Best Time to Visit Borneo

March to October

Months to avoid: November to February (northeast monsoon, heavy rain, flooding on Kinabatangan, many boat tours cancelled)

Recommended stay: 7-10 days

Plan Borneo for March to October. Give it 7-10 days. The window to avoid is November to February (northeast monsoon, heavy rain, flooding on Kinabatangan, many boat tours cancelled).

What the season gets you

• Semi-wild orangutans at Sepilok feed twice daily, watching one descend a rope with a fruit in each hand and studied indifference to your camera is genuinely arresting
• The Kinabatangan River at dawn is the densest wildlife corridor in Southeast Asia, proboscis monkeys, pygmy elephants, hornbills, and estuarine crocodiles all within a few river bends
• Gunung Mulu's Deer Cave is 2km long and 174m wide, home to three million wrinkled-lip bats that exit in a black tornado at dusk, tracked overhead by bat hawks