Rustic Travel Reviews 208

Every detail of our holiday was carried out with precision, from being picked up on time to the guides going out of their way to give us the best experience ever . Joe organised the best to offer for our short 2 week stay. Countless emails were sent .. questions ranging from leach socks to currency nothing was a problem. Sabah is amazing and will hold a special place in our hearts, the people who shared their beautiful country with us were warm funny and very generous. Thank you . Love from the three hobbits Rochelle, Christine and Lyn. Hi Shelia xxx

Rustic Borneo helped us plan a trip to the Rungus longhouse and north to Kidat, and also Sepilok and Sukau. Both our guides were charming, friendly and helpful. Special mention for Adrian, for whom nothing was too much trouble, and who was permanently cheerful, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. We really enjoyed our trip. ( family of 5)

Very nice experience.
First our program was to climb Mount Kinabalu 2D1N, orangutan center and water rafting. But due to the earthquake Mount Kinabalu was closed from beginning of June to September (our trip was beginning of August).

We could easily change program to a nature trip in Kinabatangan and Sepilok Oranutan Rehabilitation Centre.
The reason I'm giving a 4 star instead of 5 is that we needed to buy flights between Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan to experience the new program and find new travels by my self. We were also able to the water rafting from the first program.

But now to the more important question. If I travel to Borneo again, will I contact Rustic again. Yes I will. We were very satisfied with the service.

Highly recommended. Great guide Osman who had lots of knowledge and enthusiasm. Driver was also great! Suggest you set up on Trip Advisor to share reviews.

We booked a trip to Turtle Island, Sepilok, Sukau and Danum Valley with Rustic Borneo; right from the start we were totally impressed with both the organisation and helpfulness of all concerned. Booking everything via email was incredibly easy and all my questions were answered promptly. The trip itself was fantastic and I would recommend anyone thinking about going to these areas to visit Rustic Borneo's website to see some of the amazing trips available. All the guides were extremely well informed, helpful and good fun!

Overall great, all pickups was perfect, our guides was fantastic, lodges excelent, best food!
We would happily recommend this company to others!

Rustic borneo helped me have a great stay at kota kinabalu. Properties suggested were very nice and served my purpose. Payment process was straight forward. Owners made sure that they come and see me to see if everything ok.

will highly recommend

We have a wonderful holiday planning experience with RusticBorneo from the start. Lots of courage and honest opinions were given by the planner named Joe; the suggestions given were excellent despite the back and forth email exchanges because of budget issue. We were lucky to have him as we had a wonderful holiday at Nexus Karambunai Resort. The services met every aspect of expectation with great guides that put safety first for the group; esp the diving guide to Mantanani named Leo. I highly recommend Rustic Borneo for your holidays.

Above excellent, everything was amazing.
Our itinerary was well planned out and went exactly as it was scheduled. Besides all the amazing scenery and wildlife, all the food was soooo good and every one of our tour guides was excellent. The guides were all very helpful with finding and describing the animals and patient to allow us all the time we needed to observe everything. Not to missed is Turtle Island, Sepilok and Borneo Rainforest Lodges.

I enjoyed the cooking class. We started with a tour of the market to buy ingredients. Next we went to the cooking school and prepared the dishes. The teacher was excellent and we learned a lot. The food was delicious and I enjoyed the local hospitality. The group was small and congenial. It was a good experience.

I had reservations of booking a family (2A + 2C) trip to Borneo online but from first email contact to our last transfer to the airport, everything went exactly as planned and promised! Joe was more than helpful with all my questions and itinerary changes during quoting/booking. It seems Rustic Borneo sub-contracts to other tour companies but it didn't seem to matter as everyone we come into contact with was brilliant and the small group style tours with knowledgeable guides gave a much more personal and informative experience. We can highly recommend a trip that includes, Sepilok nature lodge with a visit to the orang-utan and sun bear sanctuary a must, Lankayan island which was actually paradise, a trip on the Kinabatangan river is a good way to see wildlife up relatively close, Gomantong Cave is incredible and Danum Valley Rainforest Lodge is 5 star luxury literally in the middle of the rainforest. Thank you Rustic Borneo.

Thank you for very good compleated journey! Our stay in jungle was perfect from pick up to drop off. Thank you for your patience with long email exchanges to find us best solutions.

The journey itself was amazing. Borneon flora & fauna are worth to see. We saw more animals than we ever expected. Many thanks to all professional guides.

