Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah in 2 weeks: Kuching to Sandakan

Days 1–3: Kuching, Bako and Semenggoh

Land at Kuching International Airport (KCH) and take a taxi, an e-hailing car or a hotel car into town; there is no airport railway. Sleep three nights at the Grand Margherita Hotel on Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, a 274-room hotel in the heart of the city's shopping and financial district, beside the 1.7 km riverside promenade of the Kuching Waterfront. Spend the first evening on the riverfront. The Kuching guide covers the old streets, the waterfront and where else to stay.

Day 2 (Monday): Bako National Park. Sarawak's oldest national park packs lowland and heath forest, mangroves, peat swamp and coastal cliffs onto a small peninsula, and its coastline is dotted with bays, coves and beaches. Its best-known residents are the proboscis monkeys, found only in Borneo; silvered langurs, long-tailed macaques, bearded pigs, monitor lizards and more than 190 bird species live here too, and 18 colour-coded trails run from short walks to full-day hikes. The booked option is Borneo Adventure's small-group Bako day trip, from MYR 360 per person. It picks you up at central Kuching hotels between 07:50 and 08:10 (not from apartments or the airport), drives 35 minutes to Bako village and continues by boat for about 25 minutes to the park headquarters, with a chance of crocodiles and sea eagles on the way. The price includes the transfers, the boat, lunch, the entrance fee and an English-speaking guide, and you are back in Kuching in the middle of the afternoon. These group tours run on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and do not operate from November to February. To go on your own, the Forest Department lists the national park fee at RM20 for a foreign adult, and the boat from Bako village is paid separately; the Bako guide explains the bus, the boat and the trails.

Day 3 (Tuesday): Semenggoh and the museum. Borneo Adventure's Semenggoh orangutan tour costs from MYR 160 per person, runs every day and lasts about 3 hours, with hotel pickup between 07:45 and 08:00. Semenggoh Wildlife Centre is 24 km from the centre; rangers give a briefing, then you walk to the feeding area, where semi-wild orangutans often come down from the forest for food. A sighting is not guaranteed: in the fruiting season the orangutans often have enough food, and in December and January there are days when none come to the feeding areas. Going on your own, you can buy an e-ticket online with a SarawakID account, and you register your details on the forestry self-registration site before entry; the Forest Department lists Semenggoh Nature Reserve at RM10 for a foreign adult.

Back in town by late morning, eat Sarawak laksa for lunch, then give the afternoon to the Borneo Cultures Museum beside Padang Merdeka. Its five storeys cover the peoples, nature and history of Borneo. The Sarawak Museum Department lists it as open 09:00–16:45 on weekdays and 09:30–16:30 at weekends, with last admission at 16:00. A foreign adult ticket costs RM50; buy it online as an e-ticket with a SarawakID account. In the evening, walk the old quarter or join a guided food walk.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Days 4–5: the show caves of Gunung Mulu

Gunung Mulu National Park can realistically be reached only by air. On day 4 (Wednesday) take an AirBorneo flight from Kuching to Mulu (MZV); the park lists the flight at about 1 hour 20 minutes and sends travellers to AirBorneo for the current schedule. Book a flight that lands before lunch, in time for the 14:15 cave walk; if only a later flight fits, the operator moves that walk to the free afternoon of day 5. Heavy rain occasionally cancels Mulu flights. If it cancels the day-6 flight to Miri, tell Borneo Adventure at once: the same company runs the Brunei package that meets you at Miri airport.

The booked option is Borneo Adventure's Essential Mulu Showcaves 3D2N, from MYR 980 per person, with fixed departures on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. It includes two nights in a Longhouse Room at the park headquarters (twin sharing), the airport transfers and tours in Mulu, the park entry fees, breakfast and lunch on day 2 and breakfast on day 3, and an English-speaking guide. It does not include the flights, lunch and dinner on the first day, the tourism tax of MYR 10 per room per night or the Mulu conservation fee, which the park has charged since 1 February 2026 at RM20 for each visitor with a guide or tour operator.

At 14:15 on day 4 the group walks a 3 km plankwalk through the forest to Deer Cave, which the operator calls the world's largest cave passage: its entrance is 150 m wide and 120 m high. Next door, Lang's Cave holds some of the park's finest stalactites and stalagmites. Most evenings at sundown, about 2 million bats leave Deer Cave in long streams; you watch from the bat observatory and walk back by torchlight.

