West Malaysia and Borneo small group tour

Planet

Our West Malaysia and Borneo tour is a small-group, low-impact tour combining the famous sites with lesser-known, rarely visited ones and fully accompanied by local guides trained in sustainable tourism practices.
We believe that limiting our group sizes to a maximum of 12 persons reduces both the environmental and cultural impact on places and people visited. Furthermore, a smaller group means a higher staff/customer ratio and facilitates the imparting of information and instructions in both environmental and cultural matters to our travellers.

We consider that extending our destinations to some of the lesser-visited sites might go some way to relieving the pressure on popular hotspots and spreading the ‘tourist dollar’ a bit.

We also include visits to several national parks and protected areas thus contributing financially with our entrance fees and employment of local guides, boat men, drivers etc. For instance; Penang Hill, Penang National Park, Kinabalu National Park and the Kinabatangan Wildlife Corridor. In Sabah our group joins a marine flora and fauna protection project for a day on Dinawan Island and stays overnight at the Sabah Organic Tea Plantation. Other visits are to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, Free the Bears Project and the Rainforest Discovery Centre.

Last but not least we do our best to ensure that all accommodation used on the tour is small, low-key and employs genuine sustainable and eco-tourism tourism practices.

People

The emphasis with our inclusive meals is on authentic, local cuisine including street food, local cafes, night hawkers and markets rather than standard tourist fare. Our city tours also endeavour to include the street-life and local markets as well as the famous sites, with the intention of facilitating more genuine interaction with the local population. Our guests are encouraged to make purchases in markets, villages and local cottage industries rather than the usual air-con tourist stores.

Examples are a street food tour in Kuala Lumpur’s Kampung Baru, a visit to Moreton Village near Malacca, a city walking tour in collaboration with the Penang Heritage Trust and an evening hawker food tour in George Town Penang.

The tour is led by a fully licensed Malaysian guide with local guides added where appropriate. All drivers, guides and ground staff are locally employed and trained and fully licensed while accommodation used is locally owned and staffed.

Optional extensions are on offer to the Danum Rainforest eco-lodge in Borneo and a Sabah island resort employing sustainable tourism practices as well as schemes to assist the local population.