RichardInSF

I am thinking of doing a day trip to Malacca on my upcoming visit to Singapore, preferably by public transit. How's the best way to do this, if it's even possible? Price is a factor but not I don't necessarily require the absolute cheapest.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Edited to add: I googled this and it seems like rather a long trip by public transit. How about by rental car? Do I rent the car in Singapore or Johore Bahru? What is the likely cost?

opushomes

Why not just go to Queen Street and take the bus to Malacca? As an alternate take the public bus (in combination with MRT to Kranji) across the causeway to Larkin Terminal. Then hop on the next bus to Malacca.

Re: Rental Cars--Always rent in Malaysia as the price is often less than 1/2 that of Singapore rentals. The last time, a couple of years ago, I price rentals in Singapore (an only just out of curiosity), they were running about $90US. Do not be surprised if their use is limited strictly to Singapore. Better to rent in Johor Bahru.

Agneisse

Renting in SG is extremely expensive - I checked Avis for a Mon-Tue rental of a 1.6 Toyota, and it is S$140 (+S$40 charge if you enter Malaysia). Just rent in Malaysia. In this case I would suggest taking the public bus to Kotaraya as there are lots of rental car companies with offices tere.

If you don't want to drive, then Golden Mile Complex has lots and lots of operators doing direct buses to Malacca (among other Malaysian cities).

You may also consider staying over for one night in Malacca since two four-hour bus trips in one day can be rather tiring. Frequently the Straits Times has ads for "2D1N free-and-easy" trips (bus fare + hotel) that price for under S$150 (single) or S$100pp (double). [ballpark figures]

RichardInSF

You know, the last time I rented a car, it was much cheaper in JB than Singapore. But I just did a preliminary check of Hertz and Avis. One didn't even have an agency in JB, and for the other there wasn't much price difference.

More generally, if I'd like a day's Malaysia excursion from Singapore, one that was closer than Malacca and farther than JB, what would people recommend?

catper33

I don't think its worth trying to do in a day. An overnight would just give you a little more time and not have you spending so much time on a bus. Public Transport was easy plenty of choice although with the timetables check how much time you would have between arrival/departure. IIRC the buses stop by at the bus station on the 'outside' so its then a taxi ride/long walk (not sure about local bus) thus cutting down your time available.

opushomes

Despite planning to go to Palau Ubin, all 15 of us ended up going to a lesser visited part of Southern Johor Sultanate. It is nothing like the city of JB and has great seafood. Here is a description of how to get there.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...an-2010-a.html

Possible stumbling blocks are the wait to fill up a bumboat or the added cost to rent the remaining seats. One can alternatively take the three ferries a day from Changi Pier rather than from Changi Point and eliminate these risks at the cost of a higher ticket price and longer taxi ride to lunch. We had lunch at the Jade Garden Seafood, highly recommended by attendees.

jpatokal

Re: Pengerang, the area of Johor mentioned by opushomes, there's now a new speedboat service from Tanah Merah FT that eliminates the waiting-around-for-the-bumboat uncertainty... if you're willing to pay a bit more. Details at http://wikitravel.org/en/Pengerang. (And for any future generations that stumble on this, while the service definitely existed in Jan 2010, I give it about 25% odds of surviving until 2011 -- so call before you make any plans!)

And re: Malacca, I agree with catper that you'll want to stay overnight, or better yet, continue onto KL which is under 2 hours away. I would not recommend renting a car, since Malaysian driving habits can take a bit of getting used to and navigating can be non-trivial... but if you do, Hawk Rent-A-Car in JB is quite a bit cheaper than the usual multinationals.

dsgtc0408

As a local, if I were to go to Malacca, I'd do it by long distance coach (ie, the local equivalent of Greyhound or Trailways). Granted you get more freedom if you were to rent a car and drive up, but the vagaries of driving in Malaysia for those unfamiliar with the terrain basically makes this a somewhat dicey choice. As a FYI, one of the reasons why renting a car to drive to Malaysia is so expensive versus renting a Malaysia car is because the legal situation in doing this cross border is potentially messy and problematic. That is, if nothing happens, fine, but if there is an incident in Malaysia that takes place in a Singapore registered vehicle (ie accident, vandalism), it can take a long time for the issue to be untangled. That's why Sing registered rentals are rather expensive if you choose to take it across the Causeway (one of the Singapore/Malaysia road crossings). In any case the driving habits of Malaysians (especially the long distance truck drivers with their different lane signalling habits) is something that most North American drivers will not be familiar with.

