Singapore and Malaysia - let's go!
Why Singapore and Malaysia?
Since becoming a family of 3, we have done a lot of travel, but all within the US. Originally, our plan for the "big vacation" this year was to visit the Pacific Northwest, specifically Vancouver, Seattle, and maybe a second visit to Portland. I was tracking flights there for the summer at about $400 each.
Then, on some random day in some random week, Oak sends me an email from Scott's Cheap Flights that advertised flights from Raleigh to Singapore for $500. This had to be a joke - there was no way that you could fly halfway across the world for almost the same price as a 6-hour domestic flight. It had to be one random ticket for someone that had already purchased the deal, as these types of things normally go. Quick search in Google Flights revealed that this deal, was in fact, the real thing. So, without much else thought, we booked 3 tickets on Japan Airlines.
However, it wasn't a completely uneducated decision. Singapore has been on our radar since we saw Anthony Bourdain visit hawker stalls on TV on his first TV show, A Cook's Tour. I also like to follow a lot of family travel blogs and travel vloggers on youtube, so I already knew that Singapore and Malaysia were among the most family-friendly destinations in Southeast Asia. I also knew that once we got there, food, lodging and transportation would be very affordable thanks to the strong US dollar.
Planning resources
For me, planning a trip is half the fun, and I nerd out over the research. Generally, I do the same type of research no matter what the destination, but to a lesser extent for trips that are closer to home, especially ones that we go to often. For this trip, I collected a bunch of links and ideas on my Southeast Asia Pinterest board.
I found the following websites particularly helpful with planning a family trip to Asia:
The following travel vlogs on youtube covered Malaysia and Singapore, which I found helpful. Lots of travel inspiration on all of these in general - I have to admit to going pretty deep down this rabbit hole:
Itinerary
Of course, we had more ideas on our list than we could dream of visiting in 12 days. With a child, it's definitely better to plan some extra time in each destination. On a typical day in a destination, we try to include at least one kid-focused activity a day - whether it's visiting a zoo, kids museum, or just going to the pool. It's not reasonable to expect a small child to tolerate more than a few hours a day of "adult activities" - by this I mean historical sights, walking around shopping, or adult-oriented museums. Especially in Southeast Asia, the climate is very hot so everyone tires out quickly.
After a lot of research and deliberation we came up with the following itinerary. I would say that we could have spent at least 2 more days in each destination easily and not gotten bored, but this was enough time to give us a taste of each place and to visit most major tourist attractions:
We took 3 flights in Singapore and Malaysia - Singapore > Langkawi, Langkawi > Penang, and Penang > Singapore. The tickets were under $20 USD each for 1-2 hour flights. We checked one suitcase and our stroller, which added another $10 to the cost. So, overall, very cheap and saved us a lot of time - most of the other methods would take an entire day of travel.
We rented a car in Langkawi and used Grab everywhere else. Grab is the taxi/Uber style app that is popular in Southeast Asia. Uber is there too, but Grab tends to be a little bit cheaper in general. We used a mifold car seat for Stone in both our taxis to and from the airport and in our Grabs.
In Malaysia, they really didn't seem to care if we used a car seat so it was really on our own discretion. Singapore seems to have carseat laws similar to the United States, so we were definitely happy to have the seat to be safe everywhere, including our Uber ride to and from the airport at home. Singapore offers family Grab and Uber rides that include carseats, but they are considerably more expensive. The seat was not much to carry around with us.
After a lot of research and deliberation we came up with the following itinerary. I would say that we could have spent at least 2 more days in each destination easily and not gotten bored, but this was enough time to give us a taste of each place and to visit most major tourist attractions:
- Singapore: 4 days
- Langkawi, Malaysia: 3 days
- Penang, Malaysia: 3 days
- Johor Bahru, Malaysia: 2 days
Transport
While you certainly can take trains, ferries, buses, and rent cars in Singapore and Malaysia, by far the 2 most convenient and time-efficient methods we found were Air Asia and Grab.
We took 3 flights in Singapore and Malaysia - Singapore > Langkawi, Langkawi > Penang, and Penang > Singapore. The tickets were under $20 USD each for 1-2 hour flights. We checked one suitcase and our stroller, which added another $10 to the cost. So, overall, very cheap and saved us a lot of time - most of the other methods would take an entire day of travel.
We rented a car in Langkawi and used Grab everywhere else. Grab is the taxi/Uber style app that is popular in Southeast Asia. Uber is there too, but Grab tends to be a little bit cheaper in general. We used a mifold car seat for Stone in both our taxis to and from the airport and in our Grabs.
In Malaysia, they really didn't seem to care if we used a car seat so it was really on our own discretion. Singapore seems to have carseat laws similar to the United States, so we were definitely happy to have the seat to be safe everywhere, including our Uber ride to and from the airport at home. Singapore offers family Grab and Uber rides that include carseats, but they are considerably more expensive. The seat was not much to carry around with us.
Lodging
We didn't book anything particularly special for lodging, but we were able to get hotels with pools for about $40-60 USD a night in each destination. I found most of our hotels on booking.com and agoda. I booked ahead of time, so I didn't have to worry about finding hotels on the road.
Stay tuned
I plan on sharing some information about each destination, our packing list, and many more travel tips!
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