Borneo Natural Sukau Bilit Resort

Exceeded our expectations, accomodation and food excellent! They were able to provide vegetarian options ! Our guide Rondel was amazing we saw everything including elephants, orangutan, crocodiles, proboscis monkey, monkeys, otters, hornbills and many other birds- so good do every river cruise as we saw different animal on each trip - amazing! did the two night three day stay in a delux cabin.

When we first arrived we were disappointed by all the palm oil plantations before the resort. We soon put at ease by the amazing staff and their obvious love for the jungle and the animals in the surrounding area. Our guide Rondel (not sure of the spelling) was fantastic, very safe and passionate about his job, he has significant experience in the area and it showed. We saw far more than we ever expected, don’t miss any of the river cruises, they are all different and all see different animals. The accommodation was more than suitable and made you feel apart of the jungle with the occasional monkey running across your roof and the trumpeting of bull elephants in the middle of the night adding to the experience. Food was very good and plentiful. Don’t go as a tour group, book directly with the resort you will be better looked after.

Beautiful setting in the midst of the most wild nature I have seen. The staff was so accommodating, they helped me make my partner’s birthday special in the jungle. Our guide Rodel particularly impressed me. He seemed to know everything about each bird or animal we saw. Its habits, foods, conservation status and how often it is seen. And even more he so clearly genuinely cares about the forest and leaving it better than he found it. He gave us an opportunity to buy and plant a couple trees that will provide money to the village and fruit for the animals right there. But have no pressure at all to do so, very professional. On the night walk he was patient and persistent enough to help a see a western tarsier moving tree to tree. My only sadness is he was pulled from our group for a private tour the second day. The other guide was also good, but Rodel is particularly a treat if you can get him.

I booked the 3d2N package. The ppace itself is a good intro to kinabatangan river. The property is nicely located. The rooms are spacious and clean. The staff are very nice and friendly. My special shout out goes to Rodel our Boat tour operator/guide. He was our guide the entire time including the jungle walk in the morning and night. He was very conscientious, knowledgeable and he is a hardworking man. We saw a lot of animals in the land, water and air. Kinabatangan is a very diverse river when it comes to wildlife. The only thing I was not a big fan of were the macaques monkeys terrorizing guests around the properties, but obviously it can't be helped, it's nature after all. Overall a very good experience.

While the location and setting are special, unfortunately there were a lot of disappointments during our stay. The main issue was the food which was generally very poor (at breakfast, lunch and dinner). Our room was dated and not well maintained - a mouse came through a hole in the wooden wall! The hot water was intermittent/not reliable, and there’s no WiFi available anywhere on site. The service was poor - the staff were quite apathetic, unfortunately. Wine was available, which I hadn’t necessarily expected, but overpriced. They said they don’t sell ice cream so as to support the community in the neighbouring village - so we walked there after lunch but found not a single shop open so no ice cream (it was 35 degrees hence why we were desperate for ice cream!). Standards of hygiene/cleanliness weren’t particularly good, and I didn’t like that you had to take your shoes off in the dining room - especially as the floorboards were a bit dirty and uneven - it felt unhygienic. The jungle walk was disappointing - just hot and sweaty and lots of mosquitoes (didn’t see any interesting wildlife). I did enjoy all the river safaris though, and our boat driver/guide was very good. Probably the biggest disappointment though was that the Pygmy elephants were apparently near the resort, but they wouldn’t take us to see them.

This place was great. Basic accommodation but right on the water front. The river cruises were fantastic and the wildlife incredible. Great value accommodation but be aware it is basic. Watch out for the monkeys who will steal anything and everything left outside, we even caught them trying to pry open our door.

Great location, disappointing food. Stayed here as part of a G Adventures tour. The 42 rooms are located off wooden boardwalks, including dorms. Your can often see monkeys as you walk back and forth to reception. We had to give the one armed macaque a wide berth as he decided the boardwalk was his territory. The rooms are nice, with mosquito nets over the four poster bed. No kettle available, but coffee in reception (when available). There is no Wi-Fi available even in reception. There appear to be many staff employed but not working very efficiently. Coffee and water often run out and are not noticed. Food is fair quality but served cold. The river trips are great, with the guides spotting the animals and birds so easily. We also had our G guide who was excellent at bird identification. There are excessive amounts of plastic bottles floating down the river. Our night walks were disappointing, it’s very humid and we spotted few animals and birds, but that’s thats the luck of the draw. You need to hire the wellies though. Take a torch with yellow light (not a white light like I did) and binoculars.

We had booked for the 2n 3d trip in a Deluxe room. After the first river cruise, we found traces of animals including poo on the bed and toilet flush. There was a packet of peanuts ripped apart on the floor along with the toothbrush / toothpaste packet ripped and the tube of toothpaste ripped apart on the bathroom sink. We went straight away to tell reception, who laughed it off and said could be a squirrel, in most cases not dangerous, it was fine to sleep in. So we left it as that. The second day afternoon tour, we came back to the room to find packets taken out of my bag and ripped apart by the bathroom, the animal had gone into our medical bag (inside our luggage) and ripped apart the antiseptic wipes, and taken another bag across the room. We went back to reception who asked if we want them to check it out, which we said yes. They said they would take the key from us and come and see what it was. This did not happen. We went to sleep hearing animal sounds around the room, woke up to lots of poo in our bathroom sink and on our toothbrushes. My partner went back to reception and explained how disgusting this was, and they told us someone had been in to check, which they had not. whilst we were out on our final morning cruise, it appeared someone went into our room as we could smell the animal repellant and the poo etc had been cleaned. Unfortunately we checked out immediately after returning to our room, so this was too late. This was very disappointing as we had booked the best room in the resort and they should have acted immediately rather then laugh. Whilst writing I’d like to mention that we were unable to see orangutans and elephants, which is not the fault of the resort however our second day guide was the same man for all 3 excursions and we felt that he was only interested in birds and often spent way to look looking at the same type of bird ‘horn bill’ that we had seen several times, and making bird call sounds to them to call back. We also spent time looking at the same spot after the bird was either not in sight or had flown away, everyone on the boat would of much rather going to try and find more different animals rather then the continuous bird watching, other customer had also expressed this frustration to us. The boat was incredibly unbalanced and was splashing a lot, I mentioned the balance to the driver who said it’s fine, but it made me feel uneasy and my partner also mentioned why don’t we ask everyone to move back as there was empty seats at the back, to avoid the splash and he just laughed. Overall; as mentioned the rooms very unsatisfactory, guides didn't seem to have customers interests in mind and not the most helpful staff when expressing concerns. The food however was good, tours all on time and drinkable water always available along with cold beverages available to purchase within reception opening hours.