Brunei between Kota Kinabalu and Miri: a three-day, two-night stop

Two nights in Bandar Seri Begawan, in by air and out by road

Book two nights in Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) and give the stop three days: fly from Kota Kinabalu on day 1, spend day 2 in the city, and on day 3 go by road through Tutong, Seria and Kuala Belait to the Sungai Tujuh border and on to Miri. The Sungai Tujuh control post near Miri is the most convenient of Brunei's four land entry points. Our Sabah in 10 days ends at Sandakan, so take a flight from there to Kota Kinabalu first; our Kota Kinabalu guide covers the city you leave.

Badi'ah Hotel, a 55-room hotel at Mile 1 1/4 on Jalan Tutong, sits on the road west that you take on day 3, and the airport is a 15-minute drive from the capital. Its Superior room (30 m², queen or twin beds, two adults) costs from BND 115 nett a night and comes with two bottles of mineral water; the budget buys breakfast out. The hotel's airport shuttle is free on request, so send your flight number when you book.

The four ways between Kota Kinabalu, Brunei and Miri compare like this:

Book in this order: the flight, then Badi'ah Hotel and its shuttle, then the day-2 tour, and finally the car to Miri.

Day 1: the flight from Kota Kinabalu and an evening in Gadong

Day 1 — fly in: In Royal Brunei's timetable for 25 October 2026 to 27 March 2027, the morning flights from Kota Kinabalu leave at 08:20 on Tuesdays (BI822, landing at 09:00), 08:45 on Fridays (landing 09:25) and 07:10 on Sundays (landing 07:50). Every flight takes 40 minutes; the others leave in the late afternoon or evening, and none flies on Mondays. The Tuesday or Sunday morning flight suits this route best: the city tour then falls on a Wednesday or a Monday. Avoid the Friday morning flight: the tour would fall on a Saturday, and the Malay Technology Museum lists opening hours for Sunday to Thursday only.

At Brunei International Airport (BWN), turn right in the arrivals hall for DST's airport branch, which sells the Easi Tourist SIM for BND 15 (3 GB of data and BND 3 of call credit for seven days) on your passport. Badi'ah's shuttle takes you to Jalan Tutong; leave the bags and take a taxi into the centre.

From the city waterfront, a Yayasan water taxi crosses the river to Kampong Ayer; walk its wooden paths and bridges to the Kampong Ayer Cultural and Tourism Gallery, opened in 2009, with artefacts, photographs and displays on the village's history, with listed hours of 09:00 to 16:30 on Monday to Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, and 09:00 to noon on Thursday. Back on the city bank, lunch on soto at Soto Pabo, the riverside restaurant facing Kampong Ayer that has won awards for it. Today is the village on foot and its history; day 2's tour takes the boat round it and into a family's house. Water taxis usually cost BND 2 to BND 5 a ride and the fare can be negotiated; settle it, and the ride back, at the jetty. In the late afternoon take a taxi to the Gadong night market at Simpang 37, Jalan Pasar Gadong, open from 16:00 to 23:00 every day: grilled skewers, rice with chicken and sambal, and Bruneian snacks, some dishes from BND 1. Some stalls take cards and others only cash; ride back to Badi'ah for the night.

Day 2: two mosques, the royal regalia and Kampong Ayer

Day 2 — the city with a guide: BorneoGuide's Brunei Essentials Full Day & Water Village tour (BG103) costs from BND 145 per person with a minimum of two, takes about seven hours and collects you from hotels in BSB and its vicinity. It includes an air-conditioned car, an English-speaking guide, lunch and refreshments in a water-village home. Its itinerary includes the Tamu morning market, where locals buy fresh produce and plants used for medicine and beauty, and Jame' 'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, built in 1994 for the Sultan's Silver Jubilee: Brunei's largest mosque, with 29 golden domes for the present Sultan, Brunei's 29th ruler. Women cover head, shoulders and knees in mosques, some mosques lend robes and shawls, shoes come off at the door, and visitors keep silent. The tour stops outside the Istana Nurul Iman, the royal palace, for a photograph.

The Malay Technology Museum shows how the Murut, Dusun, Kedayan and Penan lived, with life-size houses, weapons, fishing and hunting tools and reconstructions of Kampong Ayer's stilt houses. After lunch, the Royal Regalia Museum holds the Sultan's regalia and the golden chariot that carried him through the city at the Silver Jubilee in 1992; non-resident adults pay BND 5 here and BND 3 at the Malay Technology Museum. Then a water taxi takes you round Kampong Ayer, one of the largest water settlements in Southeast Asia, a community on stilts that has lived on the river for more than a thousand years, with tea and local snacks in a family's house on the water. The tour ends with a photo stop at the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, completed in 1958 and named after the 28th Sultan: a golden dome, Italian marble columns and stained glass above a lagoon where a replica of a 16th-century royal barge is moored.

