Ahh, Borneo! The land of sweltering rainforests, soaring Mount Kinabalu, hairy orangutans, horny rhinos, and priapic proboscis monkeys.
Not quite!
Actually, it is a green sea of ever-expanding palm oil plantations, which threatens the existence of all the above except the high mountains. And, it wouldn’t surprise us if in 15 years Mount Kinabalu is covered in oil palm trees too! Thankfully, small pockets of primary forest still exist. And the well-heeled traveler, or backpacker wishing to bust her budget, can still visit areas of tropical rainforest that have not changed in millions of years.
Once such place is the Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. It is primarily a research institution, but provides facilities for visitors.
There are three ways to visit the Danum Valley. The money-is-no-object types and bug loving honeymooners book into the luxurious Borneo Rainforest Lodge at $800 a night. The wanna-look-like-a-backpacker-but-want-stuff-sorted-in-advance types on short holidays book a tour with a travel agency such as Sticky Rice Tours. They still slum it with the cheapo backpackers in the DVFC accommodation, though. Which brings us to our category: the facultative flashpackers. We tend to do things on the cheap where we can but splurge when there is no other option or we prefer a bit more comfort. Danum Valley is a splurge. Even the “cheap” option that we took was over our budget, but absolutely worthwhile.
We have written this blog for the benefit of those wishing to visit independently, without a guided tour, keeping costs as low as possible. It is a little heavy on practical details but hopefully there is enough inspirational material for those thinking of going in the future.
Our Story
Thick rainforest in the Danum Valley
We really wanted to visit the Danum Valley, but we really didn’t want to pay through the nose. It has been possible to visit independently for some time, but getting the hard information to book in advance proved to be tricky. We found contact information for the DVFC office in Kota Kinabalu in a Tripadvisor review. We were in contact with them and thought we had confirmed our stay. When we turned up at the at the Field Office in Lahad Datu there was no record of us coming. Thankfully, there was still room and Suzan, the very friendly and efficient lady at the office, organized our visit in a few minutes.
So, how do you go about organizing your ‘cheap’ Danum Valley trip?
You should email your prospective itinerary to Suzan Kilin, sck_72@yahoo.com.my, at the Danum Valley Field Centre office in Lahad Datu. Her phone number is +60 0138846968. Don’t assume you are confirmed for beds or transport unless you have an email specifically telling you so. Pester the office for confirmation if this is not forthcoming.
The address for the Field Center Office in Lahad Datu is Block 3, MDLD 3286, ground floor, Fajar Centre, Lahad Datu.
The DVFC office in Lahad Datu is very close to the airport, near the Shell station, in an area of town called the Fajar Center. It doesn’t appear on Google Maps, but is next door to the location marked “Borneo Nature Tours SDN BHD” on Google Maps. Here is the location.
Transportation to the Danum Valley
The Field Centre bus goes to and from Danum Valley on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only. The transfer costs 65myr per person in each direction. The bus leaves the valley at 8.30am and returns from the Lahad Datu Office at 3pm. The journey takes around 2 hours. Most people elect to stay for two nights, which gives you one full day plus one evening and early morning in the forest.
Costs
You pay for accommodation, meals, shuttle transfer, conservation fee, and camera fees in advance at the Lahad Datu office. If you need to pick up some cash there is an ATM at the CIMB Bank approximately 150m from the office.
Accommodation: 91myr per person per night (dorms)
We opted for the single-sex hostels. There are 48 beds for men and 48 for women. The hostel cost 91myr per person per night. There are 12 private rooms known as Rest Houses and these cost 286myr per room. These sleep two people. The hostels are arranged in curtained off sections of 4 bunk beds. The showers are cold. There are Western style and Asian squat style toilets. Note that in the hostel there is nowhere secure to store your belongings.
Conservation Fee: 50myr per person
Shuttle to the DVFC from Lahad Datu: 65myr per person each way
Camera Fee: 10myr
Tell the office you have a cell phone only. No-one will check in the forest. Fee is 10myr for a cell phone or small camera camera or 100myr for a DSLR.
