Budget Malaysia: Travel Budget Malaysia
Malaysia is a perfect country for a self-planned backpacking trip. For us, Malaysia was our first introduction to Asia, so we were less aware of the costs for this trip. What is an appropriate travel budget for backpacking in Malaysia? You can read all about it in this article.
Overview Budget Malaysia
For the costs below, it is important to know what type of trip we have made through Malaysia. We left Kuala Lumpur by public transport, rented a scooter occasionally and mainly slept in double rooms. We hardly ever cooked because food markets or restaurants are very affordable! Of course, our Malaysia travel budget could certainly have been even lower by sleeping in a hostel more often. However, some affordable luxury at some moments is worth something! In total we spent approximately €1600 for 22 days (excluding airline tickets), which equates to approximately €37 per person per day. Below you can see roughly what we spent this on. The 2023 price level applies to this, we did not receive any discounts or other offers anywhere.
- Accomodation (37%)
- Food & drinks (34%)
- Transportation (13%)
- Activities (13%)
- Other expenses (3%)
Budget Flight Tickets Malaysia
The price for an airline ticket depends on so much that we cannot mention them here. View the best offers through Skyscanner and be sure to look for options with a transfer. Since we came from South Africa, we had a long layover in Dubai, for instance.
Transportation Budget Malaysia
We wrote earlier that we are not really a fan of renting a scooter in Asia (unless you are experienced in and licensed to drive a motorcycle). After all, a ‘normal’ drivers license is often not suitable for this. Only on Langkawi we rented a scooter very cheap at the accommodation for a day. That did costs about ten euros for everything including petrol! We did not rent a car for our tour through Malaysia, but traveled by public transport. That is doable, although sometimes you have to put your fears aside during the bus rides. Busdrivers are not easily scared and sometimes drive like maniacs. Still, you can save a lot of money compared to renting a car, which may even be as scary as public transport considering traffic in general. For 3 weeks, we spent about €100 per person on public transport costs, including taxis.
Accomodation
In total we paid approximately €600 for the overnight stay, just over €27 per night. For that, we mostly had a basic room, sometimes a little more luxury in an appartment and sometimes a hostel. Everything clean and okay, yet just really the basics you need.
Travel Budget for Activities
Activities in Malaysia are certainly not expensive! We regularly booked a day-tour at the place we stayed. For instance, snorkeling on the Perhentians, visiting the tea plantations on the Cameron Highlands and multiple jungle trekkings. We ended up with an amount just under €200 for two people! Not bad for our budget for Malaysia!
Food and Drinks Budget Malaysia
When you are in Malaysia, in fact there only is one option: pick the local food. It is affordable and delicious and you won’t find any decent western food in most places (unless you like to live on a 7-11 diet). Although going to a restaurant in Asia is fairly cheap, we still ended up spending a large part of our budget on food. Normally, we do make dinner ourselves, saving a lot by just buying groceries at a supermarket. However, when you are used to eating out every night on your vacation, Malaysia is really, really cheap!
Budget Simcard, Souvenirs and Other Expenses Malaysia
We always choose between a local SIM or an e-SIM, obviously the cheapest option (both work really well in general)! In Malaysia it became a local SIM card for about €15. Furthermore, traveling is about the experience for us. Thus, we normally do not have other expenses besides some small souvenirs at the local stores.
Tip: with the code MEIKE4854 you’ll receive a €3,- discount on your first purchase.
