Kuala Lumpur and beaches

Hello Everyone

I am hoping to go to Malaysia from Thailand in a couple of weeks. I plan to spnd 3 nights in KL and then head to a beach. Dones anyone have any suggestions for good beaches preferably relativel near Kuala Lumpur . I had seen tioman Island which i think is about 4 hours in a taxi from KL - how much woudl this cost n an air con MPV roughly ?

Any suggesitons welcomed

thanks

paul

Port Dickson is only a couple of hours from KL, but the shoreline is marred by oil rigs. To be honest, Malaysia is not really a "beach" destination. The Pulau Perhentians up in the north east are allegedly nice. Pantai Cherating, north of Kuantan, has a Club Med , so that can't be too bad. You're at the tail end of the monsoon, especially on the east coast. Pulau Langkawi is right up near the Thai border and is touristy.

The way the major road arteries are situated in Malaysia, it's not as simple as just jumping in a car in either downtown KL or from KLIA and heading to the beach.

Marang, just south of Kuala Terengganu is 6 hours by road, according to Google Earth, but there are a couple of hotels- one three-star and one two-star by our count- and that's about it. It's a small sleepy little fishing town about 15 Km south of KT.

You can fly from KL to Kuantan then get a cab to Cherating. Or to KT and cab it to Marang or the push-off point for the Perhentians.

Rather than cab it, look at someone like Avis to hire a car.

Flights and car hire booked outside the country are allegedly cheaper than doing it once you're there.

As Uncle says, Peninsular Malaysia isn't great for beaches, the west coast largely faces the Straits of Malacca a busy shipping lane, and the coast was largely mangrove before industrialisation started putting shipyards in. For the west coast you need to go north to Langkawi or Penang, on the east coast the best resorts are on the islands of Perhentian, Redang, Pangkor, Pantai and Tioman, but you'll generally need to pay handsomely for their comforts. If you want a reasonably inexpensive Malaysian beach experience you'd probably be better off flying up to Penang and taking cab to one of that islands beaches.

And even if you stay iin a resort-style hotel on Batu Ferringhi, most of the guests will be found in the hotel's pool rather than on the beach.

Try Langkawi - arguably the best beaches on the west coast with regular flights by AirAsia, MAS and Firefly. Also, the island is duty free. You'll find booze in Langkawi duty free shops to be cheaper by 30% compared to airport duty free shops. Perhentian is good if you stay at a 'proper' hotel - and the east coast is fringed with some of the best [read - deserted] beaches anywhere, provided you stay at a resort that doesn't cost less than RM300 a night [possibly less with online bookings].

As for Tioman [also duty free] there are direct flights. See https://www.berjaya-air.com/.