On day 5 (Thursday) a longboat leaves the headquarters at 08:45 for Wind Cave, whose King's Chamber is hung with lace-patterned stalactites and stalagmites, and Clearwater Cave, which you reach along a plankwalk under the limestone cliff and up about 250 concrete steps. Inside grows a one-leafed plant found only at Mulu, and algae on the rocks form needles that point towards the light. Lunch is a picnic near a swimming spot shaded by giant trees, and the afternoon is free. Mulu has no ATMs, so bring enough ringgit in cash from Kuching. The Mulu guide covers the other caves and the Pinnacles climb, which needs more days.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Days 6–8: through Sungai Tujuh to Bandar Seri Begawan

On day 6 (Friday) the Mulu package drops you at the airport after breakfast for the short AirBorneo flight to Miri, which the park lists at about 30 minutes. Eat lunch in Miri: in Brunei, shops and restaurants close from 12:00 to 14:00 on Fridays. The booked option for Brunei is Borneo Adventure's Experience Brunei 3D2N, from MYR 1,800 per person with a minimum of two adults. Its driver meets you at Miri airport and drives to the Sarawak–Brunei border, through immigration and across the Brunei countryside to the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB). The package includes two nights twin sharing at The Brunei Hotel, a 3-star hotel, the guided tours, the transfers, entrance fees, breakfast and lunch on day 7 and breakfast on day 8, and leaves out air tickets, soft and alcoholic drinks and camera fees. The same company runs the Mulu tour, so book both together and give it your flight numbers.

The crossing is at Sungai Tujuh, near Miri, which Brunei Tourism calls the most convenient of Brunei's four land entry points, and the drive is about 160 km. You get a Sarawak exit stamp at the Malaysian post and enter Brunei at the second, with the E-Arrival Card and Health Declaration Form described in the last section. The UK government advises checking your exit and entry stamps before you leave each post, and notes that the border posts are not open 24 hours. Our Brunei stop guide describes the same road in the other direction, with the taxi fares if you prefer to cross on your own.

The Brunei Hotel, at 95 Jalan Pemancha, is a 46-room hotel in the business district, within walking distance of banks, local sights and restaurants. On Friday evening take a taxi to the Gadong night market at Simpang 37, Jalan Pasar Gadong, open from 16:00 to 23:00 every day, for grilled skewers and nasi katok; some dishes cost from BND 1, and some stalls take cash only. Taxis run on the meter: BND 3.50 for the first kilometre and BND 0.20 for each further 250 m, with 50% more from 18:00 to 06:00.

Day 7 (Saturday) is the package's full-day city and water-village tour, from 09:00: the morning market, the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, completed in 1958, with a replica royal barge in its lagoon, the 29 golden domes of the Jame' 'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, open to visitors from 08:00 to 11:30 and 14:00 to 15:00, Saturday to Thursday, and a photo stop at the gate of the Istana Nurul Iman. After lunch come the Royal Regalia Museum, with the golden chariot of the Sultan's Silver Jubilee, and a boat ride round Kampong Ayer, the water village on stilts, with tea in a family's house. In mosques, women cover their heads, shoulders and knees, everyone removes their shoes, and visitors keep silent. For dinner, try the ambuyat set at Soto Pabo, on the river facing Kampong Ayer.

On day 8 (Sunday) the package's guide picks you up at 07:30 for a proboscis monkey cruise in an open wooden boat past the water village and the Istana Nurul Iman into the mangroves, where mudskippers, kingfishers and egrets share the banks with the monkeys. The UK government warns that saltwater crocodiles live in the rivers around BSB: check that there are life jackets for everyone and keep your hands inside the boat. In the operator's itinerary the cruise ends back at the hotel at about 10:30–11:00, and you check out and transfer straight to the airport, so ask Borneo Adventure when you book to keep your luggage and time the transfer for Royal Brunei's 19:30 flight, and plan the afternoon without a room. A Yayasan water taxi, usually BND 2–5 a ride and negotiable, takes you back across to the Kampong Ayer Cultural and Tourism Gallery, open on Sundays from 09:00 to 16:30. The Bandar Seri Begawan guide has more to see and eat in the city.

An extra day for Ulu Temburong. Most of Temburong, Brunei's eastern district, is rainforest. Freme Travel's day from BSB to the national park's canopy tower costs BND 155 per adult, with hotel pickup at 07:30, and needs one more night in BSB; the trip then becomes 15 days and 14 nights. The Ulu Temburong guide explains the day.

