The best things to do in Kuala Lumpur are the Petronas Twin Towers skybridge, the 272 steps at Batu Caves, the Islamic Arts Museum and a long night of eating on Jalan Alor. Give the city three to four days, come between June and August for the driest weather, and buy a Touch ’n Go card before you take your first train.
Kuala Lumpur After Dark
Kuala Lumpur runs three kitchens and one skyline. Malay, Chinese and Indian food traditions sit side by side here without merging, which is why a day can open with roti canai, pass through Hokkien mee and end at a charcoal satay grill after midnight. The towers are the postcard. The eating is the reason to stay. Below are the ten experiences worth your time (each mapped) plus where to eat, drink and shop between them.
Landmark· Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 50088 Kuala Lumpur
Cesar Pelli’s towers were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004, and they still set the shape of the skyline. The visit runs in timed sessions: the Skybridge that links the two towers on level 41, then the observation deck on level 86. The towers open to visitors Tuesday to Sunday and close on Mondays, so plan the week around it.
A limestone hill on the northern edge of the Klang Valley, with 272 painted steps climbing to the Temple Cave and a gilded statue of Lord Murugan standing at the foot of them. The Sri Subramaniar Swamy temple inside has been a place of worship since the 1890s and opens daily from 7am to 9pm. Macaques work the staircase; carry nothing loose.
The largest museum of Islamic art in Southeast Asia, holding more than 7,000 objects across twelve permanent galleries on two floors. The Architecture Gallery and its scale models of mosques from Mali to Uzbekistan is the room people remember. Open daily from 9.30am, last entry 5.30pm.
Viewpoint· 2 Jalan Punchak, off Jalan P. Ramlee, 50250 Kuala Lumpur
At 421 metres to the tip of the mast this is the seventh-tallest telecommunications tower in the world, and the one Kuala Lumpur viewpoint that puts the Petronas Twin Towers in the photograph rather than under your feet. The enclosed observation deck is the standard ticket; the open-air Sky Deck and its glass-floored Sky Box cost more. The tower stands inside the Bukit Nanas forest reserve, so the approach is through rainforest.
Landmark· Jalan Raja, City Centre, 50050 Kuala Lumpur
The Union Jack came down here at midnight on 31 August 1957 and the flag of independent Malaya went up on a flagpole 95 metres tall, still one of the tallest anywhere. The square is the old cricket padang: the Moorish Sultan Abdul Samad Building of 1897 on one side, the Royal Selangor Club of 1884 on the other. Everything colonial-era in the city is within ten minutes of it on foot.
Food street· Jalan Alor, Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur
Bukit Bintang’s supper street, known locally as Wai Sek Kai. The plastic stools go out at dusk and the grills run past midnight: stingray in banana leaf, char kway teow, satay, Hokkien mee, durian for the brave. Wong Ah Wah at the far end has been charring chicken wings here for decades and its queue is the one to join.
Neighbourhood· Jalan Petaling, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur
Petaling Street is the covered spine of Chinatown, and the streets around it are better than the street itself. Sri Mahamariamman, founded in 1873, is the city’s oldest Hindu temple, and the five-tier gopuram added in 1968 carries 228 sculpted deities. Madras Lane, a covered alley behind the market, is where the yong tau foo and curry laksa are.
Temple· 65 Persiaran Endah, Taman Persiaran Desa, 50460 Kuala Lumpur
A six-tiered temple on Robson Hill, among the largest Chinese temples in Southeast Asia, built by the Hainanese association and dedicated to Tian Hou, the goddess who protects sailors. Entry is free, the terraces look back at the skyline, and the courtyard is hung with red lanterns that multiply at Chinese New Year.
Park· 920 Jalan Cenderawasih, Perdana Botanical Gardens, 50480 Kuala Lumpur
The Bird Park keeps most of its birds under one net across roughly 20 acres of valley, which makes it a walk-through aviary rather than a row of cages. It sits inside the Perdana Botanical Gardens, which are free, open daily and hold the orchid and hibiscus gardens plus the Butterfly Park. The Islamic Arts Museum and the National Mosque are on the same hill.