Meal Plans
Full board costs 111myr per person per day. Dinner is 46myr, lunch is 36myr, and breakfast is 29myr. You can opt to pay separately for meals but this only makes sense if you opt out of or don’t need one of the meals. We opted out of breakfast and brought our own instant oatmeal, apples, and peanut butter. Vegetarian options are available, so be sure to tell them when you book and pay. Coffee and tea is free all day. Apparently, this is for full-board plan only but no-one at the Center checks. There is filtered hot and cold water available 24/7.
Dinner consisted of heaps of rice, two meat options, and two vegetable dishes. There was a separate plate of protein (tofu curry) set aside for the veggies. Lunch was one meat option, rice, and two vegetable dishes. Again, a separate dish (omelette) was set aside for the veggies. The food is served buffet style and you can eat as much as you like. Dessert was slices of watermelon.
You eat in the communal dining area. This is next to the resthouse accommodation. The hostels are a 10-15 minute walk away.
We prepared our own breakfast, but there seemed to be noodles, sausages, eggs and a couple of other dishes available each day.
Tins of beer were available at 10myr. Soft drinks cost 3myr.
Self catering all of our meals would have been easier than we thought and would have shaved off a few dollars a day. There are kitchens available in both dorms and a refrigerator in the dining room. There were plenty of small minimarts near the office in Lahad Datu so that you can stock up on noodles, fresh produce, cookies, and booze. The price lists in the DVFC office listed a 20MYR fee for renting utensils. This prompted us to make a mad dash around Lahad Datu to find cheap plastic bowls and spoons before hopping on the van. It turned out there are plates and utensils available at the field centre kitchen and nobody was interested in charging us to use them.
Activities in the Danum Valley
The bridge near the Field Centre
There are a number of tours available at the Conservation area. You pay for this in the Valley, since they are all weather dependent.
The sunrise tour costs 160myr for the car and guide. This is for a maximum of four people. We were out of luck the day we visited so we had to pay for a car between 2 of us. You wake up at 4.45am for a 5am start. The guide drives you the 8km to the observation deck.
Sunset tours cost the same and have the same itinerary except in the afternoon instead of the morning. It rained for sunset on both evenings we were there, so we didn’t see the point in going up in the afternoon.
There are night safaris for the same price. We didn’t do this but plenty of guests raved about them. This is your best bet for seeing wildlife.
There is a self-guided short trek of approximately 500m. This takes in a small stretch of jungle and passes by two observation decks, which you can climb for better views.
There are a range of guided jungle treks. We opted for the 6km Rhino Pool trek. The guide fee is 20myr per hour. This took 3 hours. For the longest trek, two guides are mandatory.
The more expensive treks with Sticky Rice are no more or less likely to spot wildlife than the local Park Rangers. Their English language skills might be better but if you want to see elephants, orangutans, and hornbills you just have to hope your luck is in.
Our visit to the Danum Valley
Tropical trees and vines, and sunrise over the jungle.
It was pretty awesome aside from the leeches. You can buy leech socks at the field centre reception desk for MYR17.50 a pair. You will need them.
When we got to the Lahad Datu office, there was the obligatory confusion caused by the Kota Kinabalu office not communicating our booking to the Lahad Datu office. Thankfully, there were seats available in the shuttle. If the shuttle is full, the only other option is a 350MYR private car.
Once we got out of the palm plantations, the drive was quite beautiful. The road is unsealed for most of the way but not too bumpy. About thirty minutes before arriving at the Danum Valley Field Center we saw our first signs of exciting animal life. Huge mounds of elephant poo on the road! Borneo Pygmy Elephants are increasingly rare and seeing them would be quite a wildlife spotter’s coup.
On the whole though, you are here for the forest. And, what a magnificent sight it is. If you want to know what much of the world looked like before humanity took over, then come to Danum Valley. It is a dense sea of every kind of green, wrapped around gnarly trees big and small. It is the sort of place where you can quite feasibly be lost forever and yet be only 200 meters from the Center.
In the evening, we saw a huge female bearded pig and her cute little piglet. They were curious beasties and were easily tempted to check out the humans in the hostel area. We saw a few deer around the Center too.
Sunrise tour
Sunrise from the observation deck.
