As Malaysia is not as well known you might be wondering ‘is Malaysia worth visiting?’ If so, here’s why I love Malaysia and why I think you will love it too.
Neighboring Thailand, and other places in South East Asia, are some of the world’s most popular travel destinations, but the underrated country of Malaysia is often overlooked, skipped or rushed through, which is such a shame because backpacking Malaysia is an amazing adventure.
Malaysia is a fascinating, diverse and multicultural country that offers everything a backpacker or traveller could want in an easy and affordable package.
From tropical beaches to the world’s oldest rainforests, modern cities and charming historic treasures. Malaysia truly deserves much more than just a quick stop over while backpacking through the rest of South East Asia.
In fact, Malaysia is actually more like 2 countries – Peninsula Malaysia and Borneo Malaysia. So Malaysia is arguably more adventurous and offers more diverse experiences than backpacking neighbouring and super popular Thailand.
Why I Love Malaysia – And Why You Should Visit Too!
I’ve visited Malaysia 5 times now and still haven’t seen it all. I just love Malaysia, the fusion of religions, landscapes, cultures and cuisines and the friendly people. The best part is that backpacking Malaysia is easy, affordable, safe and easily accessible. The roads are smooth and the transport is modern yet still cheap.
So if you’re backpacking around South East Asia make sure you don’t rush through Malaysia. Or if you want an adventurous, exotic yet easy and affordable holiday then Malaysia is more than enough for one amazing trip – see my Malaysia itinerary for more inspiration.
Here’s 10 Reasons Why It’s Worth Visiting Malaysia
1. Malaysia has an fascinating cultural and religious diversity
One of my favourite things to do while backpacking Malaysia is exploring, experiencing and learning about all the different cultures and religions.
Malaysia is so multicultural and has fascinating history and a melting pot mix of cultures, religions and people with interesting Chinese, Malay and Indian influences.
Exploring, in Penang especially, it is easy to go temple hopping and visit Muslim mosques, Hindu and Buddhist temples and Christian churches all on one street. Malaysia also celebrates festivals and holidays of all religions as one Malaysia.
2. Malaysia has delicious and varied cuisine
The food is equally as diverse as the culture and Malaysia is known for having one of the most diverse cuisines in the world!
I mostly ate cheap street food and in food courts and inexpensive restaurants. I often ordered something that I had no idea what it was, but found the food was always great – tasty, cheap, varied and safe.
From the spicy sour curry laksa to nasi lemak to Indian currys, Chinese noodles, dim sum breakfasts, BBQ fresh fish in spicy sambal, kebabs, roti, sweet deserts, icy cendol and western favourites I was always delighted. You won’t go hungry while visiting Malaysia!
3. Malaysia has stunning geographical diversity too
As well as cultural diversity and a huge variation of cuisines, Malaysia offers stunning geographical diversity.
Malaysia has charming, historic cities, colonial architecture and temples, cool highlands, mountains and paradise islands with world class diving, plus the steamy jungles and ancient rainforests in Borneo home to orangutans and tribal long houses.
And not forgetting the capital, the modern metropolis of Kuala Lumpur which has grown exponentially from a tin mining outpost of the British Empire only 150 years ago and offers many things to do from admiring the Petronas Twin Towers to exploring the street food and visiting cultural attractions like the Batu Caves.
4. The Malaysian people are so friendly and most speak good English
Malaysian people are welcoming and more genuinely open and friendly (unlike in other nearby countries were people are just after a sale).
A good level of English is spoken in Malaysia and added to the people’s friendliness it is easy to strike up a conversation with genuine people.
I talked to a family on train, a woman helped me make my purchases in a market, I spoke to some students in a restaurant and a businessman on a bus.
I even made friends in an elevator who took me for drinks on a heli pad with amazing views over KL and drove me back to my hotel afterwards!
5. Malaysia is great value for money
Although Malaysia is not as cheap as Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia it still represents great value for money. It’s developed enough to make travel easy and comfortable but it’s not expensive and you can easily get by on £25 or $40 a day.
But instead of being cramped into rusty buses on bumpy roads you can relax and be whisked along a flat road on a spacious modern bus with massaging seats.
6. Malaysia has a warm year round climate
As it is so close to the equator the weather varies very little and Malaysia has a great year round climate with average temperatures of between 23 and 33 degrees centigrade and 12 hours of sunlight daily year round its always a good time to visit if you like tropical adventures.
7. Traveling in Malaysia is easy , safe, and hassle free
I found traveling alone Malaysia as a solo female backpacker refreshingly hassle free and safe. Travel is easy as it is one of the most stable countries in the region.
