Where to go short flight from Kuala Lumpur

bestyman

Hi all,

We have booked some bargain flights to Kuala Lumpur so will spend a few days there then looking for other places to visit . We know little about Asia, only visited Thailand twice before ( loved it ) .

We are looking for a beach resort thats lively ( ish ) but please not a Blackpool in the sun . We would like somewhere thats friendly, hassle free ( within reason) , cheap ( important), and nice beaches for snorkelling. We love nice food but would be happy eating from a street stall rather than a posh restauraunt. We like a drink too but would rather drink with locals/festivals/street markets than at the Red Parrot English Pub.

If Air Asia flys there from Kuala Lumpur ( say within 3 hours)http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/creditCard.jsp;jsessionid=410B33641ED264EB8CA0511D584E91D4?id=1b04a6d8-ac1e00ae-511e0a00-167ce76f&reference=routemap
then that would be very good.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions on where to go .

alanrowell

Bali perhaps?

Moonchild

What time of year are you travelling?

How about Krabi in Thailand? Will be very cheap, beautiful place, and very safe.

If you want to stay in Malaysia, you could combine Penang & Langkawi (Penang for Georgetown which is ace, and Langkawi for the beaches - not much snorkelling though), and Firefly fly between the two.

Don't necessarily restrict yourself to Air Asia. Firefly Airlines do some interesting, cheap flights (mainly form Penang) whilst Berjaya Air fly cheaply to some beach destinations (Tioman, Pangkor, Koh Samui).

My top tip would be to book the underutilised daily Merpati flight to Lombok. Great beaches, bit of nightlife, and amazing snorkelling. Don't think you can book online, but sure you can track down a KL based travel agent who will do it for you.

odowdchr

Other than those mentioned you can do Cambodia in an hour and go to Sihanoukville, nice and cheap and not developed yet. Or Vietnam?

meester

Fly to Banda Aceh and go to Pulau Weh. It's cheap, somewhat lively (but nowhere near as developed as anything in Thailand), and has excellent snorkelling.

If you want quieter, fly to Padang and go to Paradiso Island:



http://www.cubadak-paradisovillage.com/

About £60 for 3-days full board including snorkeling and round-trip boat transfer.

In Malaysia you could fly to Kuala Terengganu and then visit Pulau Perhentian (or Pula Redang).

Lombok, as previously mentioned, is also an excellent idea.

bestyman

Thanks all ever so much for all the help and ideas. I am googling all the suggestions and getting somewhere now.

Paradiso village looks really nice, good reviews on TA , Meester did you go there? Think this one is a cert for us so far . Looking into possibilty of staying at Bali and getting Ferry across? or combining Paradiso with somewhere else. Any suggestions? As long as we start and finish in KL anythings ok, we have about 15 days in total , 5 days in 3 resorts would be good.

Cambodia and Vietnam also look good, just a matter of getting the flight connections.

Lombok looks good but wikepedia says some websites suggest unfriendly natives, any one had experience of this?
Thanks for tip about different airlines, again moor googling needed.

meester

bestyman wrote: »

Thanks all ever so much for all the help and ideas. I am googling all the suggestions and getting somewhere now.

Paradiso village looks really nice, good reviews on TA , Meester did you go there? Think this one is a cert for us so far . Looking into possibilty of staying at Bali and getting Ferry across? or combining Paradiso with somewhere else. Any suggestions? As long as we start and finish in KL anythings ok, we have about 15 days in total , 5 days in 3 resorts would be good.

Paradiso is in West Sumatra, an hour's flight from KL. Bali is two flights away - to Jakarta, then to Bali (albeit that you can book through tickets on various local airlines), total flight time is about 3 hrs 30 minutes.

From Padang you'll find good flight connections to Medan (North Sumatra), Jakarta (Java) and Singapore.

From Jakarta you could get to anywhere in Indonesia.

A local flight should be under US$100 one-way (flights to Singapore are usually expensive however)

In the area of Padang you can visit Bukittinggi (home of the Minangkabau people) and Lake Maninjau, which is a 100 square kilometre lake with a cool climate. From there you have a choice of a 14-hour bus drive to Lake Toba, another huge volcanic lake, with a good-sized island in the middle, inhabited by the Batak people, who have their own distinct culture (being Christian rather than Muslim, but still retaining many pre-Christian traditions).

This is a Batak house:



Pictured in this picture are souveneirs for sale: traditional hand-woven cloth, and a traditional drum.

This, in contrast, is from the Minangkabau region:



From Medan, Lake Toba is reached in about four hours by bus. Also in this area are various places to view orangutans in the jungle, the most popular at Bukit Lawang, where tourists typically visit orangutans and then go trekking in the jungle. Other activities include elephant trekking, which can be arranged through the jungle (elephants are not that comfortable beware before booking long treks! - an hour's trek costs less than £10).

You can also visit Berastagi, 2 hours from Medan, which is another cultural destination with other attractions (volcano to climb

From Medan you can fly out to KL or Penang cheaply, or onto Jakarta with its connections to almost every city in Indonesia.

Cambodia and Vietnam also look good, just a matter of getting the flight connections.

Lombok looks good but wikepedia says some websites suggest unfriendly natives, any one had experience of this?

I concur somewhat, no major issues, but they weren't that welcoming, but if you are just going to a 4/5* resort to sit on the beach, it's not a relevant concern.



As a possible itinerary, if you wanted to visit Paradiso village, you could try some of the following

Fly KL-Medan, visit local attractions
Fly to Padang, visit local attractions including Paradiso
Fly Padang - Yogyakarta (via Jakarta), visit Borobodur and Prambanan (very similar to Siem Reap/ Angkor Wat, but without as many temples)
Head east to Mount Bromo (volcano)
Return to KL via direct flight from Surabaya airport (further east), or backtrack to Yogyakarta (daily flights to KL), or even continue on to Bali (but you probably won't have time), from where there are also direct flights.

The only flights within Indonesia you can book outside the country are those on Air Asia. Otherwise you need to contact a local travel agent, because everything is done on little bits of paper, and only they will be able to tell you how much a ticket from say Padang to Yogyakarta will cost, and what the timetable is.

I can recommend Narasindo Tours:

http://www.narasindotours.com/ 0062 61 4159939
narasindo@indo.net.id

Moonchild

Meester makes some excellent recommendations, and Sumatra certainly deserves consideration.

Banda Aceh, whilst beautiful, is not for everyone. It's a quasi-autonomous, and relatively religiously strict area, so don't expect it to be a party zone, except for a few Aussie surfers.

I (personally) wouldn't try getting Java (Jogja etc) and Sumatra in the same trip unless you have 3 weeks off. Flying into Medan and out of Padang, with some long and interesting sites between. Culture, orang-utans, worlds largest inland lake, passion fruit, beaches, more inland lakes, more culture. Fab!

Lombok i've been to twice, last time in May. No problems at all, and loved it, and the beaches were great. The Tugu Hotel in Lombok is spectacular, but Qunci Villas is a lovely little place and cheaper (see both online and check out Trip Advisor).

However, when are you travelling?? Monsoons in that part of the world make a massive difference to where you should travel to.