The Danum Valley Rainforest Lodge would have to be one of the best hotels we’ve stayed in and considering it’s in the middle of the jungle in Borneo, it’s that much more impressive. I’ll try and stick to the actual accommodation, food, service and staying experience for this review but you can find out more about the actual Danum Valley Tour we did whilst staying here in our Things To Do in Borneo travel guide.
First up, to get to Danum Valley Rainforest Lodge, you need to take a two and a half hour ride deep into the Danum Valley Rainforest. It’s about 65km, but most of it is on gravel road so takes a while. It’s a bit bumpy, nothing major so don’t panic. When we got here, all the staff were out and sang happy birthday, presumably that was for me. I tried to tell them they were a week early but they didn’t seem to care! Gave us some cupcakes and even candles which is rather impressive being in the Rainforest.
You check in at Lahad Datu, and when you get to the hotel you meet your guide and have a short briefing. The staff here are incredible and even if you don’t consider you’re in the jungle, the staff are equal to and better than, the vast majority of five star hotels in cities or beach resorts. We had some lunch, the food at Danum Valley Rainforest Lodge is probably the only negative. Some of it’s alright and actually pretty good, but otherwise it’s pretty much as you’d expect being in the middle of a Rainforest two and a half hours from any form of civilisation.
The room we had was expensive, but well worth it, large with two big beds and an open plan design that opens onto a massive balcony and view of part of the Rainforest. The bathroom is semi outdoors and only separated from the outside by the shower door. The shower is semi outside. There’s a small plunge pool which is nice, clean and good for cooling down. If you have a peak, you can see your neighbours, but they’re separated by some blinds so you have privacy. There’s not that many rooms but at this time it was full, mainly with Europeans, we were the only Asian faces apart from an Indian family and pretty sure they were from the UK.
The Danum Valley Rainforest Lodge has wifi, but it’s non existent and basically unusable. There’s barely a cellular network, you can get some data occasionally but even sending Whatsapp messages is hit and miss and takes a long time, if at all. Forget trying to send photos either via Whatsapp or email. Accessing websites is slow and basically not worth trying. If you need access to the outside world, don’t stay here. If you don’t want to be bothered and switch off, this is the perfect place. I don’t care about this, you don’t travel this far and wide and spend this much effort to get to a place like this and spend it glued to your phone. I’m just giving you a heads up that communication with anybody is difficult.
Danum Valley Rainforest Lodge has a nice large open plan design that melts into the local surroundings nicely. It’s very well done, and whilst the room we stayed in was expensive (over HKD$3,500 per night I think), it’s well worth it. I wouldn’t normally pay that much but it was the only room left and we had no choice. After staying a night at the shithole that is Lahad Datu, it was a welcome (MAJOR) upgrade.
There’s a washing service for MYD50 for a whole bag, they have some spa services, didn’t ask about them so not sure exactly what they are, and the food is included in your room rate which makes quite a big difference. There’s a small and mostly not that great gift shop with very limited snacks, clothes and knick knacks, and everything in the mini bar is free. Any drinks you order at the bar e.g soft drinks, alcohol) you have to pay for. They only accept MYD or Visa and Mastercard.
Overall, I can strongly recommend the Danum Valley Rainforest Lodge for a 2-3 r even 4 night stay. The staff are excellent, genuinely friendly, nice and competent. I saw an entitled up themselves Hong Kong expat family complaining about not getting a sprite for their stuck up teenage daughter, other than that I’d have to say all the guests, including us, seemed to be very happy.
For more information about the activities to do at Danum Valley Rainforest Lodge, check out our Borneo travel guide, particularly the Danum Valley guide, which goes into more detail about the actual tour and rainforest experience. Otherwise email us or ask us on Twitter.