Malaysia also doesn’t feel overrun with tourists as some destinations can, the locals are genuinely friendly and happy to help and while backpacking Malaysia I never felt unsafe and didn’t get hassled to buy things unlike other countries in the region.
8. Kuala Lumpur is a major hub for cheap flights
Malaysia capital, Kuala Lumpur, is home to top budget airline Air Asia and is a major flight hub meaning that flying pretty much anywhere from KL is inexpensive. It’s also cheaper to spend a few days in Malaysia than expensive Singapore, the other Asian flight hub.
9. It’s visa free for 90 days!
Malaysia has easier entry requirements and more generous visa free access than most other countries in the region. For most nationalities, there’s no need to worry about visas as a free 90 day visit pass is issued on arrival.
So is Malaysia worth visiting?
The cultural diversity, amazing food, stunning landscapes, friendly people and ease of travel all make Malaysia well worth visiting.
I hope that this post has convinced you to give this amazing and underrated country a chance. Malaysia may not be as famous as it’s neighbouring countries but it’s well worth visiting, you may even love it more than Thailand!
For more inspiration and tips for planning a trip to Malaysia check out these blogs:
- The best places to visit in Malaysia
- My epic 1 month backpacking Malaysia itinerary
- The perfect 3 day Penang itinerary
- My ultimate 3 day Kuala Lumpur itinerary
Have you visited Malaysia? Did you love it as much as I did?
4 comments
I’ve always been in love with Malaysia! They have a rich culture and amazing beaches. Me and my family keep coming back to this wonderful country. Thanks for the great sharing you have here. Kudos!
Thank you, we love to hear that we’ve charmed u and ur family to keep coming back, and always be assured that our doors are always wide open to welcome u back once again, anytime u wish:P
HI Anna
First and foremost, what a sweet surprise to come across to ur blog and reading such wonderful things u have to say about Malaysia and how u have visited us few times, and hopefully more to come.
I do have to pinpoint a couple of things though.
If some people are ignorant and not very well informed where they dunno or never heard of Malaysia, which I find it absolutely shocking and impossible,considered how we have been quite unfortunate to be on the major headlines across the globe for few rather “infamous”: incidents, well, along with some of the most talked about ACCOMPLISHMENTS too. That aside, these people not knowing of Malaysia and they only know of Thailand doesn’t mean Malaysia is not as popular or not as famous or not as visited.
If one is to look up for some data and information to make comparison, Malaysia is actually more popular and visited than Thailand by a large margin. Considered being the very first in this region to start developing the tourism industry in full scale, Malaysia has long been the most visited country in SEAsia for decades, and it was only few years before the Pandemic where Thailand finally overtook us by small margin, then, after the Covid19 lock-down, Malaysia has once again retained the crown title being the most visited country in this region once again ever since 2023.
I wouldn’t say Malaysia doesn’t feel touristy, the numbers don’t lie. Remember, we are split into two different parts, and what makes Malaysia stand out is how we have packaged ourselves to market and campaign to cater for different demography, different interest, different categories, and just something for everyone and anyone.
While everyone else is going after the whole shopping, party, the fun hippie vibes, the massage and spa thing, Malaysia always sets itself apart to be distinct in its own way and I come to understand how the Tourism Malaysia has done such marvelous job in setting us apart, and it is never more obvious and evident how our long decades of hard work has paid off and I can say we are enjoying such wonderful fruitful outcome now.
Malaysia is heavily towards family vacation, adventure to the wilderness with our most amazing tropical rainforest, one of the oldest in the world if not already the oldest, we promote sustainable ecotourism with many of our national parks, u never hear anyone campaigning wildlife sanctuary and rehabilitation, while others are doing shopping, we set another benchmark being the affordable luxurious lifestyle where shopping, cuisine and culinary and self pampering is made so affordable, people are never more amazed. I can surely say that, Malaysia takes the whole shopping culture and experience to a whole new level, it is like we have reinvented and redefined the whole experience of shopping, our malls are some of the largest in the world because they all come with everything that points to one objective, LIFESTYLE!
While Thailand, Bali, Vietnam, Boracay are all trying to copy each other and rival one another with the whole beach party, lots of party places and restaurants and massage parlor and all that in their famous islands, we don’t do that and I am glad we never go after the same formula. Again,we emphasize on sustainability and conservation, and we mean every word of it. Malaysia is not short of amazing island with some of the most breathtaking beaches and backdrop of ocean and sea. What we have for our guests is the most pristine, the most natural, the most serene, the most peaceful, the most tranquil, the most natural, and the most DIFFERENT ambience and feeling in our island and beaches.Honestly, I hate being in a beach where I have hundreds and thousands of strangers so close to me on the beach, u have to fight to get a spot to sunbath, and u are bombarded with blasting music and obnoxious tourist noise etc. I like my beach vacation to be quiet and peaceful, I am sure u do too! If there is a little bar or pub nearby, where everyone hangs out and very quickly, it is where everyone knows everyone, there may be some Karaoke, or board games, or trivia, where everyone can participate and have a great time with, that is more memorable than banging music and just hanging out without much interaction.
