Danum Valley, and the places a Danum trip continues to: the Kinabatangan, Sepilok, Tabin, Sandakan and the Semporna islands.
Situated in Sepilok roughly 25 kilometres west of Sandakan, this sanctuary is the only dedicated rescue and rehabilitation facility for the Malayan sun bear. It suits anyone interested in rainforest conservation and fits easily into a morning.
2.5 hours by road from Lahad Datu, Danum Valley is 438 square kilometres of lowland rainforest that was never logged with three very different places to stay inside it.
Forty-five minutes by boat from Semporna, Kapalai is a stilt resort built entirely over a submerged reef. It offers immediate access to exceptional macro diving and serves as a base for a day's diving at Sipadan.
The Kinabatangan floodplain holds the highest concentration of wildlife in Borneo. This is where you go to track orangutans and proboscis monkeys from a boat.
Located on Darvel Bay, Lahad Datu is the essential arrival point for anyone visiting Danum Valley or Tabin Wildlife Reserve.
Lankayan is a tiny coral island in the Sulu Sea north of Sandakan with a single resort, an active sea turtle hatchery and 32 dive sites.
An hour's boat ride from Semporna, Mabul Island combines some of the finest macro diving with the most reliable access to Sipadan.
Located deep in central Sabah, Maliau Basin is a 588.4-square-kilometre conservation area defined by an unyielding escarpment, heath forests and the sheer physical demand of its trails.
Run by the Sabah Forestry Department, the Rainforest Discovery Centre is a 106-hectare gateway into the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve with a vast steel canopy walkway.
The coastal arrival point for eastern Sabah. Most travellers land and head straight into the forest but a morning here is essential for anyone tracing the 1945 history.
Semporna is the mainland departure point for Sabah's most famous diving. From here boats leave for the pelagic walls of Sipadan, the macro sites of Mabul and Kapalai and the private-island resorts of Mataking and Pom Pom.
Semporna is the staging ground for Sabah's eastern archipelago. You stay here because you have a late flight or an early boat, not for a holiday.
25 kilometres west of Sandakan, the Sepilok complex holds Sabah's principal orangutan and sun bear rehabilitation centres, set on the edge of a protected dipterocarp forest reserve.
Located 25 kilometres from Sandakan on the edge of a 4,362-hectare forest reserve, Sepilok is where orphaned apes learn the skills to return to the wild.
An oceanic island rising from deep water in the Celebes Sea, Sipadan is Sabah's flagship dive site. It is protected by a strict permit system with no accommodation on the island itself and offers exceptional encounters with schooling barracuda, reef sharks and turtles.
The two main villages on the Lower Kinabatangan River offer different ways into the wildlife corridor. Sukau is the downstream hub for tributary cruises and Bilit sits upstream on an elephant crossing route.
A 122,500-hectare lowland reserve bordered by oil palm, Tabin is Sabah’s premier destination for night drives. The sharp forest edge concentrates small cats and civets along the boundary roads.
A 24-kilometre drive from Tawau town, this protected lowland and submontane rainforest offers outstanding birding, towering dipterocarps and rugged volcanic trails.
A 45-minute speedboat ride from Semporna, Tun Sakaran is a 350-square-kilometre marine park famous for the Bohey Dulang viewpoint, recovering coral reefs and shallow snorkelling islands.
An hour off the Sandakan coast by speedboat, the Turtle Islands Park operates a strict conservation protocol where 50 overnight guests a night watch one nesting green turtle and the release of hatchlings into the Sulu Sea.
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