3-Day Cycling to the Tip of Borneo

Meet the orangutan of Borneo before pedaling along the beautiful coastal ride towards the western tip of Borneo. Go local and stop by several farms and fishing villages to get a taste of the life of the local communities and play a small part in the economy of the local community in Borneo. After the easy cycling ends at the fishing village of Sampadi, transfer to Lundu for a local lunch before a free and easy afternoon to enjoy the resort’s swimming pool. Dinner is at a delicious home cooked meal at a friendly local village home.

Lundu Rafflesia Resort

Meals: LD

After an early morning pickup from your hotel, we take a 45 minute transfer towards the Matang area on the outskirts of Kuching. We enter Matang Wildlife Center that houses endangered wildlife in large enclosed areas of rainforest and pay a quick visit to visit the orangutan as well as the sun bear residing there. At the cycling starting point, your cycling guides and bike mechanic will help you to set up your bike including testing out your bike, and for fixing your personal saddle, clips, bike bag or phone rack, etc. The cycling guides will then go through the safety briefing as well as checking on safety aspects such as helmets etc.

We then hop on the saddle and follow the long coastline dotted with isolated beaches and peat swamp forest. The ride is riding along mostly flat roads with a few undulating hills at the beginning of the ride and the subsequent quiet roads are frequently punctured by wooden / steel structure bridges crossing many crocodile infested estuaries. In one of the crossings, a traditional ferry is still being used. We can ride our bicycles up a unique car ferry to cross the one of the widest crossings in Sampadi. On the ferry, see how the local farmers and fishermen go about their daily life traveling on the lower plain of Sarawak.

With the tour support vehicle in close proximity, we ride past a series of sleepy fishing kampongs facing the South China Sea. We drop in a few kampongs with wooden jetty to explore the many traditional fishing methods used by the local fishermen and get a glimpse of their fresh catches.

We continue our rides to explore local farms along the coastal road. We can pay a visit to some of the farms including papaya, coconut and bee farms. With permission from the farmer, we will participate in the harvesting activities such as honey harvesting, coconut dehusking as well as plug & taste some of the fresh produce.

We finished this easy and relaxing 23km ride at our cycling end point Kampung Sampadi, a sleepy fishing village by the Sampadi River with a beautiful wooden jetty. We will then pack up our bikes and drive 30 minutes to the town of Lundu for a simple local lunch in the old town center. After lunch, we drive to the lovely seaside resort for a well-deserved cooling off by the pool, and enjoy the sunset by the beach.

Dinner will be served at a local community farm / fisherman house with excellent food from the home kitchen.

From your seaside resort in Lundu, we cycle along the coast lined with coconut trees before taking a 15 minutes boat crossing to the beautiful seaside town of Sematan. We then take a quick vehicle transfer to a local waterfall for an early picnic lunch. After the waterfall, we get back on the saddle to visit a local tribal longhouse. The last part of the ride is a cycle along deserted beaches and paddy fields to reach our last seaside resort.

Sematan Roxy Resort

Meals: BLD

After breakfast, we get on the saddle and follow the coastline for much of our time, cycling on a mixture of tranquil village backroads as we head to the picturesque town of Sematan. Following a crossing of the river mouth of Sungai Serayan Besar we arrive at Sematan where we visit the local fish market to check-out its fresh catches before continuing to a small waterfall that is great for a cooling dip in and is the perfect location for our picnic lunch.

In Kampung Pueh we stop by the Iban Selako Longhouse of Kampung Pueh. We may enter the longhouse to observe the daily ritual of the village folks, where the locals offer visitors with warmth and friendly hospitality.

After the longhouse Visit, we get back on the saddle for a final few meandering kms to our accommodation. Beautifully positioned in front of a huge stretch of unspoilt white sandy beach, sunset is usually pretty special here so time to watch the sun drop over the horizon and round-off the day with some delicious food at the resort.

The final day of the cycling tour is a trip to the Tip of Borneo before transferring back to Kuching.

Meals: BL

After breakfast we take a one way 32km ride along the recently completed Pan Borneo Highway to the Tip of Borneo, near the village of Telok Melano. This is KM 0, at the end of the western Coastal Road in Sarawak, where we can take a memorable group photo together. We will then transfer to Lundu for a seafood lunch. After lunch, drive back to Kuching and drop you back to your city hotel. Tour ends.

