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13 Hour layover in KL, never visited city before, ideas?
I have searched this topic but haven't found any 'recent' answers.
We are flying B/class from Brisbane to Beijing, November 1, with 13 hours in KL. We leave Brisbane at 11.30pm and is 'only' an 8 hour flight to KL, so we shouldn't be too 'wiped out' on arrival. I will probably book a 12 hour block at the Sama Sama hotel in the airport, as it will be nice to shower, change and leave our cabin luggage etc. in the room. Firstly, correct me if I'm wrong, we will be 'allowed' to leave the airport and come back to the hotel later? I've researched 'what's to do in KL' but apart from seeing the Patronas towers, not a lot else is standing out, for our time frame. I'm thinking a city tour of some kind, maybe a private one c/w a pick up from the airport. That way we can have a tour of the city, a nice lunch somewhere (suggestions) and maybe a look around one of the large Malls? We will have a week in Beijing and will do a lot of sight seeing, so don't want to run around KL like mad people :-) Oh and our interests are, travel (;-) ) wandering around new cities, local food and wine and amateur photography. Love to hear your thoughts. |
There are plenty of things to see and do in Kuala Lumpur. I don't know anything about a tour, but you can choose 2 or 3 from the following attractions to visit:
- Aquaria KLCC - KL Bird Park - Bukit Bintang - National Mosque of Malaysia - Thean Hou Temple - Jamek Mosque Hope it helps. |
Frankly, I find KL one of the least interesting cities in SE Asia.
Are you flying Malaysian Air? They Biz class lounge is one of the best - good food, good drink, spa treatments (you do have to pay for the spa). It's faster to get into the city by train than by taxi. By taxi it will take a good hour. |
We've got one day there as a cruise stop in March…so I'm happy to learn from your question. Would prefer not to go on a shore excursion but explore on our own…hop on hop off bus anyone?
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Hop on hop off details http://www.visit-malaysia.com/kl-tours/kl-hop-on.htm
Traffic is hellish in KL so I am not sure how long it would take to get around the main sights. In addition to those places listed by LucyStanmore above I would add Petaling St, Merdeka square, Petronas Towers, Central market. |
Thanks for the suggestions........I researched the HOHO bus but it gets terrible reviews!!!! So I think we will check into the airport hotel, freshen up and get the express train into sentral and explore on our own.
I also think I will research somewhere 'awesome' for a long relaxing lunch :-) suggestions anyone? |
My favorite restaurant in KL is Frangipani, but it is only open for dinner.
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It is fun to go up to rooftop bars near the towers to see them.. especially when they are lit up. A driver all day will be very reasonable.. I did a trip report with lots of KL suggestions and where we went and the restaurants we ate at.
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Just wanted to update what we've decided to do. After much research, we decided to book a day room at the Hilton in the city, its right by Sentral.
So, express train into Sentral (tickets bought on line), walk around the corner to the Hilton ($120AUD for the day). Freshen up........eat, sleep, shop, swim, explore & have a cocktail. Not necessarily in that order and not necessarily all of the above, but that's our options. Fingers crossed it all works, (we leave tonight)........but it has to be better than an airport hotel or killing 13 hours at the airport :-/ |
Have a great time - and do let us know how it worked out for you. It sounds like a good option.
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WOH time flies, been home a week and a half. Thought I'd start by updating this thread as its quite specific. We had a fabulous time in KL, so glad with our decisions.
We departed Brisbane at 11.30pm, its about an 8 hour flight to Kl. We booked Malaysian Airlines B/Class with points, so no complaints there. Good lounges, good service, yummy food....only small gripe would be, not lie flat beds, which is fine but the foot end just hangs down, so its actually not that comfortable. But its all relative and we enjoyed. Easy exit from airport, no pre visa's required for Australians, we just got a 90 day visitor pass stamped in our passports. Followed signs to KLIA Express Train, I'd bought return tickets online at home ($50aud) so glad I did, it was only about 7am and there were people standing at the ticket counter to buy tickets......no staff. Two minute wait for the train and we were off. We went with a day use room at the Hilton, 368MYR which when I booked was supposed to be from 9am - 4pm. We got to the hotel at around 7.30am and got a lovely room straight away. The Hilton is literally across a small walk way from Sentral. We ordered room service breakfast, as we'd slept through it on the plane and then napped for a couple of hours, showered and headed out. Back to the station and on a train into the city, getting off for PETRONAS Towers. Not a bad day weather wise, overcast and a little muggy. Had a good look around, unfortunately we couldn't go up as there were no available time slots. I was sure I'd looked and you couldn't book ahead of time, my bad, we could have. So we looked out and saw KL Tower and thought that would be the next best choice. So we basically followed our noses to the tower. Further than we thought :-/ but okay, when we got to the base of the hill a guy waved us over, the free shuttle bus was just leaving, yes please. We went right to the top, great views, but we did notice (but ignored) a lot of cloud/haze moving in. Couldn't find the bus to go back down the hill, so dh thought we should walk. :-\ Oh dear, its so much further than you'd think and the heavens opened up.......it was a torrential downpour. You know that really really wet rain...lol? We were saturated right through. Fortunately a taxi driver call us over at the bottom, handed us a box of tissues (totally inadequate for our level of wet) and took us back to the Hilton. Where we showered and ordered a late room service lunch and just relaxed, before jumping back onto the KLIA Express and heading back to the airport. So for us, it was great. Sure beat hanging around the airport, lounge or no lounge. I would absolutely recommend it only make sure you get tickets for the tower. Hope it helps. (Beijing TR will be over on the China Forum soon.......I'm thinking I may need to call it <b>Blue Skies in Beijing</B> :-) ) |
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It sounds like that worked our really well for you! A day-use room at the Hilton makes a lot of sense.
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Great that you had a good time.
Do you remember the website that you used to get the round trip tickets from the airport to Sentral? I'll need to do the same and would like to book them from home before getting there. I'm excited about getting back to KL as I haven't been there in many years. Thanks. Happy Travels! |
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Glad you enjoyed it -- and it all worked out. Personally, I can never figure out why KL gets such a bad rap here. I found it to be one of the more interesting cities we've visited in SE Asia. That, and some of the more memorable food we've had.
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read this with interest, going to KL next year as first stop on honeymoon :)
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Aussiedreamer: Thanks, for the info!
Happy Travels! |
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