Best Things to Do in Borneo Island For Families With Children

Originally published on July 2, 2026 | Last updated on July 2, 2026

Explore the Best Things to Do in Borneo Island for Families with Children in this Life-Changing Wildlife Experience, and How it Led to Our Family Completely Rethinking Our Approach to Life, and the Education Grounded Not Only in Academics but in Real Life Through Worldschooling Trips.

After years of dreaming and planning, our family of four left for a gap year overseas in October 2023. Our two boys were aged 7 and 9 at the time and were beyond excited about the whole trip, which would take us to Central America, Southeast Asia, and across Europe in our campervan. But as avid David Attenborough fans, it was the chance to see animals in the wild that they were always most excited about.

​Destinations to Travel with Children for Real-Life Wildlife Experiences

With this in mind, we planned out a route that would take in wildlife experiences around the world to immerse them in nature and allow them to see things in real life rather than just reading about them in school.

We mapped out a journey that would take us to the wildlife-filled national parks of Costa Rica, the crystal-clear reefs of Thailand, Indonesia, and Mexico, the islands of Komodo National Park in search of the famous dragons, and the wilds of the Bornean jungle.

Before we left, I was filled with anxiety about how our gap year might affect the boys’ learning and their long-term grades in school. It felt like such a leap into the unknown. But as we found our feet during the first few weeks, I quickly realised that the learning opportunities as we travelled were so immersive, diverse, and captivating that they far exceeded anything they could absorb at a desk in a classroom.

​Immersive Family Travel Experience in Borneo Island

We visited temples, mosques, cathedrals, and shrines, and the boys met people of many different faiths. We wandered the stalls at local markets and took cooking classes in people’s homes where they learnt about the foods and traditions of different countries.

They explored caves, lakes, rivers, oceans, jungles, mountains, reefs, volcanoes, and desert islands – and saw all these ecosystems in real life, not just in a textbook. They went to an international school in Bali for a term, where they met other kids from around the world. And they also saw piles of plastic on beaches and in the ocean, vast palm oil plantations where rainforest had once been, and the real faces of poverty around the world.

It turned out to be the broadest education they could possibly have had.

But it was the experiences in the wild that really, truly captivated them. In Costa Rica, we saw sloths, swam in the bioluminescence, watched turtles laying their eggs at night, and saw a whole long list of animals in the wild that just blew their minds.

​Travel and Things to Do in Komodo Island with Children

Landing on Komodo Island and seeing the huge, prehistoric-looking Komodo Dragons was an experience that is difficult to put into words. The giant lizards were like nothing else we’d ever seen.

Snorkelling in Mexico and Komodo and learning to dive in Thailand gave us the chance to explore beneath the waves – the wide eyes of the boys as they spotted their first shark, quickly followed by a colour-changing octopus – were wonderful to see.

We visited elephant sanctuaries, animal rescue centres, reptile houses, nature reserves, and took (what by the end of the trip) felt like a slightly endless number of night walks to see giant insects (and the occasional nocturnal mammal here and there).

At every turn, we tried to cram in as many animal and nature-related activities as we possibly could – this was where we would stretch the budget to do and see things we might never get the chance to experience again as a family.

Best Things to Do In Borneo Island for a Family Life-Changing Wildlife Experience

And then we arrived in Borneo. This was one of the places that just absolutely blew all of our minds. And ultimately made us rethink how we structured our lives at home, and what kind of family life we all wanted moving forward.

Visiting the Conservation Center and Seeing the Orangutans and Sun Bears in Real Life

We visited the famous Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sepilok, and the boys loved seeing the orangutans and sun bears in real life and learning a bit more about them. It was, however, the stay in a remote lodge on the Kinabatangan River where the whole experience really hit new heights. ​

We opted to stay in a small homestay rather than the bigger lodges, hoping for a more personal experience instead of that feeling you sometimes get with bigger tours of being on a conveyor belt of visitors.

Our guide – who had previously worked with David Attenborough himself – was amazingly adept at spotting animals and birds at every turn. We felt genuinely at home with the family and wonderfully cut off from real life in our little rooms right on the edge of the muddy riverbank.

​3-Day Travel Experience in Borneo Island: Cruise and Wildlife Spotting Moments

Over the course of three days, we cruised the serene waterways at sunrise, sunset, and in the heat of the day in an attempt to fit in as much wildlife spotting as we possibly could during our time there. And the Bornean wildlife absolutely delivered for us.

