The Cost Of Travel In Malaysia 2025 - Our Detailed Budget Breakdown
Malaysia was a country that we initially thought we would only visit if we needed to fly out of Kuala Lumpur.
We figured we would spend a few days in the capital, see some cool landmarks and then fly out to wherever we needed to go next.
I hate to think of a world where that’s all we did in Malaysia.
Instead, a few months into our extended trip we wanted a bit of a shake up from the ‘typical’ backpacking South East Asian countries so we took a punt on Malaysia and ended up staying for 32 days.
I spent my birthday drinking tea in the beautiful Cameron Highlands (as someone from the U.K this made me very, very happy). We visited the gorgeous island of Langkawi, had some incredible local food in Ipoh and admired the colonial architecture in Penang.
Malaysia is now one of our favourite countries we have ever visited and we can’t wait to go back.
It is also very affordable, and is often (wrongly) overlooked in favour of the more ‘traditional’ backpacker destinations in Asia.
Malaysia was the perfect mix of what we already loved from Thailand and Vietnam (the hustle and bustle, the food and beautiful locations) and something that just felt a little bit different.
You have this wonderful melting pot of cultures in Malaysia which is heavily reflected in the food. Malaysia is much more curry based than some other South East Asian countries and we got to try some of the most incredible food we have ever eaten.
Hospitality is also well and truly alive in Malaysia, and everyone we encountered was so friendly.
We were in Malaysia for Ramadan and Eid which was a wonderful experience in so many ways. We have written an article about what to expect if you travel to Malaysia during Ramadan.
During our 32 days in Malaysia we spent 8,813 MYR or £1631.15/ $2036.41. This works out at 275.41 or £50.97/ $63.64 per day.
Prices are given in Malaysian Ringgit, then converted to GBP (our currency) and USD. The conversion rate has changed slightly from April 2024 to now in January 2025 (when we were there it was 6 MYR to 1 GBP as opposed to now when it is 5.5 MYR), however I have used the current conversion rate for ease and so you can see more accurate prices to help you plan your trip.
This does mean that we spent less than the figure given in GBP when we were there in April 2024, and we have given both figures for transparency at the end of the article.
All figures include two people, as by this point on our trip Joe was very excited to eat some curry and drink tea (a combination you don’t usually find together at home, but is highly recommended and something we will be doing back in the U.K).
Accommodation
We spent 3,890 MYR on our accommodation for 32 nights. This works out to be £713.03 or $888.49, or £22.28/ $27.77 per night.
We have our own set of rules for accommodation we book, like never staying in hostels. You can read about our accommodation checklist and why we have it in this post here.
The accommodation in Malaysia was generally really good quality, and we only messed up once with accommodation by not realising it didn’t have air-conditioning (it had an portable cooler which is NOT the same thing, but this wasn’t the hosts’ fault) so we made our apologies and left for a hotel.
That is why we have two places listed for the first 4 days in Kuala Lumpur, as sometimes stuff goes wrong and you have to count it in your budget no matter what!
4 nights at an Airbnb & hotel in Kuala Lumpur - 818 MYR or £149.92/ $186.93 (remember this was for an Airbnb & a hotel! The Airbnb was and the hotel was for 4 nights).
4 nights at an Airbnb in Ipoh - 373 MYR or £68.36/ $85.23
4 nights at a guesthouse in Cameron Highlands - 433 MYR or £79.42/ $99.02
7 nights at a guesthouse in Penang - 676 MYR or £123.94/ $154.53
3 nights at a hotel in Langkawi - 373 MYR or £68.31/ $85.17
(We then went to Singapore for a couple of days which we’ve written about here)
1 night at a hotel in Johor Bahru - 113 MYR or £20.62/ $25.71 (plus we got £10.72 cashback for this booking)
4 nights at an Airbnb in Malacca - 612 MYR or £112.19/ $139.88
4 nights at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur - 437 MYR or £80.18/ $99.97
1 night at a guesthouse near the airport in Kuala Lumpur - 55 MYR or £10.09/ $12.58 (we were only there for a few hours as we had a flight in the early hours of the morning so we weren’t fussed that there was a shared bathroom and a teeny tiny room - this is why it was so cheap!)
As you can see, the accommodation in Malaysia was actually pretty affordable!
