Wildlife & beach holidays in Borneo

In Borneo, heading to the beach doesn’t mean leaving nature behind – not when there are monitor lizards on the path, bearded pigs by the shore, and fireflies outside your window.

No one is quite sure how proboscis monkeys arrived on Gaya Island. A forest reserve since 1923 and part of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, the island is a ten-minute speedboat journey (or a very long swim) from Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. A troop of these unusual monkeys, endangered and endemic to Borneo, live happily – if bafflingly – in the island’s forests.

Monkeys rarely venture onto the beach – though one was once seen enjoying a swim in the sea near an island resort. Other wildlife is seen more frequently shoreside: look out for massive monitor lizards and cheeky macaques.

That’s a lot of nature before you’ve even contemplated what’s below the waters around Malaysian Borneo: tropical reefs thronged with fish, hawksbill turtles travelling along the ‘sea turtle corridor’ and even passing whale sharks, who visit Borneo on their migration route. Borneo lies in the massive so-called Coral Triangle: a biodiversity hotspot, often compared to the Amazon Rainforest, which contains more than three quarters of the world’s coral species.

Our Borneo holidays often combine exciting wildlife watching with downtime on the beach but the truth is that the nature doesn’t stop at the shoreline.

“We saw wild bearded pigs wandering down the beach, lots of hornbills… and the macaques – macaques are everywhere,” says Aimee Fogarty, Borneo expert at our partner Odyssey World, who run some of our trips there.

Travellers come to Borneo expecting to see wildlife – and they certainly do. Bornean orangutans are high on every traveller’s list. Then there’s the rest of the Bornean ‘Big Five’: pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys, rhinoceros hornbills and estuarine crocodiles. You can also see the world’s smallest bear, the sun bear – very hard to spot in the wild but readily met in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. Then there’s the birdlife – there are hundreds of species, including 66 that are endemic. The rainforest’s many other creatures range from flying squirrels and flying lemurs to pangolins and the rare clouded leopard.

“You don’t go to Borneo for a beach holiday, but you absolutely go for a wildlife holiday with a little bit of a beach at the end,” explains Felicia Severns, owner and managing director at Odyssey World. She compares the island favourably with other tropical resorts. “Yes, there are other traditional beach destinations… but you can’t add that wildlife aspect anywhere else.”

Are the beaches any good? The answer seems to be a resounding ‘yes’:

“People don’t necessarily think of the beaches when they think of Borneo, but it has these incredible beaches,” says Aimee. She describes Gaya Island – where that troop of proboscis monkeys play castaway in the forest. “It’s absolutely stunning, a beautiful rainforest island.” The resorts hide among the trees: “Everything has been built into the sides of the rainforest canopy.” Keen to swim after your time in Borneo’s humid jungles? “You can snorkel straight off the island on the lovely reef.”

Just like many jungle lodges inland, beach resorts on Malaysian Borneo are also working hard on conservation – whether that’s by growing their own coral to help build climate change-resistant reefs, rescuing marine animals, pledging to be plastic free, or supplying guests with wildlife-friendly sunscreen. “Each hotel has its own specialist who will do nature walks with you as well,” says Aimee. “You can kayak through a mangrove forest, do a canopy walk on the island, zipline through the jungle… you can just go and sit on the beach – but there’s so much more.”

Borneo can be a surprisingly affordable holiday once you’re there. It’s also great for families. “I always think Borneo is surprisingly affordable when it comes to wildlife-rich beach destinations,” says Felicia. “Think of Madagascar, or going on an Africa safari – people are actually quite surprised at both the luxury and at the richness and diversity of wildlife for the price.”

The attractive price is also great for families, but there are other appeals. The island is very safe and welcoming, people speak English, and the wildlife experiences can be very inclusive: “African safari have age limits – but we’ve had babies in arms, we’d had older people – and we’ve had people with various mobility issues,” points out Felicia.

Spending between 10 days and two weeks in Malaysian Borneo gives you ample opportunities to recover from any jetlag, see plenty of wildlife in a mix of destinations, and then wind down afterwards. For example, you could spend a couple of nights at an orangutan sanctuary, then a couple in a wildlife reserve and a national park, followed by three days on the beach.

Most people visit Malaysian Borneo in the drier months of April to September, with shoulder months of March and October also good bets. The drier part of the year is great if you’re combining wildlife watching with time on the beach.