There’s a lot of ground to cover with all the islands in Malaysia, but without a doubt the most visited destination is grand ol’ Kuala Lumpur (KL). Despite Malaysia being classified as a developing country, KL is quite the outlier, separating itself in feel and cleanliness from any of their surrounding neighbors (barring the prestigious Singapore).
Most tourist visits to Kuala Lumpur are for the shopping, cultural diversity, and to eat all those cultural diverse foods. It’s a fun place to stop over for a few days, so let’s see how much it’ll cost you for a quick visit!
| Category | Expected Cost per Day |
| Alcohol | $2.00 |
| Entertainment | $5.00 |
| Food | $15.00 |
| Living | $1.00 |
| Lodging | $9.00 |
| Travel | $9.50 |
| Grand Total | $41.50 |
Table 1. Expected cost per day for a four-day visit
Alcohol
The rather unfortunate downside of traveling in an Islamic nation is their alcohol laws. Alcohol is absolutely legal here, but it’s controlled and heavily taxed. In predominantly Islamic neighborhoods, the local convenience store won’t even stock beer.
Beers at the grocery store are fairly expensive so there’s little savings to be had there. If you do go out for a drink, expect a minimum of MYR 12 and up to MYR 20 for a beer ($3.10 – $5.15). There seem to be few bars scattered throughout the city. So when you do go out, I recommend you stick to the Bukit Bintang District where the vast majority of bars are all lumped together.
Entertainment
Ready to go shopping? That’s easily one of the biggest attractions in Kuala Lumpur with all their huge shopping malls. If that’s not really your thing, there’s a few temples, mosques and museums in town that are free or next to it.
Of course there’s the main attraction, The Petronas Tower. This iconic engineering and architectural marvel is probably not worth the ridiculous entry fee of MYR 85 ($20.34) but I had to go. Stopping in KL and not going on the Petronas Tower felt like visiting New York and not going up the Empire State Building. It’s a rip-off that you have to endure.
That green friendly building next to the Petronas is pretty impressive too
Food
If you’re not into shopping, then food is the main draw to visit KL. Malaysia’s Southeast Asian melting pot means there’s authentic and delicious food from all their neighboring countries. KL is a one stop shop to sample Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese and of course, Malaysian food.
The cheaper food joints are a fantastic deal and range around MYR 8 – MYR 12 ($2.06 – $3.09). With KL being a large economic hub, they sport some higher end restaurants that are worth trying. These meals can easily go from MYR 60 – MYR 80 ($15.45 – $20.60) but that’s worth it to experience the palate or eat at a world-renowned place like Din Tai Fung.
A couple of helpful tidbits. First, don’t expect to find too many pork-based dishes here. The large Islamic population here makes getting hold of pork rather difficult. The second is that if you like durian, Malaysia apparently sells some top quality product. So that might be worth checking out.
Or don’t. It’s durian after all.
Amazing food that lives up to its Michelin Stars but its disappointing because pork is such a large park in Chinese cuisine
Living
There shouldn’t be any large expenses here for such a short trip. If you feel like getting cell phone service and data, Digi was highly recommended to me. A sim card with ample data for those few days cost MYR 20 ($4.79).
Lodging
Hostels are still the cheapest option here and they’re not the most prevalent for a city of this size. The quality for the price isn’t anything special but they’re clean beds to lay your head for the night. Hostels in the thick of the downtown area start at MYR 35 ($9) and go up from there.
Travel
Unlike many of their Southeast Asian counterparts, KL has a fantastic public transportation network so you don’t have to shell out for expensive taxis. The monorail and the metro will take you almost everywhere you need to go in the city. Depending on the distance, prices will vary between MYR 2 – MYR 5 ($0.52 – $1.29).
Your only other significant cost will be the bus ride into the city since the airport is really far out in the suburbs. There are quite a few scams in the airport (warning signs litter the airport lobby) so make sure you purchase your ticket straight from the ticketing booth. This hour-long bus ride to downtown KL only costs MYR 12 ($2.87).
Monorail line will take you right to Chinatown!
My Costs
It seems to be a given that I always spend too much on alcohol. My living and travel expenses are higher since this calculates in my plane ticket and I had to get some visa work done here for my future travels. The particular item to note is my low lodging cost. I was lucky enough to have a few friends in town who were generous enough to host me for my stay.
This was a welcome change from the usual budget hostels
| Category | Cost per Day |
| Alcohol | $3.20 |
| Entertainment | $5.09 |
| Food | $15.23 |
| Living | $6.72 |
| Lodging | $2.04 |
| Travel | $22.91 |
| Grand Total | $55.18 |
Table 2. Actual cost per day over four days
Kuala Lumpur is a fun town for a quick visit or to possible live in, but other than the handful of sights, I wouldn’t recommend staying too much longer than three or four days. If you have more time, then I recommend a trip out of the city to places like Penang or the Cameroon Highlands.
| Category | Total Running Cost per Day |
| Alcohol | $4.54 |
| Entertainment | $5.29 |
| Food | $12.24 |
| Living | $1.95 |
| Lodging | $18.43 |
| Travel | $10.71 |
| Grand Total | $53.16 |
Table 3. Running total after 151 days of traveling.
Until next time.