We jumped into our 4WD vehicle for a short drive to the observation deck. On the way we had our first wildlife sighting. Two adult and one baby Pygmy Elephant. They had made clear their views on human encroachment on to their turf. They had well and truly flattened a road sign!
Borneo pygmy elephants by the side of the road.
The observation deck is perched on top of a small hill 8km from the Center. You get a magnificent 360 view from the top. It is quite awe-inspiring. The morning mist clings the trees. And, the dawn chorus of tens of species of birds rings out all around you. The sights and sounds make you realize what a tremendous mess humans have made of the world. We have traded this for fuck ugly palm plantations and dismal service towns. We have cut and burned huge areas of immense biodiversity and replaced it with fields of stuff that clogs your arteries and makes you fat.
Makes me glad we ain’t having kids. I hate the thought of them backpacking through the palm oil plantations, soya bean megafarms, and chicken factories of the world in 2036.
We saw some more elephants on the way back. We heard one of them trumpeting, which, weirdly, seem to make the experience feel more real. The ranger told us that the elephants move between the DVFC and other parts of the rainforest. They will spend a few months around the Centre, then leave for several months or more. We were lucky to see them.
We weren’t there in orangutan season. The receptionist told us that you can see orangutans near the field centre during fruiting season, which is typically February-March.
Trekking to Rhino Pool
A tiger leech. One of many we saw on the trail and on us.
Our guide, a Danum Valley park ranger of 8 years, had never seen a rhino in the valley. The population of rhinos in Sabah is so small that they are all but extinct. They have inbred for so long they rarely reproduce and one imagines that they ain’t that smart either! Rhinos will soon be extinct so that humans can have hardwood furniture, clogged arteries, and, according to Chinese medicine, hard dicks. Now, does that make sense to anyone out there?
Rhino Pool was a sad murky little pond. Thankfully, the surrounding jungle is rather splendid.
Our guide told us that he decided to become a ranger since his only other option is to work on a Palm Oil plantation. Well, you don’t get a more stark dividing line than that. You destroy our biodiversity. Or, you protect it. Maybe we should all consider ourselves on one side or other of that very same divide. We either destroy or we protect. If we choose not to protect, then I can show you your future. Monoculture. Artery clogged people. No animals. No trees. Does that sound pleasant to you?
The trek was fiercely hot and humid. We saw no wildlife. During the heat of the day, they do the sensible thing and hunker down in shady spots. We saw some cool bugs though!
And, we saw leeches. Hundreds of them. Like wriggly little dog dicks looking for a new home. They drop from the trees above. Crawl up from the forest floor. Or, attach on to you from the nearest plant. They are persistence little shits too. Trying to remove them from clothes, hands, and shoes takes some effort. You can flick ‘em, pick ‘em or kick ‘em and they still cling on. Gross little beasties. We got one sucker each back at the Center. All the others we fought off but these two snuck up on us when we had dropped our guard. They inject an anti-coagulant into the bite. So, even though the bite mark is tiny you bleed profusely. Looks like the bugger has gone at you with an axe! I flattened mine with my shoe and dark red blood splattered everywhere. Astonishing to think Western doctors in the past thought they were a cure for many an ailment.
The jungle is a place to endure. It is a difficult to genuinely enjoy. Glad we visited but I won’t be returning anytime soon.
Downpour
I wasn’t in a hurry to return but Laura wanted to walk the self-guided trail near the Center. It is 500m long and has two observation towers en route so that you can get in among the tree tops.
We headed out around 3pm. It looked dark overhead and had started to rain a little. Ah, what the hell you expect to get a bit damp in a rainforest, right?
Two hundred meters in the heavens opened. Two hundred and fifty meters in hell opened too!! We got caught in the mother of all downpours. It was the most insane rainfall I had ever seen. The rain was so dense you could barely see 5 meters ahead. Even though the trail was clear, the rain and noise was a little disorienting. Leeches be loving this! We ran back to the Center before the leech army massed its ranks!
So, now I fully understand the rain and the forest elements of the word, rainforest.
