Growing in popularity as an international tourist destination, the seaport city of Balikpapan is located on the eastern coast of Borneo Island beside an inlet of the Makassar Strait. Balikpapan is regarded as the gateway to East Kalimantan Province – one of the country's richest provinces that stands out for its plentiful natural resources, such as timber, coal, sapphires and diamonds, as well oil and petroleum products.
As the main gateway to East Kalimantan, Balikpapan enables you to explore the region's unspoiled forests, which are home to rare and varied flora and fauna, from rattan vines and black orchids, to orangutans and honey bears. Balikpapan has a tropical rainforest climate, although the city does not have significantly wetter or drier periods of the year and average temperatures are nearly identical throughout the course of the year, averaging roughly 27 degrees Celsius.
From Balikpapan visitors have easy access to some of East Kalimantan’s top attractions, including: Berau, famed for its Batiwakkal Museum and Mesjid Agung Baitul Hikmah; MuaraMuntai with Mahakam Lake at its centre; and Samarinda, the capital of the province.