Tabin Wildlife Resort
Jalan Tunku, Lahad Datu 91125 Malaysia
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#1 of 10 Specialty lodging in Lahad Datu
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Tabin Was declared a wildlife reserve because of the large numbers of animal species inhabiting its forest, including several which are highly endangered. With a protected forest area of 120,500 hectares, Tabin plays an important role as a dedicated ground for the breeding of endangered wildlife and protected mammals in Sabah. Tabin Wildlife Resort offers visitor facilities and accommodation within the wildlife reserve to provide a comfortable stay whilst experiencing the spectacular Borneo flora and fauna.
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Property amenities
Public wifi
Free breakfast
Hiking
Walking tours
Airport transportation
Meeting rooms
Gift shop
Non-smoking hotel
Bar / lounge
Restaurant
Shuttle bus service
Outdoor furniture
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Air conditioning
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Non-smoking rooms
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HOTEL CLASS
HOTEL STYLE
Green
Languages Spoken
Malay
Location
40Car recommended
Grade: 40 out of 100
0Restaurantswithin 10 km
1Attractionwithin 10 km
Jalan Tunku, Lahad Datu 91125 Malaysia
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Tabin Wildlife Resort is a small collection of cabins located at the end of an extremely unmade road on the edge of fairly dense jungle.A small river runs through the resort and in the morning you can step out on your balcony and watch troupes of monkeys bathe and play. The cabins are extremely well designed and blend in with their surroundings. Central open-air restaurant serves excellent local food and western alternatives. Our guide was Alastair, and he and his team were extraordinarily quick at spotting wildlife (including a tiny warbler on a night-safari that nobody else would have seen). We saw many species of birds from Hornbills to Serpent Eagles as well as Civets and a Leopard Cat. The walk into the jungle followed by swimming under a waterfall was an absolute highlight. Lovely staff, both friendly and knowledgeable, and we can't wait to return!…
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Date of stay: September 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Perfect start to our trip to the rainforest. Lovely spacious cabin. Guides were v good. Air con is fine. The hill cabins are a little walk from the main reception but fine if u able. If not opt for the river side cabins as nearer the centre. Food Is fine Buffet style and will cater for vegetarians.
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Date of stay: September 2023Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip: Go for river cabin or ask for hill cabins nearer the centre
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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+1
Touring Borneo, this was one of the places we were recommended to go by our Travel representative at Audley Travel, as unfortunately we could not get into Danum Valley Rainforest Lodges. The resort is set next to palm plantations which I understand is the way it is in Borneo. This resort is unfortunately very tired looking and is in need of a makeover. Because of this rooms like the bathroom appears dirty and could do with a really good clean. The staff were all very friendly and we especially liked the afternoon foot bath and mud face pack. We saw a few animals like the leopard cat, different species of Civet cats, a Slow Loris and flying squirrel. Elephants were around the area but we didn’t see any. Our guide Ernest was great and he and the driver were very helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. We are vegetarians and they did cater for us but the food was all the same and not very flavoursome. However, we spoke to our guide who spoke to the chef and our last meal was just what we asked for. Great to go to a waterfall where we were the only ones to swim and it was very beautiful. No one for those with less mobility as you have to cross a river. I wouldn’t return. It’s a shame that the government hasn’t put any money in to update this resort. We were here for 2 nights and that was enough.…
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Date of stay: September 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
Value
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
Good Going on a tour is beautiful. The wildlife is great, the hike to the waterfall and the mud volcano was also very very nice. The issues sits more with the management of the resort. Bad - The choice of food was not good, not really with much flavour either. Every time chicken or fish combined with vegetables and rice. Too little variety for our taste. - The resort is very dated. Staff in the restaurant not really committed with the guest. - There was no plan with the tours. Every time the plan changed. - We were expected to go into the jungle, but we only drove along the border with the plantations.
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Date of stay: August 2023Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
It was a great experience. The nature is so lovely. When you stay in Tabin you get the feeling that we still can save the nature and the animals. The accommodation is very nice. Our guide Maui was great, special and kind. He told us so much about the habitats of the animals and he saw them so quickly. Because of him we saw so much different animals. A lovely stay, one of the best ever.