The flight to Kota Kinabalu takes 40 minutes and lands at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI) at 20:10. Royal Brunei's route page shows round-trip fares from BND 147 per person, from searches in the previous 48 hours; book it as soon as the Brunei dates are fixed. If the flight is full, the Brunei stop guide compares the other ways to Kota Kinabalu, by road through Lawas or by boat through Labuan, each a full day. The arrival is a new international arrival in Malaysia and Sabah: you pass Sabah immigration and need a new Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC). For the late ride into town, Amazing Borneo's private airport van costs USD 37 per 8-seat van one way to a city hotel at its 2026 rate, or take a taxi or an e-hailing car. Sleep at Bond63 Hotel (formerly Hotel Sixty3) at 63 Jalan Gaya.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Days 9–11: Kinabalu Park, Kundasang and the road east

Day 9 (Monday). The booked option is the Mount Kinabalu Shuttle run by Amazing Borneo: a shared van from Kota Kinabalu city hotels to the Kinabalu Park headquarters, USD 62 (about MYR 250) per person one way at the operator's 2026 rate, with pickup between 06:00 and 06:15; the park fee is not included. The park headquarters sits at about 1,520 metres, about 92 km from Kota Kinabalu. The cheaper way is the minibus or shared taxi from the Jalan Padang bus station in Kota Kinabalu to Kundasang and Ranau: Sabah Tourism gives about RM30 per person and about 2 hours, with no timetable; vehicles leave when they are full, from 07:30 to 17:00.

Sleep two nights at Sutera Sanctuary Lodges at Kinabalu Park, the lodges inside the park, and eat at the park restaurant. Gazetted in 1964 and now a World Heritage Site, the park covers about 754 km² around 4,095-metre Mount Kinabalu, from lowland rainforest to bare granite; Sabah Parks counts 5,000 to 6,000 plant species, among them 711 orchids, 621 ferns, rhododendrons and pitcher plants. Around headquarters you walk in oak and chestnut forest with mosses, ferns and orchids on the branches. Sabah Parks charges international visitors aged 18 and over a conservation fee of RM50 (RM25 for those aged 17 and under) and RM5 for the Botanical Garden. The park lists its hours as 08:00 to 17:00, the Botanical Garden from 09:00 to 16:00 with last entry at 15:00 and guided sessions at 09:00, 12:00 and 15:00, and a guided nature-trail walk at 11:00 from the Multipurpose Hall. Poring, about 40 km away on the warmer lowland side of the park, has hot sulphur springs and gardens, but its canopy walkway has been closed since 30 July 2025. The summit climb is a separate two-day trip with permits and a registered guide; see the Kinabalu Park guide.

Day 10 (Tuesday): Kundasang. Public transport in Kundasang is limited, so hire a car with a driver for half a day: Sabah Tourism estimates RM120 to RM200 with waiting time, depending on the car, the distance and the stops. The Mukim Kundasang drivers wait in front of the Alliance Bank in Kundasang town, and the Maxim app works for short rides. See the Kundasang War Memorial, a landscaped garden on the Second World War and the Death March (RM15 for an international adult), and Desa Dairy Farm, which sells its tickets online in advance. Have lunch at Restaurant Selera Soborong in Kundasang. If clouds hide the mountain in the morning, Sabah Tourism suggests looking again in the evening, when the clouds may have cleared.

Day 11 (Wednesday): the road to Sandakan. Hire a car from the KOKTAS drivers at the park or from Kundasang to the Ranau bus station, in front of SK St Benedict school. Two companies, Sida Express and Tung Ma Express, run long-distance buses from Kota Kinabalu's Inanam terminal to Sandakan through Ranau. Sabah Tourism advises booking the ticket on Easybook from Kota Kinabalu and telling the bus company that you will board at Ranau; the fare stays the same. The bus takes about 2.5 hours from Kota Kinabalu to Ranau and about 5 more hours to Sandakan, with one stop at Telupid. Choose a departure that passes Ranau in the morning: Sabah Tourism's own plan, which spends the morning at the park first, warns that you will probably reach Sandakan late at night or in the small hours.