I can still vividly remember the looks of sheer wonder on the boys’ faces when we heard the first pygmy elephants crashing through the undergrowth on the riverbank on the first day. When a whole herd emerged on the riverbank, it was mesmerising to watch them as we drifted on the water.

On that very first boat safari, we also spotted orangutans high up in the trees – something I’d prepped the boys not to expect to see in the wild, which made it extra special. There were troupes of Proboscis Monkeys swinging in the trees on the riverbank and various hornbills along the way, too.

On the night safaris, we were all slightly unnerved to see the glimmer of crocodile eyes in the dark everywhere, along with snakes coiled around branches over the water. Whilst none of us are bird experts, by the end of our stay, we were all starting to tune in to the calls of the vast array of birdlife along the river.

It was a complete nature overload.

​Reflecting on the Planned Family Gap Year, Carrying on Weaving Real Life Travel Experiences

When we got back to the lodge at the end of that first day, I cried in our room; these were the moments I’d dreamt of being able to give to my children. We’d always planned to take a family gap year and then return to our normal lives in the UK; my husband and I had both been able to take year-long sabbaticals from our jobs (that we both enjoyed) and the boys still had their places at the same local school.

But that evening, in a remote part of Borneo, my husband and I sat and reflected on how these kinds of experiences were worth more than anything else and how we wanted to make this the focus of our family life, not just a one-off experience. We started the discussion around how we could carry on weaving these experiences into family life going forward.

​Building Education Grounded Not Only in Academics but Through Worldschooling Trips

It was that moment in Borneo that led to our ultimate decision to reshape our lives at home. We’d seen the power of immersive learning, so we started looking at ways to blend these worldschooling trips with mainstream school in the UK to give the boys an education grounded not only in academics but also in real life.

We’d attended several worldschooling hubs on our journey across the globe and had been amazed to meet so many other families that were travelling long-term with their kids. And we’d also been so inspired by the myriad of ways in which these families made these lifestyles work for them and their kids.

Finding this like-minded community gave us a huge confidence boost that there were other ways of thinking about life and how we raise our children (and that we could actually do it!).

​Now Helping Families Find Adventure Travel Experiences Around the World

After much planning (and more frugal living to top up our savings), we both took the decision to take voluntary redundancy from our office jobs in the UK and move into roles that would allow us to save and travel more.

I now run a family travel blog focused on helping families find adventure travel experiences around the world, alongside a travelling Book Club that allows readers to explore the destinations from books with like-minded book lovers.

I have always loved organising travel – in our home life and through work – and am an avid reader, always finding ways to discover more about our possible travel destinations through books. Which makes this the perfect way forward for me. And more importantly, both are location-independent and completely flexible, which allows us to take bigger chunks of time away whilst still having an income.

​Finding Balance Between Mainstream Schools in the UK and Worldschooling Hubs and Wildlife Experiences

We’ve also managed to find a balance between mainstream school in the UK for part of the year, with worldschooling hubs and wildlife experiences built in too for blocks of a few months. For us, this is the ultimate education for the boys – the structure and stability of ‘normal’ school (with friends that they love) topped up with a real-world education on the road. ​

Both boys continue to thrive in school – consistently being graded as ahead of where they should be academically. But we also feel that the travel aspect of their lives plays an important role in their development; this is where they really get to learn other skills like resilience, adaptability, and empathy as well as a real understanding of the wider world and their place in it.

We want to show them that it is possible to dream up a different path in life – that it’s OK to find your own way of doing things.

Final Thoughts: Best Things to Do in Borneo Island For Families, Looking Ahead for the Destinations to Travel with Children for Real-Life Wildlife Experiences

As I write this, we are waiting to head out on a bear-watching trip in Romania, followed by three more months of travel that culminate in several weeks in the Galapagos Islands at the end – top of the boys’ (ever-expanding) travel wishlist.

Without those awe-inspiring few days on a riverbank in Borneo, I’m not sure we’d have ended up where we are now – living a much more adventurous family life than I ever thought was possible. We have such a short time with the boys whilst they are young; making the most of this time is – for us – our absolute main objective.

We are now focused on giving them a nature-filled childhood full of those moments of wonder we experienced in the wilds of Borneo.

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