Danum Valley: Final Thoughts
Morning mist near the Danum Valley Field Centre
I have no stomach for leeches. Nor hands, feet, nose, and neck for that matter. Shame the leeches don’t see it that way. I think the rainforest sits squarely in the box ‘glad it exists, wish there was more of it, stay well out of’. It’s hot, humid, and the wildlife delights in hiding away. Apart from the aforementioned leeches, who really really want to find you.
However, I heartily recommend you visit the Danum Valley. It will be a stark lesson in the beauty of the truly natural world and the ugliness of a natural world utterly manipulated by humans. And, when you are disappointed by seeing almost no animals, hopefully next time you see ‘palm oil’ in food ingredients you really know why you should return it to the shelf. Better still, lobby the grocery store or food company to boycott palm oil. Because the options are clear. Stuff to fry your food in and no orangutans. Or, orangutans and steamed vegetables.
The Danum Valley is expensive to visit. But, good work is going on there. I would rather drop $350 on helping the good people of Danum Valley than on a Condé Nast recommended chalet with private jacuzzi and infinity pool. Mind you, when you are there the Condé Nast place will feel really really tempting!
Photos
57 thoughts on “Danum Valley Field Centre: How to Visit Independently”
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What great and timely info! I’m sitting by a pool in Bali researching what we’ll do in borneo when this post popped up in my email.
Eric recently posted…Planning Our Post Peace Corps Trip – 5 Months in Asia
Fantastic report, thanks so much for posting. I was in two minds whether to make the effort and pay the price to visit Danum but this has made me realise it can be done without blowing the budget.
I’m glad our article was helpful! Visiting the Danum Valley independently isn’t super-cheap, but it is definitely doable and way less expensive than taking a tour. Enjoy your trip.
Laura Jacobsen recently posted…Diving Una Una: Ending a year of travel in style
Hi ,
I am planning to visit kota kinabalu and danum valley in October, your article is of great help as I am on a budget travel and want to explore things on my own. I am planning to stay there only for a night and return the next morning, will I have enough time for sunrise and come back before the 8:30 bus leaves?
I am a solo female traveler, is it safe for solo travelers out there?
You can’t stay for one night only because the busses to the Field Centre only go Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. There is no other way to get there. It is absolutely safe to travel alone. You need a ranger for most of the trails anyway.
This is so useful and exactly the info we need 🙂 Just a quick question, do you think we could rock up to LD on a Tuesday for example and book a shuttle and accommodation for the next day, and arrange tours once in the valley? Or would we need to call and get stuff booked?
Hi Claire,
Glad you found the blog post useful.
If possible, I would recommend calling ahead to organize your visit. The van that goes between LD and DVFC isn’t very big, and once it’s full it’s full. Make sure you contact the office in Lahad Datu, not the one in Kota Kinabalu.
Also, there isn’t much to recommend Lahad Datu as a destination. I wouldn’t plan to stay overnight.
That said, we effectively rocked up to the office in LD and organized our trip a few hours before the van. We thought we had booked everything ahead of time, but the office had no record of our reservations. This was because we booked with the office in KK and they didn’t communicate with LD. Luckily for us, there was enough room.
Have a great trip to the jungle!
Laura Jacobsen recently posted…Oregon’s Volcanoes, or Why You Should Travel Close to Home
The transfers seem to be booked up about a week or two in advance so better to email/call and reserve your spot.
Good advice!
Laura Jacobsen recently posted…Oregon’s Volcanoes, or Why You Should Travel Close to Home
Thanks for your detailed post, really helpful. I just thought I’d point out that I was told by the office that there is no other way to get to the field. Only the transfer they arrange. I asked about a private car but they said I can’t do that. Maybe it’s a new thing to stop too many tourists…
Thanks for the additional information. It looks like the best strategy is to book the van ahead of time.
Laura Jacobsen recently posted…Oregon’s Volcanoes, or Why You Should Travel Close to Home
Firstly thank you for this excellent excellent blog, because of you we were able to make it to Danum valley!
We went to the valley last week and just wanted to update you, after emailing suzan, she told us to contact Rosnita Razalie, who’s email is: roserlie2507@gmail.com. she was very very helpful!
Thanks again
Thanks for the comment and for the updated contact information!