Park· Jalan Raja Chulan, Bukit Kewangan, 50250 Kuala Lumpur
Nine hectares of lowland rainforest, gazetted as a permanent reserve in 1906 and the only patch of it left inside the city. A canopy walkway about 200 metres long runs through the treetops with the KL Tower directly above and office blocks visible through the leaves. Half an hour of it resets a hot afternoon.
Three days covers the Twin Towers, Batu Caves, Chinatown, the Islamic Arts Museum and two proper meals a day. A fourth buys a day trip to Putrajaya or Melaka without cutting the city short.
What is the best time to visit Kuala Lumpur?+
June to August are the driest months and November the wettest. Rain here arrives as a heavy late-afternoon burst rather than a washed-out day, so the hour you plan around matters more than the season.
Is Kuala Lumpur easy to get around without a car?+
In the centre, yes. Two MRT lines, three LRT lines and the monorail cross the city and one Touch ’n Go card works on all of them, with e-hailing filling the gaps. Pavements are the weak point: short distances often take longer on foot than the map suggests.
How do you get from KLIA to the city?+
The KLIA Ekspres runs non-stop to KL Sentral in 28 minutes from Terminal 1 and 33 minutes from Terminal 2. E-hailing takes about an hour from the airport, longer at rush hour.
What should you eat first in Kuala Lumpur?+
Nasi lemak for breakfast, KL Hokkien mee for dinner and roti canai from a mamak at midnight. Jalan Alor is the easiest single stop; Madras Lane in Chinatown is the better one.
Where KL actually eats
Best hawker stalls in Kuala Lumpur
Six stalls and kopitiams that outlasted the malls around them.
Five shopfronts in a row at the quiet end of Jalan Alor, grilling chicken wings over charcoal since the days when it was one stall. Order wings, stingray and butter prawns and nothing else.
The Hokkien mee corner at Jalan Petaling and Jalan Hang Lekir: thick yellow noodles braised in dark soy with pork lard and crackling. The sit-down branch is a hundred metres down the side street.
A covered alley behind the Petaling Street market where you point at trays of yong tau foo and it comes back in curry or clear soup. Curry laksa and chee cheong fun at the same three stools. Morning and lunch trade.
Hainanese kopitiam cooking since 1928, now on Jalan Kamunting: roti babi, chicken chop, kaya on charcoal toast, marble cake if it is still there by mid-morning. Closed Mondays.
The nasi lemak the Klang Valley agrees on: coconut rice, dark sambal and a fried chicken thigh with the skin still crisp. It sits in Petaling Jaya rather than the city proper, and it is worth the ride out.
The mamak default on Jalan Ampang: rice under a flood of mixed curries, roti canai off the griddle and teh tarik pulled at the counter. Pelita’s kitchens run around the clock, which is the point of a mamak.
Two Michelin stars and Malaysia’s first Green Star, on the 48th floor of Naza Tower. Darren Teoh builds a tasting menu almost entirely from Malaysian ingredients, several of them foraged.
One star for cooking that reads Malaysia’s three kitchens as a single tradition rather than three cuisines sharing a country. The bar menu is the cheaper way in.
One star, on the 51st floor of THE FACE Style on Jalan Sultan Ismail. French technique and Nordic restraint applied to Asian produce, with the skyline in the window.
The 34th floor of Menara KH is an ordinary bar until sunset, when the staff clear the furniture off the helipad above and the pad becomes the terrace. The edge is unfenced, so it is not for everyone.
Level 57 of Petronas Tower 3, which puts the Twin Towers at eye level across the gap rather than below you. Whisky lounge on one side, Italian dining room on the other.
Level 33 of Traders Hotel, built around the pool, with floor-to-ceiling windows framing the Twin Towers head on. The most reliable photograph in the city, and it books out.