Apart from the final night we had a private bathroom, a decent sized room and air-conditioning everywhere except The Cameron Highlands where the temperature is cool (ish - it is still Malaysia after all!)
We have written a whole article detailing what we do to save money on accommodation here (spoiler, it has nothing to do with credit card points or free stays!)
Transport
Our transport breakdown covers all our transport within Malaysia, but doesn’t include the cost of travelling to the country, or travelling to Singapore from Langkawi or Sri Lanka from Kuala Lumpur.
We’ve included these figures in our full budget breakdown of our 7 month trip which can be seen here, where we breakdown every single expense for the whole 7 months.
Overall, we spent 922 MYR or £168.86/ $210.54 for all our transport in Malaysia.
Our biggest expense in this category was our flight from Penang to Langkawi.
We spent 262 MYR or £47.98/ $59.82 on what we think is the shortest flight we have ever taken!
At the time we were in Penang sources online seemed to suggest that the ferry wasn’t running, however when we were there some places were advertising it.
Our Grab taxi rides came out to a grand total of 251.2 MYR or £46.13/ $57.41.
This sounds like quite a lot, but we actual took several rides including some that were more expensive like our ride to Langkawi airport at 6am which cost 39 MYR or £7.25/ $9.02 (we couldn’t get a taxi AT ALL, so make sure that you have one pre-booked if you are leaving for the airport in the morning!)
Bus travel in Malaysia is THE way to get around the country, with so many different routes for such an affordable price. We booked all of our buses through the redBus app, which was easy to use and we could add our international bank cards with no issue.
All our bus trips (all 5 of them) came out to 214 MYR or £39.25/ $48.85.
The buses were all good quality, with decent leg room and had very few delays.
We spent 41 MYR or £7.44/ $9.26 on our bus from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh. The Cameron Highlands to Penang bus came out at 61 MYR or £11.03/ $13.73 and the Johor Bahru to Malacca was 43 MYR or £7.89/ $9.82.
Entrance Fees and Activities
This is one of the categories where spending can wildly vary.
We are pretty budget conscious travellers, however we don’t see the point in travelling to another country to sit and do nothing (although this is something we have struggled with, see this post).
We also don’t feel the need to see and do absolutely everything, just because the internet and social media tell us we need to.
Like for example, even though we’ve been to Florence twice now, we still haven’t been to the Ufizzi. And you know what? We’ll probably never go.
It has taken us a long time to get to a place where we don’t feel we have to run round, ticking things off a list that someone else online has created for us.
Saying that, there are things we are interested in and love doing, so we prioritise these experiences when travelling.
We love churches and temples, we both have degrees in History and we love animals. We also love a good view and enjoy hiking. So anything that incorporates one or more of these things always piques our interest. Many of the activities we enjoy are often free, which helps keep our budget down!
We spent 480 MYR or £87.77/ $8.68 on entrance fees and activities.
We didn’t actually spend very much in Malaysia on entrance fees or activities. We weren’t too fussed about going up the Patronas Towers (the view of them from the bottom was cool enough) and most of our sightseeing in Malaysia consisted of going to the beach, walking around the cities, seeing cool street art in Penang and Ipoh and seeing the nature in the Cameron Highlands. All for free!
Our biggest expense in this category was the 315 MYR or £57.69/ $71.74 we spent on two tours during our time in the Cameron Highlands.
We possibly could’ve done both without tours (although the hike would’ve been difficult as we had no clue where we were going), however we didn’t have our own transport and as we were only there for three days we wanted to make the most of our time.
In the past we have had a love/hate relationship with tours, as somehow you always end up with people who are late, loud or just down right annoying.
I think because most people visiting the Cameron Highlands are interested in the nature, tea and hiking, the chances of ended up in a group with people you would run a mile from normally is drastically reduced.
Consequently, these tours ended up being some of the best things we did on our entire 7 month trip.
We talk more about the activities we did, where we stayed, what we ate and exactly how much we spent in the Cameron Highlands in this post here.
The only other expense in this category was the Sky Walk and Cable Car on Langkawi, which came out to be 178 MYR or £32.54/ $40.49. We didn’t go into the Eagle’s Nest as this was an additional expense and we already had a great view from the Sky Walk.