Thank you very much for the detailed post about Danum Valley. We really want to go there in August, but the price for an organized tour shocked us (let alone the price for the Borneo Rainforest Lodge …). Thanks to your post it seems we have found a way to visit Danum Valley that doesn’t leave us with empty pockets 😉 May I ask you at what time of the year you were there?
Hi Sabine,
I’m glad this post gave you the information to organize a visit on your own. Yes, it seems that the tour prices are on the high side. During our stay, we met a group on the Sticky Rice tour. Their guide was a cool guy and very knowledgeable about the rainforest, but the cost of the trip is steep for budget travelers. The Borneo Rainforest Lodge looks amazing if you have deep pockets!
We visited the Danum Valley in May 2016.
Have a great trip!
Laura Jacobsen recently posted…Oregon’s Volcanoes, or Why You Should Travel Close to Home
Thanks alot for this info guys, going there tomorrow 🙂
Hope you had a great trip!
Laura Jacobsen recently posted…Oregon’s Volcanoes, or Why You Should Travel Close to Home
HI,
thanks for the very detailed blog mentioning every detail of the place along with the transport, food, climate, accomodation. i was really thinking whether to go ahead for danum valley or should i skip it, but your blog is helpful to make that decision.
just wanted to know if its a wise decision to plan just a day trip to danum valley and not make a stay over there, as i am too tight on my days in borneo.
Also, wanted to know if there is vegan food available?
According to my research there is no chance of day trip. The busses, the only transportation, leave in the afternoon and return in the morning, only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. So you need at least stay two nights or three over the weekend.
Hi,
Thanks for your quick revert.
I am going to be in seiplock and would be coming to danum on 27th may, which happens to be a Saturday. I have cancelled on my visit to gomatong caves so I can be there for 2 nights now. But is the transportation on Saturday possible?
Any other local transport is also fine.
Please help. I don’t want to miss out on visiting this place
As far as I know there ìs no private transport allowed. So you need to stick to the official bus that only goes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Sabine von Ferngeweht recently posted…Im Farbrausch: Zur Tulpenblüte in Holland
Hi!
I recently read your post and found it so amazing!
I have tried to contact the Suzan and sent the itinerary by the email you suggested but after a whole week, there is still no reply from her.
I am wondering how long you had waited for her reply.
Thank you so much!
I tried Suzan first and didn’t get a reply either. Rosnita Razalie (roserlie2507@gmail.com) is another person in the office. She replies very fast and reliable. Good luck!
Thank you so much for the quick response and I really appreciate it!
I am now sending an email to her! Hope that she will reply:):):)
I have tried to contact Rosnita but it seems like her email kept replying me spam email:(
That’s strange, because I emailed her only last week. Have you got the right email address (without the hyphen)? roserlie2507@gmail.com
The blog layout shows the hyphen again. There is NO hyphen in the name.
I have double checked and resent the email
Although the spam still exist,She replied me 😀
BUT the saddest thing is that the time I am planning to go meets their national holidays………..:(:(:(
Strange that such an expensive destination would only have transportation on Modays, Wednesday’s, and Friday’s. What about those who have a tight schedule like myself and wish to stay 4 nights from a Wednesday thus requiring to leave on a Sunday? By the way what does it cost 2017 for an air-con chalet per night? Was someone email me a picture of their best rooms?
This is not the expensive destination – that’s the Borneo Rainforest Lodge, a luxury lodge which picks you up whenever you want. Danum Vallye is a field centre. Their prime goal is not to house tourists, but to do reserach. We can be lucky that they let us in at all and that they provide us transport to the remote place.
There’s a picture of the VIP chalet: https://whoaadventures.com/sites/default/files/images/Highlands%20and%20Jungle/Danum%20Valley%20Field%20Centre/VIP%20Chalet.jpg
Hello,
I just finished my trip in Danum Valley and I booked through the email adress you wrote. This email adress goes straight to a certain Shana at Inno Travel who propose packages. But she is not working for the center and the price she proposes : 595r for a free and easy stay (3d2n) is more expensive that the one you get directly from the center (435r). The Suzan girl knows this and I assume it is a partnership between her and Shana because when we figured it out she gave us back the money. I just wanted to tell you so people know it in advance.
