breakfast, lunch and dinner

This morning, head back to Sandakan where there will be a short city tour and lunch, before transferring to the airport for your onward flight.

Breakfast and lunch