Brunei Half Day City Tour with Royal Regalia, Istana Nurul Iman & Kampung Ayer

We were met my Aisha, who was delightfully friendly. Our tour guide, Nina, was exceptional. Her English was perfect, her knowledge remarkable and her charming yet professional attitude was compelling. Nina gave us an enormous amount of interesting information. As we had already done some of the activities on the tour, she was very flexible and immediately suggested alternatives which were not supposed to be on the tour. Since we were enjoying ourselves so much, we over-ran the tour timing - by about 3 hours! So a half day tour turned into a day tour, with Nina seeming enthusiastic about showing us moire, all at a minimal additional cost. I’m not much of a “tour person” but enjoyed this day enormously. It was very interesting and memorable.

This was an amazing tour. It was the perfect length - especially since I had a senior parent with me (who behaves much like a teenager at times). The guide was funny and chatty. She was also impressively knowledgeable: from how the gold domes on mosques are cleaned to the different paints used in imperial Asian kingdoms in the 15th century. She was also able to help us strategically navigate around several of the big tour groups coming through. I would absolutely recommend.

If like me you only have a sort stay in Brunei Darussalem, this is a great little tour. It was on a Friday so you cannot see inside the mosques (To note when booking your days). Hotel pick up at 0800 was prompt in a nice MPV van. Guide was very friendly, knowledgable and brilliant at best photos opportunities. The regalia museum was surprisingly interesting and well set out with a mock up of the royal palace entrance and reception room (you do visit the Royal Palace earlier but can only take pics at the gate) as well as some great photos through the years of the king and also houses his original coronation carriage and 25 anniversary carriage. The boat tour around the water village was good and included a walk round part of the village and a look inside one of the residents house with tea and local sweets. To note If you are less abled, getting on and off the boat would be very challenging (moving boat into steep steps). Great little tour around 4 hours that really did include some quality time at most of the main sights. Highly recommended.