Traveling to Kuala Lumpur with kids can be a fantastic experience filled with adventure and family fun. Here are some tips from our recent trip to KL with our little ones that might help make your journey just as enjoyable:
- Budget-Friendly Accommodation with Airbnb: Consider booking an Airbnb for your stay in KL. It’s incredibly easy to find affordable options, and we managed to get a spacious, lux feeling 3-bedroom place for just $600AUD for 4 nights. The comfort of having a home away from home, especially with kids, was priceless. We all got our own rooms and the pool was blissful. There was a kids room (air conditioned!) lounges by the pools, and of course a full sized fridge (buttered pasta kids?) as well as a washer and dryer in your apartment. Our Airbnb host was also brilliant and was messaging me back anytime, even helping when my son had an ingrown toenail, offering to make appointments with the doctors for us if required. You can’t beat this especially for the price! During the week this street also seems to open up as a food street! We got some amazing food from here, just look for the stalls with eskies or refridgeration devices and ones where there is a line up is always a good sign. We got heaps of food here and the kids loved it – it was delicious and a super cheap way to get lunch!
- Navigating with a Pram: While getting around KL with a pram can be a bit challenging, it’s doable. We stayed in Bukit Bintang, which turned out to be an excellent choice as it was within walking distance to many attractions. Just be prepared for some bumpy sidewalks and occasional stairs. If you’re going down Jalan Alor (do it!) then best to bring a carrier. We did both, the carrier was far easier but sometimes you just cant be bothered carrying an additional 15kg in the heat after a day of sightseeing! We get it. So both work.
- Avoiding Crowds at the Science Museum: If you plan to visit the science museum in KL, avoid going on weekends. Trust us; it gets incredibly crowded, and it might not be the most enjoyable experience with kids.
- Get Grabs Everywhere: they’re so easy. We had picked up a sim card at Legoland (just outside at the mall) and once it was loaded things were easy. The best thing was the grabs. They are everywhere! Not like in Melbourne where you can wait a while, we found this system worked so great. The only place we had trouble was at Menara after dinner. We waited about 15 mins then realised we could walk home and we walked home in no time at all! Just remember to bring mozzie repellant!
- The KLCC shopping centre: It was ok… but honestly it was just a shopping centre. The prices for international shopping were the same as what you would pay in AUS when converted, and it didn’t hold much allure for us. Maybe if you aren’t dragging around 3 kids and a pram in the humidity you might have fun, but for us – it was the same as going to Chadstone! There was a lift in the middle for prams but the pram annoyed us. We found a good supermarket on the bottom level but it was super annoying dragging everything home again afterwards! We ate at a delicious Korean place in the centre – we were worried after sitting down that we were going to have to cook our own food but thank goodness they brought out the food already cooked after we asked and it was delicious! There were quite a few restaurants in there so you can certainly eat there no worries.
- KLCC playground: Between the KLCC shopping centre and the playground is where the best photos are of the towers! Definitely get someone to take your photo here it is the best spot! The water park at the playground I thought would be amazing after being in Singapore but it was just basic, so we dragged all our stuff there for no reason – we went back to the Airbnb afterwards for a swim instead! The kids had a ball on the playground though. It was MASSIVE! We walked home fine from there – the kids were pretty used to walking around by then!
- Batu Caves: Go EARLY! make sure you are there as early as you can as it is HOT. You need to pay for a sarong if you are female without pants on, and you get to keep it. Bring cash for this – it was about 15RM. We got a Grab out there and when finished got a grab home again. Both were very quick so dont order it until you are ready to go! DO NOT GET FOOD OUT. I can’t stress this enough. we know people who didn’t do this and unfortunately the monkeys are very used to being fed and think anything they see is theirs. It only seems to be the case with food as far as we saw (your watches are safe!) but the monkeys are a nuisance from the moment you get there. So eat at home and go straight to lunch, but do not eat there under any circumstances. They monkeys will jump on you and steal your food 100% of the time.
