What‘s Included

Reviews

• Not worth your time, and pssst! definitely no elephants!

  Hillbilly222,

  May 11, 2023

  - Viator

  1.00

  What to expect; pick up is at 11.45, and then a 2 hr 10 minutes mini-bus ride to a rustic riverside hotel where some passengers may stay overnight for different tours. Then nothing is planned for you to do until 4pm, when you start your boat trip. So you’re denied a normal lunch, and food is not available at the river (tea, coffee and a bun is) - why not just depart at 1pm? This two hour boat ride was ok, and we did see monkeys, and hornbill birds, but we weren’t given any chance of seeing pigmy elephants, as we didn’t venture anywhere near where they know they had been spotted recently, but returning to the hotel for dinner and then hopping back in the bus was unacceptable for us. We shamed them into giving us some fried rice for lunch, and paid extra (250MYR) to go on a jungle walk. A great shame all round. 10 hours for dinner and a two hour boat ride.

• A total rip off. Book locally with your accommodation.

  Lyndsay M,

  Nov 8, 2022

  - Viator

  1.00

  We did the day trip and it was a truly bad day out. We were picked up at 11:45 and did not arrive until 3pm. When we arrived the staff did not give a lot of guidance and weren't communicative with the guests. We sat around until 4pm for the cruise, which was 2 hours long, although we understood there is no guarantee of seeing wildlife, we didn't see much at all. Two types of bird, a couple of proboscis monkeys (which was amazing in fairness) and lots of macaques. There wasn't really a lot of wildlife out which we understand is just the way it is, nothing you can do about that. Got back to the resort at 6pm, waited until 7pm for dinner which was pretty bad, the food was cold and not very tasty. We then had the minibus back at 7:30pm and the driver was horrendous, speeding on small dark and bumpy roads and overtaking in dangerous places. I had my head over a plastic bag the whole time because I really thought I was going to be sick. Overall not a great experience and we were really frustrated to learn we paid so much more than everyone else on the trip by booking through viator. Having spoken to people on the tour and our hostel reception, you can book this trip for a lot cheaper (2 days 1 night for example for 350 ringgit) if you book with your accomodation. We booked online with viator before we arrived in sandakan thinking it would be better to guarantee our space on the tour but I wouldn't recommend doing that. We were totally ripped off by viator. Also wouldn't recommend the day trip as its about 6 hours of driving in total for no guarantee of seeing any wildlife. According to some people we met, you see many more animals in the morning than the evening so it seems like it's better value to stay overnight.