miuk

I've been there before on Maxis, it worked fine.

enelym1978

Yes I took Maxis and it worked perfectly fine. Cheap and easy at arrival level of KLIA.

ttyl

Hi all,

I will be traveling through Kuala Lumpur and staying there for 2 days. I'm planning to stay at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur which I saw is located close to the KL Sentral Station.
Any advice on sightseeing must dos? Are there any HOHO buses that would make it easier to see those locations? Any other general advice is appreciated.

Also, I will need to buy a flight ticket from KUL to SIN on a Monday, as I have a 10pm flight that departs from SIN on the same day.
How reliable are the trains from KL Sentral Station to KUL? How soon should I leave for the airport? Also, there are many airlines serving this route, which is recommended? I will only have a carry-on and a computer bag with me. No need to check any luggage. I was thinking of a noonish flight, giving me ample time for my late night flight out of SIN.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

miuk

ERL trains ("express" faster/pricier vs "transit" slower/cheaper) are pretty reliable https://www.kliaekspres.com/schedule/
Although the buses that depart from KL Sentral depart on time as well, cheapest option.

For KUL-SIN, get there 1.5hrs to 2hrs before on should be more than enough.

Not sure how much travel you have done on LCCs, they are pretty strict with the carryon weights. So if you're carrying alot, stick with the mainline carriers MH and SQ

IAN-UK

If you're at all price sensitive, take the airport bus to/from Sentral. Cheap, frequent, comfortable - but with something like a twenty minute penalty over the express train.

tentseller

Just curious: Is there still a luxury coach/bus service from KL to S'pore?

ftrichard

I would consider staying in the downtown Bukit Bintang area rather than Sentral because there's nothing walkable from the station apart from a shopping mall and the Brickfields "little India" area. If you really want the Hilton because of brand loyalty then you can get an MRT train from there to Bukit Bintang to begin your sightseeing. For a short, first, trip to KL I'd recommend the Westin where I stayed last week and is my go-to hotel in KL these days. But you may need a Hilton brand and the Doubletree is worse located.

From Bukit Bintang you can walk to the touristy nightlife in Changkat (visit Havana bar) and the Jalan Alor food street. Daytime walk through the Pavilion mall opposite the Westin through the elevated walkway to the KLCC park and the Petronas Towers. On your way back you can head past the KL Tower. Next, and it's a longer walk from Bukit Bintang but I did it, you can head to the "River of Life" which is a rejuvenated part of town adjacent to lots of colonial streets that haven't been razed to the ground where you'll find Merdeka Square, a mosque, Central Market, and China Town street market. That's probably it for downtown KL.

If you're more adventurous then take a Grab taxi (download and activate the app before you go to Malaysia) to the Batu Cave which can be a short or long journey depending on the traffic but is quite iconic for photos.

The KLIA Ekpres train from KLIA to Sentral is quick and reliable although at the moment it appears to be stopping at the Transit intermediary stations adding a few minutes to the journey. You can buy your ticket in advance online or using the Klook app and get entry by the QR code. When returning to fly to Singapore remember that there are two terminals and low cost airlines like Air Asia use KLIA2 so get off at the correct stop. As others have said, unless your hand luggage is obviously less than 7kg you may have some stress boarding Air Asia with excess hand luggage but YMMV and you may be lucky. Not much to choose between the airlines apart from that and the flight is very short. Doesn't matter which terminal you arrive at in Singapore because Changi is easy to get around. Also, I was back in Singapore in October and it appears you now complete the Singapore arrival card online using the MyICA Mobile app before you get on your plane so you'll save time doing this now otherwise you'll be doing it on your phone at immigration which may be irritating.

edsh

Has anyone used a "by the bag" or "by the kg" laundry service in Kuala Lumpur? After 3 weeks on the road my suitcase if full of unwashed clothes. The hotel will charge a small fortune - one T Shirt alone is $4 USD. I'm staying beside Suria KLCC.

nzed

There are luxury bus service operating again. Transtar and Aeroline are two companies that have the nice buses operating the route (sorry, forgot to quote the above post).

IAN-UK

not really an area you might find friendly local laundries. but if you look online you'll find any number of outfits that will pick-up and deliver at prices signficantly more attractive than hotel laundries.

you might try asking the hotel reception/porter/concierge about laundry services.

invisible

I usually wash t-shirts in a sink and hang them in the bathroom to dry overnight.

miuk

Not sure which side of KLCC you're staying at but looking at google maps, if you walk north into Kampung Baru there's quite a few self serve laundromats. In the past few years these have been sprouting up every where and are generally safe from what i observe.
https://goo.gl/maps/98gjMNrpuNAbmzYX7
https://goo.gl/maps/d4iJcj35JusmxwF7A

Closest i could see that is "by the KG" type is here: https://goo.gl/maps/3gfMfjZxfp1iiDzR6

ttyl

Thanks for the feedback. I prefer the KUL Hilton as it will have an easy and quickest ride to KUL. I got an early MH flight to SIN.
Some other questions:

• Any advice for getting a visitor SIM card for Kuala Lumpur, and if also possible to cover Singapore too? I only needed for ~3 days. I found on Klook a ~5$ SIM card by Celcom that I can pre-purchase and pick-up at KUL airport.
• To simply my traveling and sightseeing, planning to buy a Hop On Hop Off bus tour for 1 day, and another half-day trip to the Batu Cave. Hopefully that should cover most of the interesting places and keep it simpler for me.
• Can credit cards be easily used for purchases (food, transportation, souvenirs, ...) or should I get myself some local Malaysian currency?

IAN-UK

sorry, duplicate - the peril of using a phone!

IAN-UK

The Hilton is an excellent choice, cutting down on the transfer faff from/to the airport train. or even the airport bus (departs from a terminal under the station). It's also one of the nicest Hiltons, and one of the most reasonably priced

from Sentral you have a local train to the caves, and a direct LRT-metro line to to the central market (one stop);and to KLCC/Petronas towers.

Theres also another, newer metro line attached to Sentral, the MRT, which will take you directly to Batu Bintang, its night-life and shopping, in three stops.

Dont be afraid to use the trains and metros. they are fast frequent and comfortably air-conditioned.