Sleep one night at Sabah Hotel Sandakan, at KM1 Jalan Utara, a hotel set in gardens with a free-form pool, a short taxi ride from the bus terminal.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Days 12–14: Sepilok, the Kinabatangan River and home

Start day 12 (Thursday) with nasi kuning at Sri Rimbawan Restaurant: Sabah Tourism calls it the staple breakfast of Sabah's east coast. The booked option for the last three days is Amazing Borneo's join-in 3D2N Bilit Rainforest Lodge package (tour code ABSK-WA1505), which departs every day: USD 501 per person twin sharing for travel in 2027, a discount on its list price of USD 669, with a USD 49 surcharge from 1 July to 31 August. It picks you up at Sandakan city hotels or Sandakan Airport between 08:30 and 09:15.

The first morning is at Sepilok: the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, where feedings are held at 10:00 and 15:00 and a camera costs RM10, and the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. Then the van drives about 2 hours to the jetty at Bilit, on the Kinabatangan River, for lunch and the first river cruise at 16:00. The lower Kinabatangan is Malaysia's largest Ramsar wetland, and its forest is one of only two places in the world known to hold ten primate species. From the boat you look for proboscis monkeys, wild orangutans, saltwater crocodiles on the banks and, with luck, Bornean pygmy elephants; all eight of Borneo's hornbill species live here, the rhinoceros and Oriental pied hornbills most often seen. Day 13 has a morning cruise to an oxbow lake, a 30-minute walk in Kampung Bilit and a second cruise at 16:00. On day 14 the group stops at Gomantong Caves, the largest cave in Sabah and its most important source of edible bird's nests, before lunch and the drop-off in Sandakan at about 13:00.

The package includes two breakfasts, three lunches and two dinners, the entrance fees, the shared van, an English-speaking guide, two nights in a Standard Chalet at Bilit Rainforest Lodge or a similar lodge, and three river cruises. It does not include flights, camera and video fees, alcoholic and fizzy drinks or personal costs. The tourism tax of MYR 10 per room per night is paid at the lodge. The Kinabatangan guide covers the other river bases and lodges, and the Sepilok guide covers the centres in more detail.

Canada's travel advice asks for a high degree of caution on Sabah's east coast between Kudat and Tawau, with a higher risk on the water and the waterfront after dark. The UK government's warning for eastern Sabah covers the offshore islands and dive sites, not the mainland where this route goes. Read your own government's advice before you book.

On day 14 (Saturday) ask for the drop-off at Sandakan Airport (SDK). AirAsia flies direct from Sandakan to Kuala Lumpur in 2 hours 45 minutes to 2 hours 55 minutes; book a flight that leaves well after 13:00, and an international flight home from Kuala Lumpur later that evening or the next day.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

What two weeks cost, all in

About MYR 9,850 per person, MYR 19,700 for two, before the international flights: all thirteen nights, the three packages and two Kuching tours, every meal and ordinary drink, the flights inside Borneo, every transfer and local ride, admissions and park fees, a SIM and a 10% buffer.

This budget is for two adults with ordinary UK passports, who need no visa for Malaysia or Brunei, sharing a double or twin room every night, starting on a Sunday outside Ramadan and outside July and August. It converts at the European Central Bank's reference rates of 4 November 2026: USD 1 = about MYR 4.06, GBP 1 = about MYR 5.49, and BND 1 = about MYR 3.18 through the Brunei dollar's peg to the Singapore dollar. That is about USD 2,420 or GBP 1,800 per person. Per-person and for-two totals are rounded separately; most lines are estimates and the basis of each is given below.