If we’d had more time in Langkawi we definitely would’ve booked to go kayaking in the mangrove forest, but we’d already booked our flights to Singapore. Next time!
Food & Drink
This is another category where you can go wild or be incredibly reserved.
We like to think of ourselves as mid range budget travellers within this category.
We love trying new food when we are travelling, as in our opinion it’s one of the best ways to explore a new culture.
Malaysian food also BLEW OUR MINDS.
We haven’t been to India yet, but from all the South Indian dishes we tried, we are beyond excited for when we do.
Combined with traditional Malay dishes, and all the Chinese cuisine, Malaysia is firmly at the top of the list of countries we think you should visit if you are a foodie.
In 32 days we spent 3,490 MYR or £640.88/ $797.58.
This works out to be 109 MYR per day or £20.03/ $24.92.
We ate mostly local food, however one small downside of going to a Muslim country during Ramadan is sometimes the local restaurants were closed. Most were open during the evening, although some remained closed the whole time we were there. Understandably around Eid most local restaurants in Kuala Lumpur were closed for at least a couple of days around the holiday.
This unfortunately meant we ended up ordering more Western food than we would’ve liked to, which increased our costs in this category slightly.
However, one great perk of travelling during Ramadan is the Ramadan markets. We stumbled across one on our very first day in Kuala Lumpur, and it was full of locals making their purchases of snacks, drinks and meals for when they were able to break their fasts in the evening.
The markets tended to start around 4pm, and we visited another one when we were in the Cameron Highlands to sample the delicious food on offer.
We have done a whole post about travelling in Malaysia during Ramadan so you know what to expect.
Depending on what we ate our meals ranged from 32 MYR or £5.85/ $7.31 to 140 MYR or £25.57/ $31.97.
The lower amount generally got us each rice and unlimited veg curry on a banana leaf, or Nasi Goreng/ Mee Goreng or another local dish. We also always got a iced tea or a fruit lassi.
The higher amount was for a Western meal at a ‘fancier’ restaurant in the Cameron Highlands for my birthday.
We tended to spend around 38 MYR or £6.94/ $8.68 for dinner in Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands (it’s called Singh Chapati, there is always a line so get there as soon as it opens at 6:30pm!) This was for a meat curry and a vegetable curry (I still have dreams about the mushroom masala), a huge plate of rice to share, and a hot masala tea.
In Kuala Lumpur we tended to go to the huge eateries that are called. We either got a grilled chicken skewer, rice and curry sauce or a dish like Nasi Goring or Mee Goreng, plus a drink. This again usually came to around 38 MYR or £6.94/ $8.68.
We could seriously write a whole post of what to eat and where to eat in Malaysia, so that’s exactly what we’ve done! Check it out here.
Miscellaneous
You will always need to account for random expenses when on a trip. Sometimes these small expenses actually add up more than you might think, so make sure you have room in your budget for them.
Our miscellaneous spending included buying a sim card, laundry and gifts of tea for family back home (plus a box for ourselves!)
Our total spend was 120 MYR or £21.94/ $27.30.
The sim cards are very affordable in Malaysia and we went with Digi at the airport for 35 MYR or £6.40/ $7.97 for
Our laundry costs were 39 MYR or £7.13/ $8.88 for self service machines. We didn’t really stay anywhere with laundry facilities so had to go to self service ones, but they were everywhere so this wasn’t an issue.
Our final cost in this category was what we spent on tea from the tea plantations we visited (two in the Cameron Highlands) including a few boxes as gifts. We spent 46 MYR or £8.41/ $10.47 on 4 boxes of tea and a big bag of iced lemon tea sachets from Boh (so good!) for us.
The Final Figure
So, that’s how we reached the grand total of 8,813 MYR or £1631.15/ $2036.41.
This works out at 275.41 or £50.97/ $63.64 per day for two people.
This was for 32 days, with time spent in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Cameron Highlands, Penang, Langkawi and Malacca.
Next time we go back to Malaysia we will want to explore some other parts of the country, like the Teman Negara National Park and the Terreganu region in the East. Maybe later in 2025?
What do you think of our Malaysian budget? Is there a country that you’ve visited that surprised you and you now can’t believe wasn’t on your radar? Let us know below!
