Malaysia

How Much Does It Cost To Travel Malaysia?

Sharing my budget with you in hopes that it will help at least one reader realize that they don’t need to win the lottery to travel long-term. This is my sixth post in “How Much Does It Cost To Travel?”  series! 

To think, I thought I was simply in Kuala Lumpur!

Malaysia is home to a mixing pot of cultures, Malays, Chinese and Indians, which in turn gives the country a glorious amount of delicious food. Ahem, did someone mention curry? It is also home to the tallest twin buildings in the world, The Petronas Towers. There are big cities, charming small towns, jungles with some of the world’s largest flowers, mountains, and beaches to visit. I only spent 8 days in Malaysia and barely scratched the surface. Although I did manage to eat almost my fill of Indian Food. I hope to return and explore (Hello Borneo!) in more detail sooner than later. If anyone has any tips on the best curry in Malaysia please send them my way

My total costs were $181. 51 or 540.90 Ringget

With a conversion rate of $1 = 2.98 Ringget

This made my average daily spending $22.69

THE BREAKDOWN IS AS FOLLOWS: USD

LODGING:  $83.22 / DAILY AVERAGE $4.15

FOOD: $33.05 / DAILY AVERAGE $4.13

COCKTAILS: $3.36 / DAILY AVERAGE $0.42

ACTIVITIES (Day Tour In Cameron Highlands): $32.89 / DAILY AVERAGE $4.11

TRANSPORTATION (Buses, Metro, Train to Bangkok): $68.22 / DAILY AVERAGE $8.53

CLOTHING:   $8.39 / DAILY AVERAGE $1.05

GEAR (Poncho):  $2.38 / DAILY AVERAGE $0.30

MISC (Souvenirs):  $6.29 / DAILY AVERAGE $0.79

How I could have done it for less?

My biggest daily expense was transportation. I spent a daily average of $8.53 on getting around this country in just 8 days. This number is higher than most other transportation numbers in the region. Does this reflect that Malaysia charges more than say Vietnam or Thailand for their buses? No. This simply means that I covered a lot of distance in 8 days. These numbers also include my train ticket from Butterworth, Malaysia to Bangkok. So if you want to save some money on your transportation costs… simply slow down! Savor the country a little. I wish I could have but sadly I had a plane to catch in Bangkok.