Handpicked experience · Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
A resort town whose founding act was building the road to it, and a cave temple sited because the rock is the shape of a spear.
See Kuala Lumpur's impressive natural wonders in this exciting day tour!
Treat your tastebuds to a hearty meal at Burger & Lobster!
Surprise the kids with tickets to Ripley's Adventure land, an interactive theme park perfect for all ages.
Get first row seats at Genting Highlands' dazzling lights and sounds show – Sky Symphony.
Chin Swee Caves Temple's impressive structure amidst nature is a sight you can't miss!
Book now and don't miss the chance to ride on a cable car with the whole family!
A staircase climb to cave temples beneath a gilded figure
A cable car crossing kilometres of unbroken forest canopy
Free time in a resort town built on a ridge
A marked temperature drop within an hour of the city
Coach transfers linking both stops in one day
Eight hours from Kuala Lumpur pairing the cave temples at Batu with a cable car ride up to the resort town on the ridge at Genting, with coach transfers between the two.
Genting exists because one man decided it should. In the mid-1960s Lim Goh Tong began cutting an access road up a jungle ridge that had no settlement, no utilities and no reason to be reached, financing it himself and supervising the work in person. It took years. The first hotel opened in 1971, on a mountain that until then had been forest.
Everything on the ridge — the towers, the theme parks, the traffic — sits on top of that decision. It is one of the few resort towns anywhere whose founding act was building the road to it.
The ridge sits around 1,700 metres up, and the temperature falls roughly six degrees for every thousand metres of altitude. In practice Genting runs eight to ten degrees cooler than Kuala Lumpur, often around fifteen to twenty degrees, and is frequently inside cloud rather than under it.
That difference is the real draw for Malaysian visitors. A city where it never drops below twenty-six is an hour's drive from somewhere you need a jumper, and people come up for the cold as much as anything else.
Genting holds Malaysia's only licensed casino, and it is worth understanding the terms. Gambling is prohibited for Muslim citizens under Malaysian law, and identification is checked at the door. The licence is a genuine anomaly rather than a marketing line, and it is much of why this particular ridge was developed at all.
Batu's main cavern became a shrine in 1890, when a Tamil trader named the site for Murugan after noticing that the cave mouth resembles the vel — the spear the deity carries. The temple was placed to match the shape of the rock, not the other way round, and the gilded figure at the foot of the stairs was added more than a century later.
Bring a layer for the top; people arrive in shorts and regret it. The temple requires covered shoulders and knees and the staircase is steep. Cable car queues are longest at weekends and in school holidays, and the ride can be suspended in lightning. Meals, park rides and attractions are all bought separately.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Because Lim Goh Tong built a road to an empty jungle ridge in the mid-1960s, financing it himself. The first hotel opened in 1971 on a mountain that had been forest.
Eight to ten degrees below Kuala Lumpur, typically fifteen to twenty, because the ridge stands around 1,700 metres up. It is often inside cloud rather than under it.
Yes. People arrive from the city in shorts and regret it — a jumper or light jacket makes the difference at the top.
No. Malaysia's only licensed casino is here, and gambling is prohibited for Muslim citizens under national law, with identification checked at the door.
Because the cave mouth resembles the vel, the spear carried by Murugan. A Tamil trader dedicated the site in 1890 on that basis — the temple followed the shape of the rock.
No, it was added more than a century after the shrine was founded. The cave came first.
It stops running in lightning, which on a mountain in the tropics is not a rare event. Allow slack in your plans for the afternoon rather than treating the descent as fixed.
No. Everything on the ridge beyond the cable car is bought separately — the parks, the rides, the food. Budget for the day rather than for the ticket.