We have a few extra days in KL but would prefer not to jump on another plane. If we rented a car at airport, are there any beach areas or some other interesting area to visit for 2 to 4 days? We will have spent time in KL on our way in so would like to find another area of Malaysia to visit.

There are no nice beaches near KL.The most interesting area u cld visit near KL is Taman Negara a 100million yr old rainforest.You can see Caves, rapids,hornbills,tigers, tapirs,elephants, many other animals, tribes people, fishing, camping.There is a 4 star resort there too. You wont see anything like this unless u go to the Amazon.It is abt 3 to 4 hrs by car/train and u can do it in 3/4 days.

You can drive to Kuantan, though it's several hours each way. The flight is maybe 30 minutes. I like Kuantan, and there is a nice Hyatt on the beach.

Nearest beach area to KL is Port Dickson (PD). This is about 45 min - 1 hour drive from the airport.

There are a number of hotels in PD, of which I think the nicest is Avillion (http://www.avillion.com.my). The beaches at PD aren't the nicest in Malaysia (they can't compare to the beaches in say Langkawi or the East Coast). But it's still a popular beach area if you don't wish to drive so far from KL.

You could make PD your base and from there make a day-trip by car to Melaka (about 1 hour from PD).

Internal flights on Malaysian Air are very reasonable (can book online on their website). You could fly to Penang or Langkawi (latter is reputed to be one of best beach destinations in Malaysia) in 55 minutes from KLIA.