Hello,
I have been to Borneo twice,it is a fantastic country with so much to see and do.
Both times we have stayed at the tanjung aru. It really is a lovely hotel,not al all butlins like!!!!!!!!!.
It is a really nice place to stay,the rooms are really tastefully decorated,very spacious[we have stayed in both types of room,and the newer ones are better].
The food is excellant,plenty of choice
The grounds are very pretty,and there is ample room to sit,large expances of lawn . The seaview rooms all look over the 5 islands,and you have a beautiful sunset every evening.
There is a small beach by the hotel,and you can easily catch boats over to the islands which are fantastic.
We have visited the rasa ria twice,mainly to see the orangutans in their reserve .We stayed there for the whole day,it is also a lovely hotel,and the beach is amazing, but it is so far from anywhere, unlike the tanjung aru where you are only 10 mins from the town,you can also walk up the road from the tanjung,and find a few good eating places.
You must climb the mountain ,and go white water rafting,both are brilliant fun,and a bit of a challenge.
I could go on about Borneo for ages,its a fasinating place.
If you need any more info just ask
sue

Nothing like Butlins (although I've never been to a holiday camp)! Lovely hotel with excellent grounds and near islands for snorkelling. Also less than 10 mins from KK which I visited every day (I'd go stir crazy otherwise).

Tanjung Aru like Butlins...no way! Great hotels with easy access to KK for alternative eats and easy access to islands of the maritime national park which have some great beaches. I preferred it to the Rasa Ria which I felt was a bit remote

Nicksmiff,
also take a look at Nexus Resort, its a lovely hotel with top class service, but thats the norm anyway in that part of the world.
A good excursion is the Orangutans at Sepilok.

hi
is it sarawak that you are going to? (main city kuching)
i went a couple of years ago & stayed at the holiday inn damai lagoon - it was fantastic & wasnt the most expensive but was like 5 star i went with a girlfriend & got it as a real cheapie when i was living in perth west oz.( cost about £ 110 each at the time for 10 days) we met a few people who were staying at the rasa risa & they all said it was absolutely gorgeous. dont worry about distance - taxis are cheap & easy to get. i LOVED borneo & esp visiting the orang utan sanctuary. the rasa has its own but theres another you can visit just outside kuching) kuching hasnt got loads of bars & resteraunts compared to a lot of other places you may go but still loved it & spent a couple of days there sitting in a little low key bar/resteraunt right on the river watching life go by.
its the scenery & wildlife & fauna ( butterflies & orangs esp) that just make the place fantastic. it was brilliant just to relax there but enough to do esp if you are into flora & fauna etc. i think it will be a lovely place for a honeymoon & as said the standard of hotels there is amazing compared to a lot of countries, im sure the damai lagoon was rated 3 star by our oz travel company but it was definitely like a 5 star in my books - beautiful.

We stayed at the Rasa Ria last year and preferred its location to that of the Tanjung Aru becuase of its almost endless beach and fabulous jungle surroundings.

It IS a long way (about 20-30 minutes drive) from KK, but the hotel itself has a good choice of what we thought were very reasonably-priced restaurants and all the major excursions pick up from the hotel, so we didn't miss being in town. Mind you, we'd just spent the previous 5 nights in KL, so we were pretty much shopped and citied out by the time we went to Borneo and just wanted somewhere where we could relax in beautiful surroundings and take a few day trips from.

This is a link to some of the photos we took around the hotel and on some of our trips out -

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/xenosinmalaysia/my_photos

Hi, just reading the thread and nicksmiff's post could almost have been written by me - exactly the same plans, ages and likes!

Both hotels look fantastic, but could a couple of the experienced people give me some information about the island in general:-

- What is the weather like in May/June? - Brochures vary, some suggesting 10in of rainfall, which is a lot.
- Would you advise eating outside the hotels? (We were in Cambodia at the start of the year and I unfortunately contracted food poisoning, so have become a little more cautious...)

xenos - your photo's look lovely.

nick - when are you going, and what's on your itinerary so far...and who are you booking through?

Cheers guys,

M.

I haven't been but we have thought about it. One thing I was told is that you can't escape the rain and are best to go armed with waterproofs. After it is an equatorial climate and you need plenty of rain for the lush jungle! I will see if I can pull up some more threads from people who have been there for the two of you.

Borneo report here
more here

Wow thanks Fiona - didn't expect such a prompt reply.

Not surprised re: rain, but I'm guessing it's something you just let happen to you and don't worry about it.

Hi we have been in april both times and have had excellant weather, it rained in the evenings on some days.
It is quite safe to eat outside the hotels,my stomach is not very strong, i was ill in turkey,and minorca,but i have never been poorly once in all our travels in asia

Like suziuno, we were there in April and had pretty good weather. I understand that it does rain more in May, but at least it's warm rain and it's usually fairly predictable, happening at the same time each day (late afternoon for us both in Borneo last year and Langkawi a few years ago).

Because of where we were staying, we only ate outside the hotel a few times, but if we'd been staying in KK town itself we wouldn't have had any qualms about eating in the local restaurants every night.

When we visited in Feb we had a lot of rain and according to the stats that was supposed to one of the drier months, but we quite enjoyed sitting on our balcony reading a book watching the rain chuck it down. We did trips in it...its only water and its warm (until you go in dripping wet into an air conditioned environment). I suppose since Borneo used to be covered in rain forest you have to expect a bit of the wet stuff.

OK, narrowed it down to the Tanjung Aru or the Nexus.

Tanjung looks that bit nicer, and the courtesy bus to Rasa Ria, but the Nexus has the better beach.

What does everyone recommend?

PS - we're having the same dilemmas for the other hotels...will be more than one thread!!!

The islands just off the Tanjung Aru have excellent beaches and coral reefs. However they are not part of the hotel so are limited facility wise. Mind you we often found we had the beach to ourself, and we used to make a picnic from our hotel room service breakfast. The islands are only a few minutes by the hotel speed boat...the boat service takes you there and arranges a time to bring you back...if the weather turns then they will pick you up early

We're all decided and about to book...we have gone for the Tanjung, but both the quotes we've got show a huge difference between R.O. and B&B - at least GBP-8 each.

Anyone been there who can tell me whether it's worth paying up-front - we're doubting it'll be that much, but it'd be nice to be sure.

Thanks,

Martin

When we visited we had paid up front for our breakfasts. Most days we had it delivered by room service (no extra charge when we were there). Breakfast was so large that we kept some of it back when we visited the islands.

Remember though no bacon...just substitutes like turkey ham or beef bacon.