On the boat, check there are life jackets for every passenger and keep your hands inside: the UK government warns that saltwater crocodiles have killed people on riverbanks around BSB. For dinner, try the ambuyat set at Soto Pabo, on the river facing Kampong Ayer, or go back to the Gadong night market for nasi katok, before a second night at Badi'ah.

Day 3: the coast road to Sungai Tujuh and Miri

Day 3 — Brunei to Miri by road: Check out and drive west on Jalan Tutong past Tutong, Seria and Kuala Belait to the Sungai Tujuh border. Tutong district, which the road enters first, is Brunei's farming backbone of paddy fields and fruit farms; Belait, beyond it, is where oil was first found in 1929, and nodding-donkey pumps still mark it as the centre of the country's oil and gas industry. Seria is its oil town: the Billionth Barrel Monument, built in 1991, stands on its beach as a symbol of Brunei's oil production, with oil rigs on the horizon, and makes a short stop on the way. BSB to Miri is about 160 km by road, so the drive and two border posts take up most of a morning. The UK government notes that the land border posts are not open 24 hours, so cross by day. Have breakfast on the way at Mei Fang in Tutong, a long-established Chinese restaurant known for pulut panggang, grilled sticky rice that can sell out by 08:30. At the border you leave Brunei and pass Malaysian immigration, with a Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC) filed online beforehand on the Immigration Department's site; Sabah and Sarawak keep their own immigration control, so you get entry and exit stamps there. Check your stamps before you leave the post.

The simplest car is a taxi: the airport's fixed taxi list prices the run at BND 160 to the Sungai Tujuh border and BND 200 to Miri city or airport at the airport rank; a taxi called by Badi'ah's reception agrees its fare for the hotel pickup and the stops in Tutong and Seria. The second option is Dart, Brunei's ride-hailing app: its ordinary rides do not go to Miri, but Dart Around, a driver booked by the hour, takes cross-border trips to Miri and the rest of Sarawak when a driver with the permit is free, booked through Dart's customer support. The third is Borneo Adventure's Experience Brunei 3D2N, from MYR 1,800 per person with a minimum of two adults, which the company also runs in reverse: pick-up at Brunei International Airport on day 1 and transfer to Miri on day 3. It includes two nights twin-sharing in a 3-star BSB hotel, an English-speaking guide, the city and water-village tour, a proboscis monkey river cruise, transfers, entrance fees and the meals it lists; it leaves out air tickets, soft and alcoholic drinks, camera fees and optional tours. Take the package instead of Badi'ah, the BG103 tour and the taxi, not on top of them.

Our Sarawak in 7 days starts in Kuching and adds Mulu; from Miri, AirAsia sells flights to Kuching.

The alternatives: by sea through Labuan, or by road

By sea from Sabah: the direct ferry from Kota Kinabalu to Labuan, a Malaysian federal territory, is suspended until further notice, its Kota Kinabalu terminal says, so the sea route starts at Menumbok, about 150 km from Kota Kinabalu by a car arranged locally; Ferry Labuan sells Menumbok–Labuan passenger tickets online. From Labuan a second boat crosses Brunei Bay to the Serasa ferry terminal near Muara. Brunei's port authority lists the boats arriving at Serasa from Labuan as Kinabalu Express at 10:20, Goodwill Star at 11:30, Ming Hai at 14:55, Suria Express at 16:30 and Shuttle Hope at 18:00, and the departures to Labuan as Seri Express at 08:30, Shuttle Hope at 09:30, Goodwill Star at 12:30, Kinabalu Express at 13:00 and Ming Hai at 16:40. The boat operators publish no foot-passenger fares online.

By road from Sabah, the drive from Kota Kinabalu to BSB is about 260 km on OpenStreetMap routing: down the coast through Beaufort and Sipitang, across the Sabah–Sarawak line at Sindumin and Merapok, through Lawas in Sarawak and into Brunei's Temburong district at Labu, then over the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Bridge. That makes four border posts in one day, out of Sabah, into Sarawak, out of Sarawak and into Brunei, each with its stamps. Brunei's fourth land crossing, the Kuala Lurah post in Brunei-Muara district, is a short drive from Limbang in Sarawak. No coach operator between Kota Kinabalu or Miri and BSB publishes a timetable or fare online, so this route flies in and leaves by car: 40 minutes against a full day on the road or on two boats.

Going the other way, or adding Temburong

Miri to Kota Kinabalu. The route works in reverse. Borneo Adventure's package in its standard direction meets you at Miri airport, drives through the border to BSB, and on day 3 adds an early cruise on the Brunei River to look for proboscis monkeys in the mangroves before the transfer to Brunei International Airport. Royal Brunei flies from Brunei to Kota Kinabalu every day: at 18:40 on Mondays, 19:35 on Tuesdays, 15:10 on Wednesdays, 15:25 and 19:00 on Thursdays, 07:25 and 19:30 on Fridays, 15:30 and 18:25 on Saturdays and 19:30 on Sundays.