(Optional: There is an optionable extension of the tour by taking a further 30 minutes boat ride towards the Tanjung Datu National Park. At the National Park jetty, we hike 10 minutes walk towards the Park Quarter to visit the turtle hectare and enjoy one of the most pristine and exclusive beaches in Sarawak before we head back by boat to our vehicle.)

We will then transfer to Lundu for a final seafood lunch. In the afternoon, we made a transfer back to your Kuching hotel.

Our bike tours are fully supported by air-conditioned vehicles, so should you want to put your feet up, there will be a seat for you and a place to put your bike. The support vehicle also carries your luggage, as well as keeping you topped up with water, tropical fruit, and snacks.

Wearing a helmet is strongly recommended on all our biking adventures. Your tour leader will conduct a group cycling safety meeting on day one, as well as a briefing at the beginning of each day on what to expect during the day’s ride. Your tour leader is trained in first aid and emergency rescue but, to a certain degree, you must be responsible for your own safety while riding. For non-biking activities such as kayaking, safety measures such as life-jackets are compulsory and a separate safety briefing will be given before the start of each activity.

Meals and snacks are included as per the itinerary. We take care in our planning to include the best of Sarawak cuisine, including delicacies from a mixture of Dayak, Malay, and Chinese cuisine that all use local, fresh ingredients from the tropics. Some can be hot and spicy. We eat dinner together, Malaysian style, by sharing all of our delicious dishes. Alcoholic drinks are available at your own expense, but they might not be served in some Muslim halal restaurants.

We have carefully chosen the best available accommodation in different locations with friendly, local hosts. To ensure your comfort after a hard day in the saddle, we strive to offer a range of accommodation that is clean, comfortable, and represents the local culture. The type of lodging can vary depending on the location and what is available: a local tribal homestay, a jungle lodge, a national park cabin, a historical shophouse, and seaside resorts. Rooms are based on a sharing basis with double beds and if you are a single traveler, you might be paired with another traveler of the same sex unless you pay the single supplement.

The details of the number of cycling days, cycling distances, and difficulty levels for each tour are listed in the fact sheet. All our trips require basic fitness, preferably acquired through cycling. The fitter you are, the more you’ll enjoy the riding. However, we try to make our Sarawak bike tours as accessible as possible with the average cycling distance of 30-40 km per day and the longest distance no more than 70 km. Most cycling terrains are on paved roads (and limited gravel tracks) with some undulations.

Being on the equator, Borneo is generally hot (average daily temperatures are around 30 degrees Celsius) and humid, especially around noon. Therefore, we like to start our day early and rest at points of interest during the hottest part of the day. Short rain showers are fairly common during the mid to late afternoon but we provide waterproof ponchos for continuous riding, which can actually be very entertaining.

Once you have booked your tour, we will send you a pre-tour information pack that will have all the information you need to prepare for the tour, such as the packing list and joining instruction, etc.

Solo travelers are always welcome and those who would like their own room have the option of paying a single supplement. Otherwise, we will arrange for a shared room with another solo traveler (of the same sex) at no extra cost. If there is no roommate available, we will cover the additional cost of a single room.    

We include very limited corporate insurance coverage with minimum coverage. It is a condition of participating in a Paradesa Borneo that each traveler holds his or her own travel insurance for the duration of the trip. It needs to include coverage of medical expenses, emergency evacuation, personal liability, and accident insurance. You should email us a copy of your insurance coverage for our reference in case of an emergency.

The official currency is the Malaysian ringgit (RM). Foreign currencies are not generally accepted and currency exchange is only available in major banks, as well as larger hotels. Credit cards can be used only in larger hotels and shops. ATMs are widely available in cities and towns, but you’ll need cash in villages to pay for some extra meals, drinks, activities, and, of course, shopping. There will be limited opportunities to spend money whilst cycling through rural areas outside of personal items, extra snacks, drinks, and the odd souvenir. Tipping at restaurants and for local guides and support staff is uncommon. Should however you feel the staff/guides have provided excellent service you may wish to give them some form of gratuity. We recommend that you bring an equivalent of US$ 400 (in Malaysian ringgit) for incidentals.