galiano

We will be renting a car in KL in February and driving up to the Cameron Highlands. We understand it's handy to have a car there. After 3 days we'll be driving to Penang and staying 4 days. Will we need a car while we are in Penang or should we give it back and use cabs etc ? We'll want to see the whole Island so is it better to have a car of your own ? How about car and driver on Penang ?

rhkkmk

how do you get the car to penang?? its an island isn't it?? expense??
how is the driving in malaysia?

galiano

Penang is an island connected to the mainland by bridge.

dlh

Hi Galiano,
We have driven as tourists in Penang and we used a combination of self-driving, taxis, and the E&O Hotel car and driver. We found the streets in downtown Penang easy to navigate but traffic, at times, was incredibly congested so we used taxis or the driver in town as they seemed to know shortcuts and we didn't have to deal with parking. Heading to the beach areas of Penang was actually quite a distance from town (IMO), even without traffic, and we found it best to take our car. Traffic thinned out quite a bit in that direction and it is pretty much a direct drive back and forth on one main road. Also, the one time we went by taxi to the beach area we found that getting a return taxi took about 45 minutes - you could get lucky but they told us at the hotel it was fairly typical. The taxi drivers in general were quite gregarious, informed about the area, and spoke English although it was handy to have the hotel card at times. Hope this helps! Did you decide to stay at the E&O? Have fun!

galiano

Hi dlh : Thanks for the excellent information. I guess we'll turn in our rental car as soon as we arrive in Penang from CH. We're not beach people so we hope there is enough to do on Penang for 4 days. Any suggested highlites ?

Yes we are going to stay at the E & O for 4 nights. We are thinking of taking a Premier Suite with a balcony. Any comments or suggestions about the hotel, food etc would be much appreciated ?

JamesA

Driving thru Malaysia is fine but once you are in Penang I would leave the rental and use taxis, although well sign-posted Georgetwon is very crowded and you can end up goping in cirlces trying to get into the right direction, going to Batu Ferringhi for beach just use a taxi. The only negetaive experience I had was discovering that some hotels refuse to allow normal taxis to pick up passengers, trying to make you use their own more expensive service, I was a tad 'annoyed' at having to hike to the main street in the rain to get a cab simply because the bell-staff were 'not allowed' to call me a cab. Thwe hotel taxi price was almost 3 times what the normal taxi fare was. In Malaysia I have used Mayflower Car Rental many times and they have been fine.

JamesA

Just to add you will probably see some not too familiar names for rental vehicles, if you want a standard auto 4-door compact go for a Proton Wira, similar in size to an Accord or Corolla.

galiano

Thanks James. I think we are likely to use Hawk Rental as their rate for a van is quite good.

harzer

I guess you are aware that it's RH drive in Malaysia?

Harzer