The mall at the foot of the Twin Towers, and the easiest place to lose an afternoon to air conditioning. Petrosains, the science centre, is on level 4.
Bukit Bintang’s anchor mall, connected to KLCC by the covered walkway. Luxury on the lower floors, a food hall below and a street of hawker-style stalls at the back.
A 1937 art deco hall that started as a wet market in 1888 and is now a gazetted heritage building full of batik, songket and craft stalls. Open daily, 10am to 10pm.
The covered stretch of Chinatown’s main street, loud with counterfeit watches and dried fruit. Come for the atmosphere and the food either side of it, not the merchandise.
The largest wet market in Kuala Lumpur, on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman: fish, jackfruit, banana leaf, chillies by the sack. Trading runs from early morning to late afternoon.
The National Museum, opened on 31 August 1963, runs four galleries from prehistory through the Malay kingdoms and the colonial era to modern Malaysia. Open daily, 9am to 5pm. The best single hour on the country’s history.
In the Moorish former railway administration building on the edge of Merdeka Square. Songket, batik and the weaving traditions of the peninsula, in a building worth the visit on its own.
Contemporary Malaysian and Southeast Asian art over two floors of Ilham Tower on Jalan Binjai, free to enter and consistently the sharpest exhibition programme in the city.
Balai Seni Negara on Jalan Temerloh holds the national collection of Malaysian art, from the mid-century modernists onward, in a building most visitors never find.
The science centre on level 4 of Suria KLCC, built around the oil and gas industry that paid for the towers above it. The strongest indoor option in the city with children.
The tower district: Suria KLCC, the park, the five-star hotels and the best transport links in the city. Convenient, expensive and short on street life after the malls close.
Malls, hotels and the city’s densest run of night food, linked to KLCC by a covered walkway that takes about fifteen minutes. Jalan Alor and Changkat are both here.
The oldest working part of the city, around Petaling Street: clan houses, temples of three religions inside four blocks, and hostels in shophouses. The best value beds in the centre.
The Malay Agricultural Settlement gazetted in 1900, and still wooden houses and satay stalls with the KLCC skyline directly behind them. The Sultan Sulaiman Club here hosted the First Malay Congress in 1946.
The federal administrative capital, about 35 km south and reachable on the KLIA Transit line. Lake, bridges and monumental Islamic architecture, including the pink granite Putra Mosque.
Two hours south by road, and a UNESCO World Heritage city since 2008. Portuguese, Dutch, British and Peranakan layers in one small centre, plus the best Nyonya food on the peninsula.
About 60 km northeast and roughly 1,000 metres higher, which is the real attraction: it is cool up there. Buses run from KL Sentral to Awana, then the SkyWay cable car climbs the last stretch over rainforest.
Ninety minutes northwest on the Selangor River, where synchronous fireflies gather in the berembang trees along the bank. Boats go out after dark; there is nothing to see before it.
Thirty kilometres west at the end of a KTM Komuter line, and the Malaysian home of bak kut teh. Go for lunch, eat the herbal broth version, walk the royal town, come back.
Batu Caves takes the largest Thaipusam crowds in the country, over three days of processions up the 272 steps. Trains run through the night and the roads around Gombak close.
Jan or Feb
Chinese New Year
Lanterns at Thean Hou Temple, lion dances in the malls and Chinatown at its loudest. Many family-run stalls shut for several days.
1 February
Federal Territory Day
A public holiday in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan only, marking the city’s separation from Selangor in 1974. Concerts and fireworks in the centre.
Moves each year
Hari Raya Aidilfitri
The end of Ramadan, and the biggest date in the Malaysian calendar. The city empties as people drive home for balik kampung, and open houses run for a month.
May
Wesak Day
The Buddhist holiday marking the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha. Processions leave the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields after dark.