For almost two weeks ago we came home from our journey in Borneo arranged by Rustic Borneo Travel. We and our two daughers, 5 and 8 years old, came home with a big smile and loads of new experiences to share with friends and classmates. Everything went very well. Everything was arranged in a professional way, no friction in the handover between the travel companies, the guides shared a lot of their knowledge, the food was in general good with a very few exceptions and no one of us got sick at any time. The Malaysian people was very friendly. One of the highlights, except for Turtle Island, was to visit the Borneo Nature Lodge in Danum Valley. Fantastic place. However, it is a pity to see how much of the landscape that are dominated by Palm Oil plantation nowadays.

I can definitely recommend a visit to Borneo and the travel agency we used - Rustic Borneo. Thank you very much for a amazing trip!

We are very satisfied but have only a few complaints:
You missed to book a hotel in Kuta Kinabalu 23/12 but It was no problem to get a room.
We had appreciated a better variation in food (we had chicken morning, lunch and dinner)

Our tour was very good organised, all guides and buses were on time. The guides were qualified and took good care of us.

My husband and I arranged a private tour with Rustic Borneo. The tours they arranged were perfect, everything went smoothly. We totally enjoyed ourselves.
Would definitely recommend to anyone! In fact, already recommended to a few friends.

Well put togehter by Borneo Rustics
We had a great time, allthough quite busy with to little sleep.
Some learnings to share
- One nigh is enough in Iban Longhouse, compress the stay and reurn late afternoon the day after.
- Water rafting is fun and well orgnaised but can't be compared with Costa Rica
- Don't go for fishing, in Borneo you should watch them, snorkel and dive.
This is not complaint's only sharing - We a fantastic holiday, seeing a lot of wild life above and under water. Ending our visit to Borneo with some lazy days at Bunga Raya Resort - a really great stay.

Have recommended this Company to my friends already. From pick up to drop off and everywhere in between we were thoroughly looked after.

A pleasure.

Thank you
Mick

Rustic Borneo has really fulfilled all our expectations. They presentet a wonderfull programme taking our personal requests into account. Before departure the mail correspondence was great and our questions where answered right away. At our destinations the guides, arranged by different tour operators, always showed up at the arranged time and they where professional and very experienced. We would love to visit beautiful Borneo again and would off course book through Rustic Borneo! They have our best recommendations.

We had a great tour where we saw the nature of the rainforest and a lot of wildlife. The last two days we spent relaxing on a resort which was nice so we could digest what we have experienced.
Our guide (Adrian) gave us a very good service and he knew a lot about the rainfores and the wildlife.

I want to start by saying that our guide, Adrian Migiu was brilliant. He was informative without being boring, friendly while still giving us our space and a fun travel companion. Adrian offered information about the country, its people and wildlife and was able to answer our many questions. There was only myself and my mum in our "group" and Adrian made a welcome third member.

We did have a few problems at the start of our journey. When I booked, I presumed that we would be travelling solely with Rustic Borneo, one week before our trip, I received our updated itinerary and I noticed that there were other tour companies involved. This itself was not a problem but the co-ordination between the companies was.

Our first pick up was to go to Selingan Island with Seplilok Tropical Wildlife Adventure (STWA)- Our pick up did not arrive, the hotel staff enquired on our behalf and we discovered that they had gone to the wrong hotel, and yes, I had provided the correct information. That got sorted, but when our driver arrived we were told that we could not take our suitcases, only overnight bags. We frantically unpacked in the hotel lobby, so that we only had overnight bags, in the rush forgot a few things, but in the end, off we went.

On returning from Selingan Island we were to be transferred to Sepilok Nature Reserve by Rustic Borneo. They did not show and STWA kept trying to takes on a tour of Sandakan. Again we got it sorted and were transferred to Sepilok. We arrived there at 8:30am, our rooms were not to be ready until 2pm (the staff at SNR were great and got us into our rooms by 10:00) We had the day to ourselves so organised a tour to Labuk Bay for that afternoon.

The next day Adrian arrived and we had no more problems. On Day 6 of our 8day tour, Adrian left us in the care of Borneo Nature Tours who took us to Danum Valley. That transfer, at least, went smoothly, though we were sad to say goodbye to Adrian.

The last two days went smoothly and we had no trouble with our transfer out to Lahad Datu airport.

We did have a few hiccups at the beginning or our trip causing us a bit of concern, but they were corrected and did not spoil our holiday. These problems could easily be fixed through better communication between the companies.

Overall we had a great time, nothing was missed off the itinerary, the staff at all locations were friendly and helpful, the accommodation clean and comfortable and the wildlife amazing!

I would recommend Rustic Borneo, and I would highly recommend Adrian as a guide. Thank you for making our adventure so much fun.

Joanne & Jean