Tampat do Aman

This was an amazing experience to stay at Howard’s place for tree nights! Our best stay in Borneo for sure. You don’t come here for luxury. We came for the amazing environment and live in the jungle. So beautiful place. And the owner Howard welcomed us so well and make us feel like home immediately! You can’t miss this place if you visit top of Borneo !!

Outstanding. Howard and his family are very welcoming hosts and extremely knowledgable about the local flora and fauna with their own mini nature reserve across the road from the camp. Sleep to the sounds of the jungles and awake to the golden sun. The beach is a short ride or a slightly longer walk and has good restaurants along it - the food is expensive at Tommy's and not as good as Annie’s, but if you want to use the broadband at Tommy’s you will need to buy a drink! A great spot and highly recommended.

Our family of 5 stayed at the Tampat Do Aman for 3 nights in a family chalet. We can’t speak highly enough about the hospitality shown by Howard and his family. The chalets, longhouses, and huts are in keeping with the jungle experience, basic and functional, yet they are clean and comfortable. Rustic walkways connect all the accomodation, spend time wandering the paths, admiring the massive mango tress and listening to all the wonderful jungle sounds. Highly recommend to those looking to connect with nature, learn about the Rungus people, and experience something truly unique.

We stayed in Tampat Do Aman at the Tip of Borneo for 3 nights in August 2022. We were on our journey around Sabah and that was definitely one of the highlights. We stayed in a fan-cooled chalet (one of three available there, there are also two family chalets). Tampat Do Aman is in fact a jungle-garden. It is a real maze of little pathways that take you to the common spaces (verandas where you can chill and meet other travellers), breakfast area, traditional rungus huts (not available for accomodation at the moment), Rungus museum (one space with really interesting bite-size info about local traditional culture), long-house and the vegetable garden (probably I have not mentioned everything). It is truly unique! As the place is a bit further from the beach Howard was giving us a lift to the beach and back to the resort – it was very convenient. You can also walk if you want. The coastline is a marvel! Long, sandy beaches, wonderful, warm sea (although a bit rough when we were there, but that made surfers happy). The area was visibly recovering after the pandemic but there were a few cafeterias and family run restaurants open (great food!), so having a meal at the beach was not a problem. Many resorts or diving/surf centres seem to be half-open, the staff taking the opportunity to do some maintenance work – getting ready for more tourists to come back (check for availability if you plan some diving/surfing before arriving). We definitely recommend giving it a try once you are in Sabah. If it is not for amazing nature, quiet, laid-back atmosphere and local indigenous Rungus people (really sweet and friendly) you should come to meet Howard! He is a fantastic character that knows Sabah inside-out and will share everything you need to know to make your Sabah holiday into a great adventure. He also has an impressive experience and fascinating stories to tell about his eco-resort (with sustainability and self-sufficiency as core values), social projects he and his team is involved in, and also current affairs of the area (how local people fight to preserve nature). Apart from enjoying the beach our favourite activity was simply having long, relaxed breakfasts and talking to Howard. Keep in mind it is not a 5-star resort, there are mosquitos, crazy tokay geckos (the sounds they make are surreal), mangos falling from trees and sometimes ants might invade your bathroom, but you get to stay in a jungle-garden in return and connect with, as well as understand much more about the place you are visiting than you usually do. And that is simply priceless. We have left the place refreshed and inspired.

We loved our stay at Tampat do Aman. Arriving there after being in the busyness of KK it was a very welcome break. Best bits: - Howard and his lovely wee family were incredibly welcoming and had all the local links and insights you could wish for. We loved having dinner with them (Howard is a great cook!) and they went the extra mile, calling companies to book activities and driving us to the beach each day. We joked that we wouldn't know how to manage without our holiday planner! - the chalets were a great balance between comfort and not imposing too many mod cons on a very natural space. This allowed us to enjoy the sounds of the lizards, monkeys, gorgeous birds, cicadas and the general buzz of the jungle space while still being able to get a good nights' sleep. - The ethos of the place is perfect and worth spending your money on! The family are part of the community and involved in setting up a local rugby team, organising beach cleans, have provided a lot of local employment and inspire visitors to learn more about Rungus culture (even a hut dedicted as a Rungus museum, super interesting!) and local nature. - the list could go on, but as a final thing, the BEACH! Both days we had the beautiful beach with its turquoise waters to ourselves in the morning. This was amazing and the beach never had more than 7 or 8 small groups on it later in the day. Great for us but also a sad feature of the impact of the pandemic. It has damaged tourism here hugely and so well worth visiting to build it back up again. A few thoughts: - We did a night in the long house too which was more basic but still a fab place to stay and they are building a brand new one too. It is more 'at one with nature' and so open to the unpredictability of nature... so might not be everyone's cup of tea but is fitting with the traditional Rungus ways which is fab! - The business was hit hard by the pandemic and so some repairs/up-keep have had to wait (e.g., some chalets no longer useable and board walks needing repair). But as things pick up again this will become easier. - Borneo is full of incredible wildlife and this place aims to exist in harmony with it, so come prepared to see the unexpected (both beautiful and a little scary at times!) around the grounds.

We had an amazing stay here, Howard the host was great, always available to help in person or via message. Gave us so much information about the local area and places to visit. He even brought out my mum a candle and cake for her birthday, very thoughtful and personal experience.