Thank you for the informations of your blog!
Johanne
hi, great article, can we do laundry while at the DVFC
Hi Daniel,
We don’t know if laundry facilities are available to guests at DVFC. Presumably the researchers have laundry but we don’t know if visitors can use those facilities. We’d advise against hand washing your clothes there because anything that gets wet in that humid climate will never, ever dry.
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Hi, We have just had a three night two day stay at the field centre. Had to have those days as it was over the weekend, and had to tee up with the Friday 3.00 pm minibus, and the Monday 8.30 am minibus back to Lahad Datu.
Btw, if you are in LD for a few hours there is an air-conditioned bakery over past the Shell service station, ok brewed coffee and cakes, and sandwiches, plus a clean toilet, wall plugs for charging and free wifi.
Notwithstanding asking about accommodation weeks ago, the only option available was in the hostel. Apparently some of their more salubrious (?) rooms were closed for renovations. We weren’t sure if that was a truthful situation as there were nowhere near enough people at meals etc to have represented full usage of all their rooms.The resthouse rooms are basic, but have a attached cold shower bathroom, whereas at the hostel, the bathroom is in a separate building.
All power goes off at 11.00 pm and on at 7am, so no fans and lights overnight. We washed our clothes by hand and they dried under the fans in the daytime.
Enjoyed the night drive and saw snakes, glider, civet and roosting birds.
The days were stinking hot and humid, but the rainforest itself is glorious, and the Danum Valley setting is quite beautiful.
We had bought some of those rubber soccer boot type shoes earlier in our trip and they were ok for damp jungle walking. Leech socks we’re available for purchase. Beers were deliciously cold.
Thank you so much for this blog and to all that have commented with great information. A little update about the situation there now: after trying to contact every person mentioned here and nor being successful we finally found out that the DVFC is indeed closed for a few months for maintenance (until jan/Feb 2019) In the end we found Kawag Danum Rainforest Lodge, recommended by Sabah parks and booked via Borneo Refugia, very price worthy. We paid around 1200RM per person for 4D3N, standard fan twin share. So worth it! Amazing wildlife sightings (elephants, orang-utans, slow loris etc) and it’s a great alternative and maybe even just as good. Can highly recommend. It is not primary forest but secondary but the animals didn’t seem to care too much about that. But as always, it’s nature and wildlife so you always need to be lucky/be in the right place at the right time. Good luck all!
Thanks for posting this updated information. You’ve probably helped many travelers already. It sounds like you had a great trip – you can’t beat wild orangutans at that price.
Great information. Thanks a lot for your hard work.
One request, why don’t you published same types of works for Serengeti? I had visited once, but still I wants to learn more, specially for North , Central and Ndutu area.
Thanks again.
Perfect experience I got, renting a car with Budget in Los Angeles! They offered me the car which was not so good for me, but I couldn’t rent any other, because I’m under 21. I had an incident with my vehicle, and that is why, I returned it with some damages. The staff was very understanding and amazingly helpful, handling the situation with professionalism as well as courtesy. Moreover, they provided a cost-free ride towards my hotel! Overall would recommend.
Wow, Danum Valley Field Centre looks great. Thank you for a wonderful guide, this will be helpful not only for me but for hundreds to come 🙂
No idea if anyone is still updating this post but we are looking to be at the field center in a little over a week. (last minute decision). All the contacts are no longer working and every phone number is not picking up. Since it is so shorg notice I am not secure to just pop up at lahad datu office.
Is there anyone that has visisted/booked recently?
Hallo Sarah, I hope everythings were ok……….can you tell us if things were good in the office and if you done your trip in Danum Valley Field Camp ? We are trying to contact them in these days…. And….if every thing is ok, can you give me some info, tell me prices to stay there ?
Than we want to buy trekking in the park directly in Danum Valley Filed Center because they depend from weather……..
Can you give us the price for room and tour ?
Thanks for your help, ciao Fulvia
Hallo Sarah, I hope everythings were ok……….can you tell us if things were good in the office and if you done your trip in Danum Valley Field Camp ? We are trying to contact them in these days…. And….if every thing is ok, can you give me some info, tell me prices to stay there ?