From Kuching. Royal Brunei also flies from Kuching to Brunei, at 21:40 on Tuesdays and Sundays, 15:05 on Thursdays and 08:35 on Saturdays (75 minutes), for travellers starting in Kuching rather than Miri.

A third night for Temburong. With one more night (four days, three nights), add a day in Ulu Temburong National Park, Brunei's rainforest across the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Bridge, about 1.5 hours by road. BorneoGuide's park day costs from BND 150 per person (minimum two) with the guide, the park fee and lunch, plus BND 100 per car (up to three people) for the return transfer from BSB, as no public transport runs to Temburong. France advises going into the forest only with an official guide. Our Bandar Seri Begawan guide describes the park day.

Entry, money, Fridays and alcohol

Entry: Fill in the E-Arrival card at imm.gov.bn before you arrive; it may be asked for at check-in. The UK government asks British visitors also for the Health Declaration Form, before or on arrival. Cash and bearer instruments of BND 15,000 or more, or the same in foreign currency, must be declared to Customs on arrival or to Immigration before you leave. Our first-trip guide to Brunei has the passport and visa list and the rules on law and dress.

Friday and Ramadan: Shops and restaurants close from midday to 2 pm on Fridays for prayers. During Ramadan, eating, drinking and smoking in public in daytime is forbidden, also for non-Muslims, and restaurants serve takeaway only during fasting hours.

Money: Brunei uses the Brunei dollar (BND), pegged at par to the Singapore dollar; shops and money changers are not obliged to take Singapore notes, so pay in Brunei dollars. Miri and the rest of Malaysia use the ringgit (MYR); at the European Central Bank’s 29 October 2026 reference rates, BND 1 was about MYR 3.167, using Brunei’s peg to the Singapore dollar.

Alcohol: Alcohol is not sold in Brunei. Non-Muslim visitors aged 17 and over may bring in two bottles of liquor (1 litre each) or up to twelve 330 ml cans of beer, declared to customs on arrival, for their own use in private, and again only 48 hours after the last import.

What the Brunei stop costs

About BND 510 per person, BND 1,020 for two, all in, for the two nights booked yourself: Badi'ah Hotel, every meal and drinking water, the city tour and museum tickets, taxis and water taxis in BSB, the car to Miri, two SIMs and a 10% buffer. This prices the Kota Kinabalu-to-Miri stop, which arrives on Badi'ah's free shuttle and leaves by road; our Brunei trip cost guide prices a stay that flies in and out of BWN. With a Royal Brunei return ticket from MYR 407 per person, the stay and flight total about BND 1,270 for two.

The model is two adults sharing a Superior room at Badi'ah Hotel for two nights on ordinary dates outside Ramadan, arriving on a morning flight on day 1 and leaving early for Miri on day 3, with prices read on 29 October 2026 and the flight fare on 31 October 2026.

Flight: this route uses only the outbound flight, but Royal Brunei's site lists Kota Kinabalu–Brunei economy fares as returns only, from MYR 407 per person for a full return ticket (about BND 128), or about BND 257 for two. Rooms: Badi'ah's Superior room at BND 115 nett a night; the airport run is free on the hotel's shuttle, so this budget has no airport taxi. Food: five meals each in BSB, about BND 38 a person: breakfast at BND 6 with a drink on days 2 and 3 (an English breakfast at Seven Sporks costs BND 5, roti and tea at MasterChef in Gadong BND 2.20), one lunch and two dinners at Seven Sporks' BND 6 and BND 8 rice plates with a BND 1.20 drink; lunch on day 2 is in the tour. Pulut panggang at Mei Fang in Tutong can take the place of day 3's breakfast. Bottled water adds about BND 1 a person a day, the price of the cheapest drink on MasterChef's menu. Tour: BG103 at BND 145 per person; its inclusions do not list museum tickets, so the budget adds BND 5 at the Royal Regalia and BND 3 at the Malay Technology Museum per person. Taxis: about BND 57 for seven rides of about 5 km on the official meter (BND 3.50 for the first kilometre, BND 0.20 for each further 250 m, and 50% more from 18:00 to 06:00): on day 1 into the centre and on to Gadong by day and back from Gadong in the evening, on day 2 to breakfast in Gadong and back by day, and to Soto Pabo and back in the evening. Water taxis: Brunei Tourism lists BND 2–5 a ride, negotiable; the budget counts BND 5 a person each way for the day-1 crossing to Kampong Ayer and back, BND 20 for two. Car to Miri: about BND 200 from the hotel, the airport taxi list's fare to Miri city, agreed with the driver before you set off. SIMs: two DST Easi Tourist SIMs at BND 15.

The package instead: Borneo Adventure's MYR 3,600 for two (about BND 1,140) covers the two hotel nights, the airport pick-up, the guided tours, entrance fees, the transfer to Miri and the meals it lists (breakfast and lunch on the tour day and breakfast on the last day in its standard direction). Add the other lunches and dinners, drinking water, SIMs and the flight.