Top 10 Budget Travel Tips For Malaysia

Last Updated: December 7 2020

Malaysia is such a beautiful country, and the best part; it is super cheap. Everything ranging from food, excursions and transport seem to be really cheap which makes it the perfect country for backpackers and budget travelers. There is so much to see and do here, and there are also plenty of ways to stretch your budget even further. As with any country, Malaysia can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be. However if you are looking for a good budget getaway Malaysia is your place! There are so many ways to cut down expenses, and that is what this post is going to focus on. Here are our top tips for Budget Travel in Malaysia!

1. Avoid chain stores such as 7-11: 

Although 7-11 are good all-round shops, there are any more non-chain shops in Malaysia that seem to have better prices on food and drink. This may not seem like a big change, but spending extra on food every day when it isn’t needed can add up. The only thing we would advise you to get from 7-11 is a sim card!

2. Get a cheap sim card:

The sim cards in Malaysia are really cheap, and the 4G is great. We got a 30 day unlimited data sim card for 30RM (about £6) from 7-11 and it was the best decision we made! It gave us the chance to book grab taxi’s which tend to be quite a lot cheaper than ordinary taxi’s, and it let us access directions on google maps meaning we tended to walk to a lot more places than spend the money on transport. The best part about getting a sim card is that if you are in a pickle and are lost, you don’t need to pay extortionate data roaming charges! Woohoo!

3. Make the most out of the free attractions:

Malaysia is the best country we have been to in terms of attractions. Why? Because most of them are free! Yes free! Kuala Lumpur is also the best city we have visited in terms of free attractions. The Petronas Towers are free to go and look at as you please. They are right next to the KLCC park which gives you incredible views! The Batu Caves and KL Eco Forest Park are also must visits in Kuala Lumpur and they are also free. This seemed to be quite a common theme throughout Malaysia, as there were so many places that didn’t charge a fee. Even the attractions that we did pay for were ridiculously cheap. This makes Malaysia one of the best countries for budget travel!

We visited Taman Negara which is the world’s oldest rainforest and is home to an amazing array of wildlife. Before trekking in Taman Negara we had to pay the 1RM entry permit and 5RM photography license for each device that can take photographs. This means that for the entry permit and a phone/camera you will be paying just over £1! We couldn’t believe it! If you want to know more about this amazing rainforest click here.

4. Fast Food:

This may seem like an odd budget tip but we know the cravings that can come after living of Asian food for weeks. If you are looking to get your fast food fix Malaysia is the country to do it. It is by far the cheapest prices we found for fast food throughout Asia. For two meals in McDonalds, it cost us around £4.50 which is super cheap compared to the touristy areas of Thailand. Other fast food outlets such as KFC and burger king also seemed to have cheap prices in comparison to other parts of Asia we have visited.

5. Make use out of the transport links:

Transport in Malaysia can be really cheap, especially travelling by buses. Often we found that 4 hour bus journeys could cost us as little as £3-4 each. Malaysia is also one of the best countries in Asia we have seen for local public transport. Quite often there are public buses or free shuttle buses to nearby attractions that you should definitely make the most out of. This can cut your transport costs in half as it means you don’t need to book taxi’s or tours.

Georgetown is a great example of this! In Georgetown they have free shuttle buses called CAT which go around all the different tourist spots in this quirky town. They run quite frequently and are easy to find as the bus stops have CAT on the signposts. Our guesthouse offered us a free map of Georgetown which showed us the tourist spots and each CAT bus stop. This map was super handy so if you can get your hands on one, we would definitely recommend having one!

6. Street food isn’t always the best or cheapest option:

Malaysia often have night markets and street food stalls, and there are some pretty good options. However this isn’t always the cheapest way. In Kuala Lumpur we found we could get a meal in one of the restaurants/cafes away from the main streets for the same price that we would get a set of spring rolls. In some cases the meals were more expensive at the night markets so bear this in mind when looking for places to eat.

7. Try and avoid alcohol:

Like some other countries in Asia, alcohol is expensive here! It is even forbidden in some parts of Malaysia due to religion so keep this in mind. The alcohol here can be even more expensive than in Western countries so Malaysia is definitely not the place to drink a lot if you want to stick to a low budget. Even buying it during happy hour or in shops can make a massive dent in your budget. This is our top tip for budget travel in Malaysia! It can save you so much money.

8. Take advantage of the big supermarkets:

Malaysia often have very big supermarkets; we even found a Tesco in Melaka! This is the place to go if you are looking to restock on items such as sun cream, shampoo and other toiletries. The sun cream we bought in Melaka was so much cheaper than the smaller shops we visited. The big stores are also a good place to look at western snack food, food for lunch and some even have cafés and restaurants in or nearby. If you are looking to stay in Malaysia, and have your own kitchen or cooking facilities, supermarkets are definitely the place to do your big shop.

9. Work out different ways to travel between places:

We often found that finding your own way to travel between places was so much cheaper than tours who would take you. A big example of this is Langkawi. When staying in Penang there were so many options to get to Langkawi through tour companies including fast boats to get to the island. However they were quite expensive and we didn’t want to put that much of a dent in our budget. So we started looking at alternative ways to get to Langawi from Penang. It took us two buses and two ferries to get to Langkawi, and the journey in total including waiting times took around 12 hours. However we saved so much money! The total price of this journey was 80RM (around £15) for the two of us; while just the fast boat ticket to Langkawi from Penang for one of us was 72RM each (around £13). We had a total saving of 64RM (around £11). It may not sound like much of a saving but it all adds up. To find out more information on this journey, click here.

10. Use TripAdvisor Cheap Eats:

When looking for cheap places to eat, we found TripAdvisor to be a real help! They have a section called cheap eats and you can view it by your location. We found some really cheap cafes and restaurants with incredible food! In Langkawi we found a café that had amazing Indian food and we literally pigged out! We bought a full portion of Butter chicken which served the two of us, rice, naan bread, Roti and soft drinks. All this for £4-5 so of course we went back multiple times! Some of the other dishes were even cheaper!

These are just some of the tips you can implement into your travel to stretch that budget even more! Travelling through Malaysia can be super cheap and is the perfect country for budget travel! We spent a total of £765 between the two of us for 4 weeks of travel through Malaysia. That is roughly £383 each for 28 days of travel. We didn’t starve ourselves, we visited the places we wanted to visit and we had so many amazing experiences. We visited the oldest rainforest in the world, we visited a tropical paradise and we visited numerous tea plantations all for less than £400 each

Thank you so much for reading this post! We hope it has given you some tips on Budget travel in Malaysia!

P.S If you want to follow more of our journey, follow our Instagram at:
https://www.instagram.com/acouplescalling

Thanks,