Than we want to buy trekking in the park directly in Danum Valley Filed Center because they depend from weather……..
Can you give us the price for room and tour ?
Thanks for your help, ciao Fulvia
I heard these days that this email seems to be the right one at the moment: roserlie2507@gmail.com
Hey Fulvia!
we returned from Danum Valley yesterday after staying there for two nights.
I will give you the mobile number of Suzanne (who works at the Danum Valley office in Lahad Datu) +60 13-884 6968.
We stayed in the hostel, which was perfectly fine. The private rooms were fully booked so I am not sure what the price is for that.
The hostel is seperated male female and we received a student discount which made the price 70rm per night per person. Without the discount I believe it is 90rm (?)
You can choose to have meals included, which would be breakfast lunch dinner for 137rm per day per person.
We choose to bring our own meals. To use the kitchen you pay a fee of 50rm per day.
As for the tours, if you want to do one of the trekking tours (the ‘short’ waterfall trail is closed) it cost 30rm per ranger per hour. So if you go with more people that price is devided by the amount of people.
If however you would like to do a driving tour, which would be a night drive, sunrise or sunset ( all recommeded!) the price is per car 160rm.
So the more people the better in this case, make friends !
The nightdrive fits 8pax and the sunrise/sunset is per 4.
We had our own car for sunrise and sunset with the two of us because everyone else had formed groups and booked per four.
Also book the tours directly upon arrival or before because they can book out fast.
Pro tip: bring leech socks.
* the power turns off between 11pm and 7am so if you bring your own food , keep in mind to bring food that can last with the temperature difference during the night.
If there is anything else you would like to know feel free to ask. Suzanne will probably answer most of your questions as she is extremepy responsive and helpful 🙂
Enjoy!!
Sarah
Hi Sarah
We are planning to go beginning of November. Do you know if we can purchase the leech socks from the centre itself? Or should we plan ahead in that regard?
Kirst
Hi Kirst, I think you can get them at the center depending on if they have enough. We got them before we got to danum valley. At kota kinabalu, I am sure you will be there or at a city first. Maybe get them there just in case, we just went to a camping shop in a mall. Good luck and enjoy!!
Great post and comments. I plan to revisit DVFC again after my first visit 9 years ago. I tried the “roserlie” email but no response. I guess I will have to call up the office to get some details.
Hi Kurt, can you keep us informed if you get a new email address? Then I can update my blog post about Danum Valley as well.
Sabine von Ferngeweht recently posted…Jungle Train Malaysia: Fahrt mit dem Dschungelzug
Hi Sabine, still looking for it! I’ll post update here. A friend of mine just dropped by at the Lahad Datu Yayasan Sabah outlet/office, but was asked to go next door to Borneo Nature Tours. BNT’s tours are for Kawag Danum Rainforest Lodge, not the real Danum Valley Field Center. It’s about 2hrs drive away.
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Thanks so much for the awesome trip write-up and recommendations. Really looking forward to heading here in a couple of months. Thoughts on taking a child here? Will be sure to write up our experiences on our travel blog http://www.tripleespresso2go.com
Happy travels
I have really appreciated all the info I’ve gathered here, thanks for sharing. Hoping to go there in June 2020, so any updated contact info would be gratefuly received. Sounds an amazing place to visit – can’t wait.
Great information. Thanks a lot for your hard work.
One request, why don’t you published same types of works for Serengeti? I had visited once, but still I wants to learn more, specially for North , Central and Ndutu area.
Thanks again.
Pingback: Trip report: Danum Valley, Malaysia (25/09/2019 – 02/10/2019) – Unintelligent Birder
Pingback: Trip report: Danum Valley, Malaysia (25/09/2019 – 02/10/2019) – Okamoto Keita Sin
I had a fantastic time in Danum Valley. It’s a peaceful retreat in a vast forest that is as old as it gets. The food and beverages were excellent, considering being in the jungle. Being surrounded by passionate people and a research environment only improved my experience.
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Hey Mina, sounds like you had a great time! Did you go recently and if so do you have any up to date contact info? Many thanks!