Last updated: 01.12.23

Welcome to Malaysia!

We spent 1 month in this multicultural and tropical country located in Southeast Asia. Here we stayed in an apartment in Kuala Lumpur, which was our home for almost 5 weeks.

In this post I share cost transparency to make it easier for you to create a travel budget for your trip to Kuala Lumpur. I have divided the Malaysia travel costs into transportation, accommodation, food, experiences and other.

Disclosure: The links in this article are affiliate links – This means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase from it without any extra cost for you. Thank you for your support!

Malaysia travel costs

Kuala Lumpur was chosen primarily as our base for a “workation”. From there we went on trips to other parts of Malaysia during our 1 month in the country.

Here is what we spend per person for 1 month in Malaysia:

Transportation: $41 – $1 per day
We used a mix of grab taxi and metro in Kuala Lumpur. All our trips with longer transportation time were with the same guide. For those trips we paid a total amount for entire trip – therefore I have included those prices under experiences instead of transportation.
This is WITHOUT our flight tickets to Malaysia from Thailand – for those we paid: $216 per person.

Accommodation: $842 – $26 per day
We stayed in the same apartment for all 33 days. A building called Lucentia Residences, which I will highly recommend.
We had access to two pool areas and fitness rooms, one of them on the 35th floor. From the pool on the 35th floor you have the view of the iconic and famous Petronas Towers and the second tallest building in the world, Merdeka 118.
The building is located in Bukit Bintang, which is a nice central location in Kuala Lumpur.
Important notice regarding the price is that the $26 is per person. We shared the apartment two people, so the apartment price was $52 per day.

You can find the apartment complex here: Lucentia Residences.

We did a tour where we stayed one night at a hotel in Penang, while keeping our apartment in Kuala Lumpur as our home base still.

Food: $586 – $18 per day
We have been eating a mix between local dishes and western food – mostly local. We had a kitchen in the apartment and made our own food a few times, but it was cheaper for us to eat out. Resulting in us only having breakfast in the apartment and ate out for lunch and dinner.
We have been eating a lot at food courts and picked lunch deals at restaurants – Many of the cafes around us offered cheap lunch deals.

Experiences: $362 – $11 per day
This includes a street food tour in Kuala Lumpur, entrance fee to parks, a day tour including monkeys and fireflies, drinks on cool bars in Kuala Lumpur and a 2 day tour to Cameron Highlands and Penang.

Other: $23 – $1 per day
This includes eSIM card, hairdresser and a few other things.
This is without shopping.

Total: $1854 – $57 per day

We enjoyed having our everyday life in Kuala Lumpur and recommend you to visit if you’re looking for a nice location in the tropics.

Malaysia is definitely one of the most affordable countries we have visited. You get a lot of value for your money compared to many of the other countries we have visited.