- Bring fans! We took a few different ones and I’ll put them all below (some include affiliate links).
- We got an 10000mAh Battery Operated Fan. You plug it in to a normal USB C charger to charge it up and this one lasted all day. The kids carried it around with them and it was absolutely necessity to bring everywhere. You can also wrap it around a pram to help put some airflow on bubba!
- We also got a 4000mAh Battery Fan too. This was the same concept and was smaller than the other one. Being smaller was good, but it also didn’t last quite as long. the kids liked this one and the 360 degree rotation was used heaps.
- We saw heaps of people with neck fans so after looking around we purchased some neck fans in Malaysia and while they were great and only 30RM, they only lasted an hour or so, and it was dependent on which brand you got how long they lasted so it was a bit frustrating. When we got to Japan next year I am going to get something like this instead – a 4000mAh personal neck fan. It’s the same as what we got overseas but this one looks far more reliable with over 37,000 ratings to a 4.3 average. So I would go prepared with one of these for the entire family if you can manage it! (see photos below – they’re nice and light and provide some airflow. We wore them everywhere.)
- The indoor theme park: is great for getting out of the humidity, and unlike KLCC the entire shopping centre is full of fake market type stuff, but all inside! If you want to shop in the markets but cant stand the humidity, this is probably the place for you! The roller coasters are fun and we went on them so many times. if you go during the week there is pretty much no line up. The kids thought it was great and we won back some brownie points after making them walk up Batu Caves and sweating!
- Food, food, food! Jalan Alor: Eat there! Kuala Lumpur is a food paradise, and you’ll find plenty of options for the whole family. One of our favorite spots was Jalan Alor, where we enjoyed delicious meals without any trouble. Don’t miss the golden rice, a favorite among the kids! We went twice and the food was phenomenal. There are hawkers who come and try to sell toys that light up for the kids while you are eating but they are very nice and not too pushy unlike in some countries. If you have a toy they leave you alone too. We did buy some purely to keep out two year old entertained! The 30RM was absolutely worth it to eat our dinner in peace. The coconut icecream is delicious as is the fruit, and the drinks, and the noodles, and the BBQ food! Basically its foodie heaven. We didn’t get sick here either and ate the food fine.
- Should we go to the Pink Mosque? (Putra Mosque): We did this on our drive (see blog post for how we got from place to place) on the way to KL. It was an amazing thing to see, it says that you cannot go in with young kids but we did and everyone was really nice. There is a little blocked off area you can go in as a tourist and it has posters around explaining lots of things about the religion which we found really interesting. Our two year old made way too much noise so we took it in turns outside with him which the other parent and the 9 and 11 yr olds went inside to feel and see. We found the Putra Mosque a really good experience – my 11 yr old girl was absolutely not thrilled to have to wear a robe, but did understand it was something that they do in their religion and put up with it. It was super hot with the robe on!
- Menara dinner with kids: Is it worth it? Yes! Yes it is expensive, but we had the most amazing night. It was 199RM per adult, 150RM for kids and 50RM for my toddler. Make sure you request the window table for the extra 50RM per table, it’s absolutely worth it! If you go on the weekend or on public holidays its a bit more expensive too so its definitely better to try and book this during the week. We booked the early dinner and it was perfect, not only to get our kids fed and out early, but to see the view with the sun up and then during the night. Was a perfect combination! the buffet stays in the one place, and you rotate around the outside of it. You will be finished in about one rotation – that was about perfect for us. It does get confusing working out where the buffet is! But that adds to the fun and we all had quite a giggle about it all. The kids went up and got food themselves and it was very welcoming for them. There is so many different types of food it’s a great fun night and we highly recommend. They have high chairs, and they also didn’t seem bothered by the amount of buttered pasta on the ground from our two year old! Any questions, let me know in comments, but it’s definitely a fun night. If you stay near where we did the walk home is easy too – take a grab there and walk home is my advice!