Thailand is so focus in investing its effort and time for those party animals, those young tribes and cheap backpackers (no offense), while they have totally overlooked the other demography of tourists that actually spend more and wealthier too, such as family vacationers, much older population, or more affluent type, where all of these groups have complained and shown very strong resentment and dislike towards how they smell marijuana everywhere and they are very put off by that, guess what, they have quickly discovered the actual real ideal place they should be, Malaysia that is! This year, 2025, is never more evident and obvious how Thailand has lost so many of the tourists and many have opted for Malaysia, and we have just become even hotter than ever with arrivals shooting up the roof. That’s what I say, our hard work has paid off, we are already an established and highly developed destination with many options available and accessible, and they are the biggest selling points to pull in large number. A family of 5 would always spend more and stay longer compared to some youngsters wanting to party their life away smoking pot in Thailand, see the difference?
The tourists arriving KLIA, the world’s most connected LCCT megahub, where many can easily catch on their next flight to Sabah, Sarawak, Penang, Langkawi, anywhere in the country, not everyone comes into KL straight away, some save it for last, some may skip it all together because their major objective this trip is to explore the rain-forest in Sabah, u see what I mean? I guess, we are so established and well developed and properly planned out where not everyone has to be in at the same place at the same time,making the place or tourist spot so overcrowded and over touristic, I say,we have done the impossible and the world should probably emulate the successful development in our tourism industry how we are able to disperse the millions and millions of tourists to venture out beyond the Capital City or the few most famous hotpots, how every tourist can get to see beyond just the surface of what the norm is.
A portion of our tourists also visit Malaysia for another specific travel experience, something Malaysia has been working so hard and we have successful established a reputation ourself where noone else could compete to, that is Medical Tourism. Malaysia has long been chosen and voted as one the world’s best medical tourism destination, often, we rank No 1. This is a huge tourism revenue sector, the kind of money our neighbors can only be envious of.
Another power card we have as a tourism powerhouse that we’ve worked so hard from decades ago which has earned us an unrivaled reputation, that is Malaysia is the World’s No 1 Muslim Travel Destination, and we continue to hold that title for over 13 years since day 1, Dubai and Indonesia try to challenge our dominance, well, they continue to fail. Thailand and Singapore have started to recognize this huge potential as many of the wealthy Middle Easterners are one of the highest spending bunch, even HK and Japan are beginning to tap into this market.
Malaysia is way more popular and visited than many people never thought of, Thailand is popular, no doubt about it, but these people have no idea that the real powerhouse is its southern neighbor, us, Malaysia. If 38.1 million visitors last year compared to Thailand’s 35.6 million and Japan’s 36 Million is not a strong indication, then I dunno what is.
Tourism Malaysia has even revised this year’s expected arrivals in the 1st quarter, from initial 37 million to 43 million by end of 2025. If u asked me, 40 million is absolutely doable, 43 million is not impossible, maybe, we could surprise everyone yet again with something even more? We shall wait and see.
I just wish people would stop saying how Malaysia is not as popular as Thailand, even Indonesia or Singapore, which is such an insult. Of all countries, Indonesia is the biggest failure, a country with 13,000 island, the world only knows of Bali, 80% of tourists going to Indonesia only go Bali, nowhere else. If Malaysia were to be like Indonesia, then I wont argue no more of our popularity.
Sorry for venting so much, lol. We shall hope to see u soon here in Malaysia! Don’t make us miss u too much though~
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful comment! I really appreciate you reading the article and sharing your perspective.
I completely agree that Malaysia has so much to offer and deserves far more recognition as a travel destination. One of the reasons I wrote the post in the first place was because I feel it’s often overlooked by travellers who are more familiar with places like Thailand or Bali, even though Malaysia has incredible food, culture, nature and people.
You’re absolutely right that Malaysia attracts a huge number of visitors each year and that tourism is very well developed across the country. I also love how diverse it is — from cities like Kuala Lumpur and George Town to the rainforests of Borneo and the beautiful islands like Langkawi and the Perhentians.
My intention with the article was simply to encourage more people to consider visiting and to share why I personally enjoy travelling in Malaysia so much. Hopefully it inspires even more people to discover it for themselves!
Thanks again for reading and for adding to the discussion — and yes, I’m sure I’ll be back in Malaysia again soon.
Anna 🙂