Where does one start when they write their first blog? I wonder out loud who’s really waiting for that? But on the other hand, why not? Like Pippi Longstocking always says; “I’ve neve done it before, so I think I can do it.”
I’m a huge travel lover and I’d like to take you along with words and pictures, Malaysia with kids this time!
Every travel fan will surely recognize while travelling, thinking of your next travel now and then and your always in for nice travel blogs and cool destinations.
Last winter I was searching for airline tickets one sleepless night, for a destination we had not visited before. Somewhere in the world, a trip for two weeks. After searching a long while I knew it, it would be Malaysia. Let’s get this party started… will you read along?
Where do I find airline tickets and what does a trip to Malaysia cost?
I always write down multiple destinations that qualify. For us, this means areas without malaria, I search for travel distance by plane, available time to travel, climate and I look for tickets through Google flights, Skyscanner, Momondo and Kiwi. For this trip, we chose a direct flight from Frankfurt to Kuala Lumpur with Airliner Condor.
Why do I often book my travel through a travel agent?
Why would I book with a travel agent if I find organizing a lot of fun myself? Well for starters, because there happen to be two very enthusiastic travel agents in the company building I work at. They have bundled their talents and provide you with the best advice and service. It’s nice that everything is taken care of and if anything goes wrong, they will back you up. The main reason is actually very simple; I wish them lots of success and revenue. I really hope the job of travel agent isn’t a dying breed. It has proven before that there isn’t a lot of price difference between their calculations and mine. I search along for tickets and things to do because I enjoy to.
What does a trip to Malaysia with kids cost?
We don’t keep track of the smaller expenses while we travel so here is an indication:
- Flights € 3.000,00
- (2 adults, 2 kids)
- Car rental € 600,00
- 14 nights hotel including breakfast € 2.250,00
- Food, travel expenses on location and excursions € 1.775,00
- Grand total € 7.625,00
And you can expect this for the budget
A tropical island, beautiful warm weather, lovely locals, good roads, a large rental for multiple large suitcases, mostly 4 star hotels with a few nights stay at a 3 star establishment, an extensive breakfast every morning, every hotel with a pool except for the one in the jungle and dining out every evening at a restaurant.
We’ve done several paid activities such as: a boat trip through Melaka, multiple boat trips through the jungle, visiting a jungle tribe, a trip to the moss forest and the tea plantation in a 4×4 with driver, a visit to Orang Utang island, parasailing, massages and renting jet skis.
Our route looks like this
We arrived at Kuala Lumpur and took the rental straight to Melaka. A lovely place where we laugh out loud during our hysterical trip in a trishaw. Together with our driver we sing loudly.
We stay 2 nights and drive to the oldest rainforest of Malaysia, Taman Negara. The kids love staying in the jungle, between all the monkeys. We take lots of adventurous excursions.
After 2 nights we drive on to the Cameron Highlands where we take a rough 4×4 trip through the moss forest and the BOH tea plantation. We sleep here for two nights too.
Next stop: Ipoh for 1 night. There, we visit a couple of beautiful cave temples and the Orang Utang island.
We continue our trip to the island Penang where we relax for 5 nights in a luxury resort on the beach of Batu Ferringhi. Unfortunately you can’t swim here properly because of the jelly fish. We take a day trip to the nice Georgetown and we visit Kek Lok Si-temple, the largest Buddhist temple of Malaysia and we are loveing the Pinang Perankan Mansion Museum too. Of course we enjoy the many pools at the hotel. The food on the beach, the massages, playing on the jet-skis and parasailing.
Our trip end in Kuala Lumpur. Here we stay another 2 nights. A fun city where there is enough to see and do. We recommend the Batu Caves.
In total we have driven 1350 km during our trip.
Always fun: what went wrong on our trip?
We left with a 3 hour delay, arrived without suitcases, went without luggage for 5 days and one hotel didn’t have the booked rooms available. Not the perfect start when visiting Malaysia with kids.
The travel agency in the Netherlands helped us as much as possible and filed the claim for the delayed luggage and asked the hotel for compensation. Luckily we received compensation for the new luggage afterwards too. During a round-trip you can’t always expect everything to go perfectly. You can expect some bumps along the way.
These are the must do’s!
Malaysia is a great destination, when visiting Malaysia with kids you can surely not miss out on the following stuff:
- Trishaw ride in Melaka.
- Boat trips are always a succes, we made 4 this trip.
- The monkeys in the rainforest
- Visiting the jungle tribe
- The 4×4 to the moss forest in the Cameron Highlands
- Visiting Orang Utang island, the monkeys are most impressive
- Shangri-La Golden Sands resort on Penang was cool
- The jungle themed room in the Furama Bukit Bintang hotel in Kuala Lumpur. In the basement of the hotel there is a very hip, new play area.
- Heli bar with platform in Kuala Lumpur during sunset. The kids watched the sunset behind the window in the bar and we went on the heli platform too. The platform is accessible from 18 years old.
- Fountain show in the evening at the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
- Playing together in the back of the car during our routes.
Nice, child friendly restaurants in Malaysia
Luckily there are enough restaurants where you can have delicious meals when visiting Malaysia with kids. I’ve listed a few per destination:
- Melaka: Hardrock Cafe Melaka: Good food, nice service, the kids get colouring utilities, enough to see, often live music. When you sit outside you have a nice view along the water.
- Taman Negara NP: Restaurant Seri Mutiara: The buffet is no highlight, don’t touch it, but a la carte menu is good. Lovely sit too.
- Cameron Highlands: Restaurant Brasserie ’85 in hotel Strawberry park.
- Georgetown: The Mugshot Cafe: Delicious pastry, good bread-rolls, good coffee and a good atmosphere. The bagels taste very nice here.
- Romantic and good dining at the beach of Batu Ferringhi, Penang: Sigi’s Bar & Grill on the Beach.
- Batu Ferringhi, Penang: Long Beach Cafe: a collection of tourists and locals. It’s fun ordering food at the many stalls and all tastes nice. A bit of a food frenzy atmosphere but still good fun. There are lots of stalls in the area with different kinds of products, good fun strolling around in the evening too and a good place to find souvenirs.
Malaysia is a wonderful country and I would strongly recommend a trip to Mayalsia with kids!
This article is written by Charlotte. She lives with Bart and their 2 daughters Levina (10 yrs) and Guillaine (8 yrs) in the south of the Netherlands. As a child she was taken on many trips around the world, she studied tourism and has lived abroad for a while.
Together with her husband, they work hard to afford lots of trips for them and their kids.
What Charlotte says about her travels: “We want to plan our trip as efficiently as possible so we get to see as much as possible in the time we have with enough relaxing moments in between and also with the right balance between culture, nature, adventure, beaches, travel days and relaxing. During our trip we like to make the locals happy with things they can use. It’s the small things like toys or care products.”
Would you like to know more about Charlotte’s travels? Take a look on her insta account: travel_frankort
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