The route every Malaysia trip should start with
The peninsula's west coast is Southeast Asia backpacking with the difficulty setting turned down: buses leave on time, food is cheap and world-class, and English is everywhere. This run — KL to the Cameron Highlands, down to Ipoh, up to Penang, and out to Langkawi — takes ten to fourteen days and cost us about RM130–160 a day (€26–32). Go November to April for the west coast's dry season; it rains year-round in the hills regardless, usually punctually at 4pm.
Kuala Lumpur: two or three days
KL is best treated as a food city with skyscrapers attached. Stay around Chow Kit or Pasar Seni (dorms RM40–60), do the Petronas Towers from the outside and the KLCC park at night, then spend your real energy at Jalan Alor's hawker stalls and the Batu Caves — 272 rainbow-painted steps up into a limestone cathedral guarded by a 42-metre golden statue of Lord Murugan and a standing army of macaques with zero respect for your snacks. The KTM Komuter train gets you there for under RM3.
Cameron Highlands: cool air and tea
Buses from KL's TBS terminal climb to Tanah Rata in about four hours (RM35–40). At 1,400 metres the temperature drops fifteen degrees and the hills are corduroy — tea bushes planted in the 1920s and never straightened since. Hike Trail 1 up Gunung Brinchang through mossy forest where everything drips, then walk down through the BOH tea estate for a pot of their own leaf on a terrace above the plantation. Evenings are for steamboat dinners and actual blankets. Two nights is right.
Ipoh: the stop most people skip
Two hours downhill by bus (RM20), Ipoh is an old tin-mining city with a whitewashed colonial core, cave temples built into karst cliffs on its edges, and arguably the best coffee culture in the country. Order white coffee and kaya toast in a marble-tabled kopitiam on Concubine Lane, eat taugeh ayam — poached chicken with fat local beansprouts — and visit Kek Lok Tong, a cave temple that opens out the back into a hidden garden valley. One night converts most sceptics.
George Town, Penang: the food capital
Buses run to Butterworth (2.5 hours, RM20) where the ferry crosses to George Town — or the bus runs straight over the bridge. Penang needs no selling: a UNESCO old town of shophouses, clan temples and jetties built by Chinese clans out over the water, wrapped around the best street food in Asia. Char kway teow at Siam Road, asam laksa at Air Itam near Kek Lok Si temple, cendol in a Lebuh Keng Kwee alley — each RM6–10. Rent a bike for the street-art circuit, climb Penang Hill on the funicular for sunset, give it three nights minimum.
Langkawi: the soft landing
The direct ferry from George Town to Langkawi was suspended for years and has run on-and-off since; if it's not sailing, buses to Kuala Perlis (3 hours) connect with the 75-minute crossing (RM18–25 combined). Langkawi is duty-free, so beers cost less than on the mainland — a detail backpackers discover quickly. Base at Pantai Cenang for the beach scene or Pantai Tengah for quiet, rent a scooter (RM40/day) and loop the island: the Kilim mangrove karsts by boat, the seven wells waterfall, and the SkyBridge hanging off Gunung Mat Cincang. From Langkawi you can ferry on to Thailand's Ko Lipe when the border crossing runs (roughly October–June) — which is exactly how this route usually refuses to end.