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Date of stay: August 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
+1
We enjoyed the scenery of the jungle, beautifull location. But the resort is in a terrible condition. Its a tourist factory with exhausted household, guides and chalets. No management at all on site. Absolut no value for money, it is very overrated. Amazing Borneo Tours made a mistake on our booking with the wrong chalets. They booked in februari "run of house" without consulting us. The resort can give any chalet available. We wanted the waterside chalets, as displayed online. We had hillside chalets with a lot of stairs. We changed the second night to Riverside chalets, this took a long time because of late check out other guest. We looked forward to a wonderfull experience but it was a unexpected, unplesant surprise. We payed RM3000 (600EURO) for two nights per person, by far to much. If you read this be sure you want to travel a long way to be dissapointed. Tabin is a wonderfull jungle with a lot of wildlife but be sure if you want to stay in the resort, or adjust youre expectations. There are much more beautifull places in Borneo, for example Danum Valley.…
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Date of stay: July 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
Value
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
We stayed for 2 nights and Tabin was the 3rd lodge we stayed at in Borneo. We stayed in Riverside Lodges which were large and clean if simply furnished. We hadn't expected air-con so that was a much needed bonus. We loved sitting on the balcony watching the macaques in the river and the Rhinoceros hornbills in the neighbouring tree...The food is hot, tasty and plentiful, if a little repetitive and limited in choice (always a soup, rice, a variation of green beans, a variation of pak choy, chicken and fish plus fruit and poss 2 desserts) But you are quite remote and the afternoon pastries were delicious.You also get free tea/coffe/water all day and a free water bottle to avoid single use plastic... Our guide was Alister, who may not have been the most experienced spotter, but he was delightful, caring and good fun as well as full of interesting information. He even let a leech attach to his hand so he could show us what happens! He also took loads of pictures for us at the waterfall and emailed them to us. The standard programme is quite full on especially in the heat/humidity. Our friends found the trek to the mud volcano quite gruelling - it was also disappointing as there was not really anything to see. However, we did love the swim in the Lipid waterfall ( bring swim shoes) and the mud pack and foot soak. Did we see a massive amount of wildlife? - Not really. That said we did see a number of orangutans (and babies), leopard cats (and a kitten), a civet, a pack of gibbons, lots of macaques, monitor lizards, various birds and otters etc. etc. The night sky is incredible as there's no light pollution and the rainforest sounds are amazing. I was shocked to read some of the other reviews. We had no problems whilst we were there and the staff we had contact with, especially in the restaurant (and Alister) were lovely. We were expecting something fairly basic and in all honesty the facilities were much better than we expected.…
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Date of stay: June 2023Trip type: Travelled with friends
Value
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Room Tip: Stay in a Riverside Lodge to avoid a lot of steps
Wear leech socks
Hire binoculars
Don't expect...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
2 Helpful votes
Helpful
Stolen 3600 dollars from the safe! When I put all the passports, I could not open. I called the staff once we were checking out, 3600 dollars disappeared! NEVER GO TO THIS PLACE! Horrible people, they just spoiled our impression forever of Malasya!
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Date of stay: July 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
Value
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
2 Helpful votes
Helpful
Response from Lindah Chin, Marketing at Tabin Wildlife Resort
Responded 4 weeks ago
Dear Mr Olga, We had conducted an investigation and checked the CCTV camera. On the 22 July (Day 3), Mr Olga stayed at Hill Lodge 2 requested to unlock the safe deposit box. Our admin and housekeeping came to unlock the safe deposit box at 9.48am while guest is in their room. Guest did not mention loss of money while staying with us, even during the check out time. We would have appreciated if guest raised this issue while they are still staying with us, our resort manager will surely investigate this matter immediately. We checked through the CCTV and found nothing amiss, we only received this complaint 2 days after guest left the resort. The resort manager had interviewed the housekeeping staffs also checked their belonging and found nothing suspicious. We value your input and aim to resolve any issues promptly.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
+1
We stayed here for two nights as part of a week of wildlife tours in Borneo. It was our favourite place of the three we stayed at, mainly because of the wildlife. When we arrived, our guide, Mawi, told us that a herd of elephants had arrived in the area the day before. Apparently, this was the first time they had been here in 18 months, so we were very lucky. This meant our itinerary was changed slightly but we still got to do everything we were expecting to, plus an additional wildlife drive. Mawi was very friendly and knowledgeable, and in addition to the elephants we saw lots of wildlife, including an orangutan, gibbons, monitor lizards, lots of monkeys, hornbills and eagles. Another highlight for us was swimming in the waterfall. But, if you're looking for 5 star luxury accommodation, then this probably isn't the place for you. We thought the accommodation was lovely. We had a river lodge, which was clean and comfortable, but it's not 5 star. The food is good, with more choice than some of the other lodges we stayed at. …
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Date of stay: July 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
The resort is set in the jungle, though we drove through miles of palm oil plantations to get there. The rooms were fine, though dated. The guides were extremely knowledgeable, but the staff often lacked attention to the meal service and few who spoke english.
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Date of stay: June 2023Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Value
Location
Service
Room Tip: We did not see much wildlife, except for birds. The palm oil plantation is very nearby, and the...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
ALSO KNOWN AS
tabin wildlife hotel lahad datu
LOCATION
MalaysiaSabahLahad Datu
NUMBER OF ROOMS
20
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Claim Your ListingTABIN WILDLIFE RESORT: UPDATED 2023 Hotel Reviews and 284 Photos (Lahad Datu) - Tripadvisor
Frequently Asked Questions about Tabin Wildlife Resort
Which popular attractions are close to Tabin Wildlife Resort?
Nearby attractions include Tabin Wildlife Reserve (0.00 km).
What are some of the property amenities at Tabin Wildlife Resort?
Some of the more popular amenities offered include free breakfast, an on-site restaurant, and a lounge.
What food & drink options are available at Tabin Wildlife Resort?
Guests can enjoy free breakfast, an on-site restaurant, and a lounge during their stay.
Does Tabin Wildlife Resort have an airport shuttle?
Yes, Tabin Wildlife Resort offers an airport shuttle for guests. We recommend calling ahead to confirm details.
Does Tabin Wildlife Resort have airport transportation?
Yes, Tabin Wildlife Resort offers airport transportation for guests. We recommend calling ahead to confirm details.