31 August
Merdeka Day
Independence Day, first declared at Merdeka Square in 1957. Parades, flags on every shopfront and a public holiday nationwide.
16 September
Malaysia Day
Marks the 1963 formation of Malaysia, when Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore joined the Federation of Malaya. A second national day, quieter than the first.
Oct or Nov
Deepavali
Oil lamps, kolam floor art and open houses across Brickfields and Little India. Temples along Jalan Tun Sambanthan run late.
Getting around
Kuala Lumpur transport & airports
How to arrive and move around the city.
KUL
KLIA Terminals 1 and 2
The main airport sits about 55 km south of the city. The KLIA Ekspres runs non-stop to KL Sentral in 28 minutes from Terminal 1 and 33 minutes from Terminal 2. The slower KLIA Transit stops at Putrajaya and Bandar Tasik Selatan on the way.
Every line meets here: KLIA Ekspres, MRT, LRT, monorail, KTM Komuter and the intercity ETS. KTMB electric trains run north from this station to Ipoh, Butterworth for Penang and the Thai border at Padang Besar.
Two MRT lines, three LRT lines and the monorail cover the centre, run by Rapid KL. One Touch ’n Go card works across all of them and on the buses. Stations are air conditioned and signed in English.
E-hailing has effectively replaced the metered taxi in Kuala Lumpur and is cheap by regional standards. Traffic is the constraint, not the fare: at rush hour the train is faster over any distance the train covers.
Coconut rice with sambal, fried anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and egg. The national dish, eaten at breakfast, at lunch and at two in the morning.
KL Hokkien mee
Thick yellow noodles braised in dark soy with pork lard and cabbage. A Kuala Lumpur invention rather than a Fujian one, and best from a stall with a scorched wok.
Bak kut teh
Pork ribs simmered in a dark herbal broth with tofu puffs and mushrooms, served with rice, garlic and fried dough. Klang, half an hour west, is where it took hold.
Roti canai
Flaky flatbread slapped, spun and griddled to order, torn by hand and dipped in dhal or curry. Mamak breakfast and mamak supper, for a couple of ringgit.
Nasi kandar
Rice under a flood of mixed curries, from the Indian-Muslim kitchens of Penang and served through the night in KL. Point at what you want and let them ladle.
Satay
Skewers marinated in turmeric and lemongrass, grilled over charcoal and served with peanut sauce, compressed rice cakes and raw onion. Kampung Baru is the place for it.
Curry laksa
Noodles in a coconut curry broth with tofu puffs, cockles and chicken. In Kuala Lumpur laksa means this, not the sour tamarind version Penang serves.
Cendol
Shaved ice with coconut milk, palm sugar and green pandan noodles, often with red beans. The correct answer to three in the afternoon.
Kuala Lumpur fact sheet
Kuala Lumpur at a glance
The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Malaysia
Region
Klang Valley, Peninsular Malaysia
Population
About 1.8 million in the city, around 9 million across Greater Kuala Lumpur
Founded
1857, as a tin-mining settlement where the Klang and Gombak rivers meet
Nickname
The Garden City of Lights
Language
Malay (Bahasa Malaysia), English widely spoken
Currency
Malaysian ringgit (RM, MYR)
Time zone
UTC+8, no daylight saving
Calling code
+60, area code 03
Airports
KLIA Terminals 1 and 2 (KUL), Subang (SZB)
Power
240V, 50Hz, Type G three-pin plug
Emergency
999, or 112 from a mobile
Interesting facts
Kuala Lumpur means muddy confluence. The city began in 1857 where the Klang and Gombak rivers meet, and the Masjid Jamek still stands on that junction.
The Petronas Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004, and remain the tallest twin towers anywhere.
Merdeka 118, topped out at 678.9 metres, is the second-tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa.
Bukit Nanas, nine hectares of rainforest in the middle of the financial district, has been a gazetted forest reserve since 1906.
Thaipusam draws about a million people to Batu Caves over three days each January or February.
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