Penang & C Highlands:Pls. help me with my travel itinerary!

Hi friendly people, I am travelling to Malaysia with my husband and 3 year old son on May 15th, and staying for 3 weeks. I have already booked flights and some accommodation but I am stuck for what to do / how long to spend in destinations in the middle, between 19th and 28th May...

We are leaving KL on Tues. 19th May, and we were thinking about going straight up to Cameron Highlands (by train?), staying for a few nights and then to Penang.

We have booked flights from Penang to Kota Kinabula on the 28th May. Then going to Singapore.

We would love advice on whether we should stop at any other destinations and whether we should go to Langkawi.
As our son is only 3, we are avoiding too much travelling and trying to keep it interesting and family orientated. So no clubbing or hostels!

Any suggestions on where to stay, how long to stay in Cameron Highlands and Penang (should we just stay in Georgetown?) and whether we should visit other places in the vicinity, would be gratefully received.

Thank you in advance!
Flissyflos

hello
Cameroon Highland is a very quiet and chilly place. It would be more towards relaxing like visiting butterfly farm, strawberry farm, jogging, visiting one of the biggest Tea factory and etc. 2 nights here is more than enough i would say.

As for Penang, you should visit Penang Hill, Kek Lok Si Temple, Batu Feringhi-watersports and night markets and most importantly, the local foods, it's famous for that.

Langkawi would be a good bet from penang too. Boat ride would take almost 3 hrs from penang.Depends on the weather, the sea could be choppy. You can put up a few nights there and enjoy the beach.

If you are going Kinabalu, try to visit Sandakan as well. It's famous for orang utan-a type of monkey that only can be seen in Asia.

From Cameroon Highland, probably you can visit Genting Highland.

HTH...Enjoy ya trip..

Hi flissyflos,

Camerons is a beautiful place where people retreat to from our hot weather. The place has undulating landscape of tea plantations and this is where you can have brewed tea freshly farmed from the plantations. However, the journey will take approximately 4hrs from Kuala Lumpur and the last stretch of road is windy and your child may get fidgety.

I would recommend that you journey straight to Penang by coach, (coaches are comfortable these days) or take a flight, MAS local carrier has offers as do Air Asia. Best to cross over to Langkawi for a 4 days stay, your family will love the activities available. Great place to relax and enjoy Nature.

Then you can head back to Penang, yes stay in Georgetown, for shopping, siteseeing and glorious food (Penang is the food capital of Malaysia). Batu Ferringhi ...stretch of hotels and beaches
You have to try the "char kway teow " at Mc Alister road.
Hotels and accomodation are plentiful...depending on your budget. Hope that helps.

LotusLyn33

[ Edit: Sorry, no promos please. ]

I 100% agree with rupart becos i was from Cameron Highland. this is a nice and quiet place to visit, some say is the perfect location for retirement. judge by yourself. And by the way, the only way to get to Cameron Highland is by land or car or bus to be exact. There are 2 nice hotel which is rated at 4 star which name Heritage Hotel, Tanah Rata and Equatorial Hotel, Kea Farm. Beside this 2 hotel, there are also many budget hotel around the town. Most of them are clean and nice. Just go shop around to make sure you get what you expect for. But remember, in Malaysia, you will always get what you pay for.

I would not say much about Penang. Becos Penang is a place where all the old building are..... Experience it yourself... this is another "must visit" when you are in Malaysia.

Oran Utan can be found at only Borneo, Sepilok to be exact. try to make a trip to Kundasan, here you can see the highest mountain in south east asia, Mt. Kinabalu. but is you were going to Sepilok, i would suggest you to take a flight from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan than rent a car or a tour agency to send you to Sepilok, becos it will take you 6 hour drive from Kota Kinabalu to Sepilok. For your info, Sepilok is before Sandakan if you are coming from Kota Kinabalu.

Hope this help u a little bit

In Penang it's worth visiting Cheong Fatt Tze's Mansion, a fantastic colonial style house built by a Chinese trader - you can stay there too, but it is fairly pricey from what I remember.

I think the Cameron Highlands are worth 2 days/3 nights, maybe more if you're into hiking. The tea plantations are particularly interesting and scenic. There are direct buses from Georgetown, but make sure you get a nice new express bus 'cause we endured a fairly evil 8 hours on a rickety one.

Langkawi is nice enough, and will certainly do if you want to catch a bit of seaside. The luxury hotels have nabbed the best beaches unfortunately, and I wouldn't stay for more than maybe 3 nights if you're not planning on staying at one of them, but for one day of sunbathing and one day of touring around the island you could do worse than renting a bungalow at Pantai Cenang. The crossing from Georgetown is fast and painless.

Really appreciate all your kind suggestions. I will let you know what I do!
Many thanks
Fliss

I just wanted to thank everyone again and let you know that my family and I had the best holiday. We started at KL, up to C Highlands, over to Langkawi, Penang, Sabah, Singapore and back to KL.

We found everyone we met to be so friendly and helpful, all the destinations to be safe and child-friendly, the food great and the weather was perfect! I will recommend Malaysia to my friends and hope to return one day. My 3 year old had the best time. His favourite bits were the plane journey (his first), the cable car in Langkawi, the Orang Utans in Sabah and swimming.

All the best to you all

Fliss