Top 5 places to visit in Malaysia

Malaysia, the fascinating multi-cultural country in South East Asia, is our most favourite country in this part of the world. We love the country for its compelling authenticity, intriguing cultural diversity, delicious food, friendly people, beautiful colonial architecture, lush green jungles and lovely islands.

We travelled all around West Malaysia in April and May 2013,  came back again a few months later, and then returned once again in April 2015. This is such an intriguing country that you really never run out of places to visit in Malaysia!

The following five spots are the top 5 places we highly recommend you to visit when you travel in Malaysia. We haven’t been to Borneo yet, so this list consist of places that are in Malaysia peninsular (or also called West Malaysia).

Places to visit in Malaysia 

1) George Town, Penang

The first place we arrived to in Malaysia in April 2013 was George Town. It didn’t take us too long to fall in love with this charming town. We stayed longer than we had initially planned and then explored the rest of Malaysia peninsular.

George Town is located in the north-west of Malaysia on an island called Penang. There is so much to do and see in George Town that you never stop exploring and finding new attractions of this unique Malaysian town. We’d say there are at least 10 reasons to visit George Town Penang. If you have been to George Town and have a favourite place there, that we haven’t mentioned, feel free to share it in the Comments. We’d love to hear what you loved most in George Town.

Watch our video of Unique Multicultural George Town above (if you haven’t done it yet) to see what we have seen in George Town. 🙂

If you’re heading to George Town and looking for unique accommodation, have a look at our review of these three wonderful heritage hotels.

East Indies Mansion

Ren I Tang Heritage Inn

Shanghai 1910 Heritage Hotel

Or check out TripAdvisor, Agoda, Booking or Hotels for other accommodation options.

2) Tioman Island

Tioman island is the most pristine and beautiful island in Malaysia we have been to.

Spectacular snorkelling, natural jungle trails, no crowds and no wifi. 🙂

Look at the amazingly clean greenish colour of the sea!

If you’re looking for tranquillity and would like to be surrounded by wonderful sea and nature, then you’ll love Tioman island.

It’s easy to get to Tioman. You can just take a ferry from Mersing and get off the boat at any of the ports on Tioman. We stayed in Air Batang, which had a small nice beach and quite a big variety of accommodation (50-120 RM/night). Soon we moved to Panuba resort which is about 10 minutes by walk from Air Batang. Rooms are 50-120 RM.

There was a very nice beach right in front of the resort, another beautiful white sand beach about 5 minutes from the resort. We walked every day through the jungle to Monkey Beach and were the only people on that beautiful golden sandy beach! Anyway, there were just a few people in the resort when we were staying there.

Monkey Beach

3) Cave Temples in Ipoh

There are more than 30 cave temples in the area around Ipoh, a town on the west coast of Malaysia. They are located on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Malacca.

These temples are one of the few most famous religious temples in Malaysia.

Surrounded by lush vegetation, the cave temples are important religious sites for Buddhists,  as well as cultural and heritage sites for the Chinese Malaysian community of Ipoh. All temples were built between 1900 – 1930 by the Chinese who had settled in Ipoh. The most beautiful temples are Perak Cave Temple,  Sam Poh Tong Temple  and Lin Sen Tong Temple.

Lin Sen Tong Temple

Lin Sen Tong Temple

When we visited Ipoh, we became friends with a Chinese Malaysian lady in the train and she later introduced us to her brother who was waiting for her at the train station. As there are still not many travellers who have included Ipoh in their travel itinerary, they were quite surprised to see us coming to explore the cave temples. They suggested we could do that altogether the next day! They helped us to find good accommodation and next morning picked us up at 7 am (they insisted on picking us that early!) and we were off to explore the beautiful and unique cave temples.

Drawings inside Perak Cave Temple

If you go to Ipoh, the best way to get to all the temples around the town is to take a taxi (unless you make local friends who will be happy to take you there 🙂 ) and agree on a price, depending on how many temples you want to visit.

Sam Poh Tong Temple

4) Kuala Lumpur

Even though we’re not big fans of huge cities, we did like Kuala Lumpur a lot. We found this city much more vivid and intriguing than the capitals of Malaysia’s neighbouring countries, Bangkok and Jakarta.

The capital of Malaysia was founded only in 1857.  It used to be a small Chinese village that later became a bustling city, where three cultures of Malay, Indian and Chinese residents meet.

You will find interesting historical sites, colonial architecture, green spaces, skyscrapers and a huge variety of nice restaurants in this fascinating city.

Out of all the places of interest in Kuala Lumpur, we liked Petronas Towers and Merdeka Square most.

We found the iconic Petronas Towers amazing. It’s worth going to see them during the day, then wander in shopping malls inside the Towers and later watch them glittering under the night sky.

The Merdeka Square is a vast square where the independence of Malaysia was declared in 1957.

There are many beautiful historical buildings to admire on Merdeka Square; the outstanding Sultan Abdul Samad Palace built by the British (that now holds Ministry of Communications, Information and Culture), the City Theatre, the National Museum of History, City Gallery and the houses built in Victorian style with skyscrapers behind them.

In the evenings, the square looks even more interesting, with all the buildings illuminated. And Victorian Fountain adds to the charming atmosphere of the square.

Petronas Towers in the daylight

Sultan Abdul Samad Palace

5) Mallaca

Charming multicultural Malacca is one of the most visited towns in Malaysia.  It’s a well-known UNESCO World Heritage site with rich trading history, situated 148 km south east from Kuala Lumpur.

Christ Church is one of the main icons of this unique town, together with the monumental St. Paul’s Church on St.Paul’s Hill.

And just like anywhere else in Malaysia, beautiful mosques are a big part of every day life. Melaka Straits Mosque, Masjid Selat and  Kampung Kling Mosque are the three main mosques of Mallaca.

The Malaysian Chinese community gathers in amazing colourful Chinese temples (the most interesting temple is Cheng Hoong Teng Temple).

Christ Church

Have you been to Malaysia? What was the best place you visited in Malaysia?

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