Kuala Lumpur with a Toddler

Kuala Lumpur, or commonly known as KL, is the capital of Malaysia. We visited KL once before as a port of call on a cruise we took in Southeast Asia back in 2013. However, on cruises, you only get to stop at each location usually for less than one day so we had a quick stay in KL before and we wanted to explore much more this time. Plus, seeing Kuala Lumpur with a toddler would be much different than the last time we were there. KL is home to the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world, and an iconic structure to the city which we were able to see on multiple occasions.

Departing and Arriving

Leaving Hanoi for Kuala Lumpur with a toddler went as it normally does when we travel, we get up early, call an Uber to take us to the airport with all our luggage, and check-in. As we go to check-in, the ticket agent tells us that we are not sitting together. Since Matt books his ticket separately, for work purposes, he forgot to check and make sure we all were seated together after he bought the tickets. The ticket agent said he could not move our seats and we would have to talk to the flight attendants once we boarded the plane to see if it could be fixed. Thinking about this the whole time, I was so nervous I was going to have to sit on a plane for 3 hours with a mad toddler who only wants to be with her dad, the joys of flying with a toddler. Once we boarded the plane, I noticed that Lily and I both had aisle seats, that means across the aisle from each other, while Matt was 5 rows behind us. Lily starts to scream because she wants us all to sit in one row, as we normally do. While Matt explained to the flight attendant what was going on and I held Lily who was crying, the attendant told us to wait for everyone to board and then he will move us. Luckily, the front of the plane had a bunch of empty seats so we were able to sit together as a family, and Lily slept most of the way there.

After arriving, we found a SIM card shop where Matt bought a 6G data SIM card for $12 for us to use the internet while out and about and use Uber for transportation! Next, we headed to immigration where we saw the longest foreigner-entry line we’ve ever seen, worse than Hong Kong’s immigration line from our last trip. The line moved so slow, and after about an hour later we exited the airport.

Day 1

After we settled into the Intercontinental hotel we took a taxi to the aquarium, called Aquaria, at the KL Convention Center. We love aquariums and we are always hoping for something different as we go to each one. This aquarium had a tunnel through the shark tank, which is usually standard for an aquarium, but it had a moving sidewalk where you can stand there and take in the sharks and other huge fish while it slowly moved you along. We took advantage of all the photo ops and Lily even became a scared thinking the big fish and sharks were coming right at us as they swam above our heads. I highly recommend this aquarium when traveling to Kuala Lumpur with a toddler or any age kids.

After the aquarium, we went to the largest playground I have ever seen. The KLCC Park is situated right between the Convention Center and the Petronas Towers, with so many playgrounds and even a wading pool for kids to play in when it’s hot. When visiting Kuala Lumpur with a toddler, this is a must-do item as the playground is amazing and a good treat for the kids!

After Lily was able to run around and burn some steam off from those scary fish, we went looking for food. The Petronas Twin Towers are attached to a modern mall, Suria KLCC, with all kinds of stores that are familiar to us and many restaurants to choose from. Being that we are American, we opted for Chili’s—we needed some comfort food!

After dinner, we wanted to go up to the observation deck of the once tallest building in the world, Petronas Twin Towers, but it turns out that it is closed on Mondays, so we went back to the hotel to have our complimentary welcome drinks and wind down.

Day 2

Day two started with a trip to Batu Caves, which is built into a limestone hillside with caves and various Hindu temples. It is about a 30-minute ride outside the city center of KL so we took an Uber there and back. There are 272 steps and this is definitely an excursion where you would leave your stroller at the hotel. We opted to bring our backpack to carry Lily in as we knew her little legs could not withstand the number of stairs or wild monkeys running around. I had to rent a sarong because I had shorts on and ladies cannot wear shorts in Hindu temples. We made it to the top—sweating might I add— took some pictures, and headed back down. This historical site is a quick trip and very do-able for any age children if you come prepared like we did!

After returning to the city we went to the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, which has the largest free-flight walk-in aviary, which means birds are everywhere around you, walking and flying! We also ate lunch there at the Hornbill Restaurant. Lily was scared of all the birds close to her, so I had to hold her most of the time.

Man, we really scared our poor girl on this trip with all the close range animals. After walking to all the bird exhibits we let Lily play on the playground provided by the bird-park. When visiting Kuala Lumpur with a toddler, this is a pretty good excursion if they are not terrified of birds up close and personal. However, the birds are well behaved and many are still separated from humans so you can see them from afar. If you can make it all the way to the playground, you’ve seen it all and it’s a good way to end the visit by letting the kids run free without birds near them!

Next, we went to Central Market, which was a really cool place where you can get all kinds of souvenirs. They had everything from clothes, electronics, and handicrafts. There are also some restaurants of varying local cuisine. This was very stroller friendly and inside with AC so definitely a place to check out when it’s hot outside. We did a couple of laps and went upstairs to look around, but nothing caught our eye at the moment, there were so many shops to look at and we were pretty tired from all our walking and stair climbing. This market, like most, was not too child-friendly, luckily for us, Lily was tired and just wanted to stay in her stroller and snack on goldfish. However, it was not too crowded when we went so if she wanted to walk on her own she could have with no problem.

Day 3

In the morning, we checked out the hotel pool. Later we walked to a nearby mall and had lunch at an Italian restaurant. Lily loved all the lunar new year decorations in all the malls!

Then, we all went to another area in Chinatown called Petaling Street. It is a typical market set up with mostly knock-off designer items. We were not interested in any of these things as we were still looking for something more unique as a gift for Lily for when she is older. Since we were within walking distance of Central Market we went back there to look around again since we were more rested. We ended up with a new selfie stick as our current one is Bluetooth and eats our phone battery when using it. We also found a special gift for Lily. We discovered a unique store specializing in Tenmoku Pottery, where they had a selection of different animals of the lunar calendar and since Lily was born in the year of the sheep/goat, we bought her one that had green on it symbolizing the color of her birthstone: Peridot.

Overall our time in Kuala Lumpur with a toddler was as enjoyable as we hoped it would have been and we can’t wait to go back again.

Don’t Forget to Pack: Summer clothes as KL is a tropical climate and an umbrella because KL is known for frequent fast-onset rain showers.

Food:  We made sure to include breakfast for our hotel to make it easier this time, but KL is an international city and you can find any food you want. We only ate local cuisine a few times and it was tasty.

Observation on Kuala Lumpur: Everyone speaks English and it is a shoppers paradise. There are malls everywhere and most have familiar stores to us westerners.

Hotel Review: Intercontinental was in an awesome area downtown. It was within walking distance to the Petronas Twin Towers and surrounding area. It was a great hotel and the staff were very friendly and helpful and loved visiting with Lily as not that many kids were staying at the hotel while we were there. The pool was awesome for kids as it had a large wading pool for little kids to play in safely.

Transportation: Taxis are everywhere, but most of them you have to negotiate the price and they were always trying to rip us off. We only took taxis from the hotel as they stayed true to the meter. Uber was the best way for us to get around. We were able to use the sidewalks with strollers with no problems and the parks were very stroller friendly.

Things we didn’t do, but wanted to: Petronas Twin Tower observation deck, zoo, butterfly park, and the fountain orchestra at the KLCC park.

Next up we plan to travel to Thailand and Cambodia, and something tells me the animal encounters won’t end with KL.

Check out more blogs about our travels here.

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Traveling Houses

Check out more blogs about our travels here.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and share this blog article!

Traveling Houses