If I was in your situation (and not fully aware of Malaysian norms), I would simply go to one of the long distance coach companies in Singapore that goes to Malacca, and buy a ticket from there. Ageneisse suggests Golden Mile Complex to pick up a coach to Malacca (this sounds right), Opushomes suggests Queen Street for a Malacca coach (not sure but potentially correct). These are both worthwhile starting points for you to start from. However (with all due respect to Opushomes) I would not travel to Malaysia via Singapore Bus Services bus 170 to pick up a coach in Johor (Larkin terminal) to go to Malacca - there's too many touts there - if you don't know how to handle them you're going to go 'around the world', plus you can't be certain when the bus/coach will arrive in Malacca since the drivers generally don't speak English and will take a rest stop before Malacca where you will not know where you are. Much better to pay the extra money, start from Singapore and know what time you arrive.

Finally, I would stay overnight in Malacca. Given that the bus (coach) ride is something like four hours each way, trying to do this all in one day is pretty unrealistic. BTW take note that the long distance coach terminal in Malacca is not in Malacca town itself but is a good four or five miles out from city center. Be sure to take that into account for timing and money purposes.

RichardInSF

I have driven in Malaysia before and am aware of the interesting challenges -- discovering that you really can fit 5 people on a Vespa being just one of them. Even on the North-South toll road, which is about the safest road in the country, we were nearly sideswiped intentionally by a bus.

I have been looking at Piai-Johore National Park for a day trip, anyone been to that?

jahason

I'd like to piggy back on to this thread. I m working in Indonesia and then will be in Singapore for a couple of weeks while my wife joins me for around ten days. I guess three days should be sufficient for Singapore and then she really wants to see Malaysia. My 6 year old daughter will be with us.

So there is plenty written about coachs to Malacca and KL but if I want to do both what is transport like between Malacca and KL. Is it easy to do Singapore-KL-Malacca-Singapore by coach.

I was thinking of booking Renaissance in Malaka using my Marriott points. Is taxi the best way to get there from the coach station?

Any other advice for the trip? Generally we are into museums, history and sampling local culture and food.

dsgtc0408

Hi, I'm going to leave it to others to respond to the points on sights and food. However, insofar as transport is concerned:

SIN-KL-Malacca-Singapore is definitely doable. Different long distance coach companies will go from KL to Malacca, then Malacca to Singapore. The good news is that interstate coach service within Malaysia (as well as Malaysia/Singapore) coach service is frequent enough that ordinarily you can just show up at the coach terminal and buy a ticket for the next coach out. However know that domestic Malaysia coaches will be a bit more threadbare than coaches run between Malaysia and Singapore - also that at some terminals, buying tickets, people etc for intra Malaysia service can be a bit like a rugby scrum, so eyes open!

Specific ideas: when at your hotel at KL, ask the concierge what bus he would suggest to Malacca. Note that there are a lot of terminals in KL so don't get them mixed up. On the other hand there's only one bus terminal in Malacca (unless something's changed - I haven't been there in a while), so you would have to go there for your Singapore coach. To get from the Malacca bus terminal to Malacca city itself, there probably is a city bus, but most likely you'll take a cab for ease and convenience. Just be careful you don't get ripped off, meters are questionable even when used.

hobo13

We did an overnight trip to Tajung Pinyang, Indonesia (24 hours to be exact). It was fascinating, but not for the faint of heart. Yes, it is on the island of Bintan, but the similarity with the resorts ends there!

RichardInSF

I ended up getting some sort of left knee problem which limited my mobility. So I did the hop on-hop off Hippo thingie for a day, something I normally would never do. It's a terrible value at $22 for a day and $33 for 2 days, and some of the staff could care less. The pamphlets also are, shall we say, overly optimistic about what is really provided.

I would recommend instead just using their free map and taxis or public transit between the various points.

lowjhg

I stayed at the renaissance last year where i had booked a non-smoking high floored room when i was a marriott silver, but the check-in lady gave me a smoking mid-floored room. Even though the lobby looks ok, the rooms are very different, imho not worth the points redemption. I suggest you're better off with the majestic hotel which is just opposite the renaissance, it has the same management as the RC and JW in KL.

Blackknight

Anyone knows which is the best car rental in JB and what is the cost per day ?

Thank You