Helicopter Tours

Hi,

I%26#39;m due to arrive in Sabah in August and I%26#39;m trying to arrange something unique as a treat for my Girlfriend and I was thinking of something along the lines of a helicopter tour.

Does anyone have any experience of these type of trips? I can imagine it would be quite spectacular to view the forests and Mt.Kinabalu from the air.

The other question I%26#39;d like to ask is prices?

The only company I have found to offer these trips so far is touchdowndown

touchdowncollection.com/brochures/…

Is this pretty much indicitive to what I should expect to pay? I can understand the cost differences between 2 person and 4 person. Are there other tour operators that perhaps operate 2 groups of 2 persons to offset the cost?

I guess there is the advantage of having the helicopter booked for just the 2 of you.

Helicopter Tours

Hi Hoggig

I will also be in KK in Ausgust and was looking at something similar.

There is a good post further down regarding The Atmosphere restaurant and an informative reply from Paul Russell (also another Brit but I won%26#39;t hold that against him :-)). He explains that as part of a package deal the restaurant does a helicopter/dinner deal for Rm599 but we%26#39;re not sure how long the heli tour is? If you find out can you let me know as well, additionally if there are other helicopter tours.

The link supplied by Paul is http://www.atmosphererestaurant.com/

Regards

South Aussie Dave

Helicopter Tours

Hi Hoggig,

I was up in Sabah recently and celebrated my anniversary at Atmosphere Restaurant only to find out that they actually had a Helicopter package from most of the main resorts to the restaurant! Argh! The package comprises of a 6-8 minute helicopter trip to the restaurant and included a 3-course meal plus wine then back to your hotel by car. Nice surprise for your girlfriend?

I spoke to the staff there and they did mention that Touchdown is acutally part of the same company as Atmosphere Restaurant. My guess is that the rates would be indicative of the rates at the link you mentioned.

If we had left the planning of our anniversary celebration to me, I would have taken that package for sure! Oh well.... Enjoy your holiday there. It%26#39;s an awesome place!

Try Sabah Air in KK

http://www.sabahair.com.my/public/tours.asp

you will book via

intra-travel.com.my/tours/tourdetails.asp…

and to save time just email intra-travel at

enquiry@intra-travel.com.my

Helicopter travel is never cheap but it will be memorable esp if you have it for an hour or so and see the sights and Mt Kinabalu and Kudat (tip of borneo) and over some islands. No real point going inland past Mt Kinabalu unless you want to inspect the 11 Million Hectares of Palm Oil trees!!!

Cheers

Roger

Thanks for the replies. It was actually the post about Atmosphere that got me thinking along these lines. I was very tempted to book a meal and helicopter trip as a suprise, but visiting borneo is one of our great ambitions and it would be a shame not to take advantage on a unique tour, not that I don%26#39;t think Atmosphere would be a fabulous evening out.

I looked at the sabahair and intra-travel sites yesterday but they didn%26#39;t have anything directly relating to tours so I assumed that they had been discontinued. I will try emailing them for tour details and rates. A 1 hour trip such that roger decribes is exactly what I would be aiming for.

I%26#39;ll post back any news and details that I can get.

I am sure that you can email atmosphere and request a longer or more specialised helicopter trip and than end up there for some g%26amp;ts for sunset or something.

Touchdown has a helicopter site at www.touchdownhelicopters.com that you can check out as well - they offer trips to Mt. Kinabalu, Maliau Basin and to the Tip of Borneo.

Enjoy your trip!

Just thought that I%26#39;d update this a bit.

I%26#39;ve tried contacting, Sabahair, Intra-Travel and touchdownhelicopters by email but unfortunately none of them have replied yet. I will try and phone direct, but the time difference is difficult to deal with when working.

Has anyone had any luck contacting these companies direct?

Hi Hoggig,

Understand that last Wednesday and Thursday (30 %26amp; 31 May) were public holidays in Sabah - Harvest Festival. Hope you heard back since!

Sunseeker

I%26#39;ve just received confirmation of prices and tours from both touchdown and Sabahair.

Both operators appear to be quite comparable in terms of prices.

As an example, a 1 Hour tour via Mt Kinabalu is approximately 760RM per passenger. This however is costed around a minimum 4 passengers per tour so if there are only 2 persons travelling you need to pay the excess i.e 3040RM per Tour. I guess this isn%26#39;t unexpected given the cost of running a helicopter, it%26#39;s always going to be a bit of a luxuary.

I am still unsure as to whether the tour operator will co-ordinate their tours so that 2 different parties will be travel together and therefore lower the overall cost per party I have asked the question and await reply. For the moment however, I am working on the assumption that they don%26#39;t so if you are holidaying with just your partner I would recommend doing any budgeting based upon the total cost of the flight rather than the per PAX cost.