• Rooms: MYR 2,000 for two. Three nights at the Grand Margherita at about MYR 232, one at Bond63 at about MYR 194, two at Sutera Sanctuary Lodges at about USD 85 with fees and one at Sabah Hotel Sandakan at about MYR 309, the lowest nightly rates booking sites showed for these hotels in November 2026; and the tourism tax of MYR 10 per room per night for the eleven Malaysian nights. The Mulu, Brunei and Bilit nights are in the packages.
• Packages and guided tours: MYR 10,710 for two. Bako MYR 360 and Semenggoh MYR 160 per person; the Mulu package MYR 980 plus the RM20 conservation fee; the Brunei package MYR 1,800; and the Bilit package at USD 501, about MYR 2,040, per person.
• Admissions: MYR 300 for two. Per person: the Borneo Cultures Museum RM50, the Kinabalu Park conservation fee RM50 and the Botanical Garden RM5, the Kundasang War Memorial RM15, Desa Dairy Farm RM20 and a Sepilok camera fee of RM10. Entrance fees in Brunei and at Bilit are in the packages.
• Flights inside the route: MYR 1,870 for two. Kuching–Mulu about MYR 300 and Mulu–Miri about MYR 170 per person one way, based on the fares flight-search sites showed for these routes in November 2026; and Royal Brunei's Brunei–Kota Kinabalu return at BND 147, about MYR 470, because the airline's route page shows only round-trip fares.
• Transfers and local transport: MYR 1,440 for two. The Kota Kinabalu shuttle to the park at USD 62 each; the half-day Kundasang car at the top of Sabah Tourism's RM120–200 range; the airport van in Kota Kinabalu at USD 37; and estimates of about MYR 40 for each Kuching airport taxi, MYR 120 for the car to Ranau, MYR 50 each for the bus to Sandakan, MYR 30 for the taxi to the Sandakan hotel and MYR 60 for short rides in Kuching. In Brunei, about BND 40 for four metered taxi rides (Gadong and back on day 6, Soto Pabo and back on day 7), and BND 5 per person each way for the water taxi to Kampong Ayer.
• Food and drinks: MYR 1,510 for two. 21 meals each in Malaysia outside the packages at about MYR 30 a meal with a drink, from simple coffee-shop meals to the park restaurant; and four meals each in Brunei at about BND 10, based on the BND 6–8 rice plates on a Gadong restaurant menu plus a drink.
• SIM cards: MYR 70 for two. A Hotlink Travel SIM each, RM35 for 15 days. Its data covers Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, not Brunei; use the hotel Wi-Fi or a DST SIM there.
• Buffer: MYR 1,790 for two. The single 10% buffer covers small extras, camera fees at Gomantong and price changes.
• International flights: about MYR 4,200 per person: Etihad's London–Kuala Lumpur economy returns from GBP 667 for April 2027, about MYR 3,660, plus AirAsia's lowest listed fares from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching (from MYR 250) and from Sandakan to Kuala Lumpur (from MYR 313). With these flights, the trip costs about MYR 14,070 per person, MYR 28,140 for two.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Passport stamps, arrival cards, Brunei rules and the season

Sabah and Sarawak keep their own immigration control. The UK government says that when you travel between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah or Sarawak, you must carry your passport, pass through immigration control and get entry and exit stamps. On this route you show your passport at Kuala Lumpur, at Kuching, at both Sungai Tujuh posts, at Brunei airport, at Kota Kinabalu, at Sandakan and on departure from Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysia entry guide has the visa rules by passport.

Arrival cards. Malaysia's free Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC) is filled in online within the three days before arrival. You need one for Kuala Lumpur on day 1 and a second for Kota Kinabalu on day 8, because the flight from Brunei is an international arrival. For Brunei, every foreign visitor fills in the E-Arrival Card on the immigration department's website before reaching the Sungai Tujuh post, and the UK government also asks for Brunei's Health Declaration Form, before or on arrival; the Brunei entry guide covers passports and visas.

Brunei's rules change the plan. Shops, restaurants and many sights close from 12:00 to 14:00 on Fridays, which is why this route arrives on Friday afternoon and tours on Saturday. Jame' 'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque and the Royal Regalia Museum are closed on Fridays. During Ramadan, restaurants serve only takeaway or delivery in fasting hours, and eating, drinking and smoking in public in those hours is not allowed.

Money. Malaysia uses the ringgit (MYR), Brunei the Brunei dollar (BND), pegged at par to the Singapore dollar; shops and money changers are not obliged to accept Singapore notes, so change money into Brunei dollars.

SIM cards. A Hotlink Travel SIM costs RM35 for 15 days or RM25 for 7 days and is also sold as an eSIM through the Hotlink app or at the Maxis Centre at Kuala Lumpur airport. Its data covers Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia but not Brunei. DST's Easi Tourist SIM (BND 15, 3 GB for 7 days) is sold at DST's branch in the arrivals hall of Brunei International Airport and at selected DST branches in town, so buy one in BSB with your passport or use the hotel Wi-Fi.

The season. Travel between mid-March and October. Malaysia's weather service says the Sarawak coast and northeast Sabah get much of their rain in the northeast monsoon from December to March, with the most in January; the Sarawak coast is driest in June or July and northeast Sabah in April. In Brunei the wettest months are October to January and May to July, so expect showers in any month. Borneo Adventure's Bako group days stop from November to February, and Semenggoh has days without orangutans in December and January. Ramadan is expected from about 9 February to 9 March 2027. At Bilit, July and August carry the peak surcharge.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026