Malaysians love the mountains. Everywhere we travelled in Malaysia, the locals recommended a trip to the Cameron Highlands. So, while our boat was docked at the marina in Pangkor, we rented a car and brought Domino along for the trip. These are our Cameron Highlands highlights.
About Cameron Highlands
Cameron Highlands is a popular weekend destination from Kuala Lumpur, about 200 km south. On one of our breaks from cruising the Malacca Strait, we had to see what draws over 1.37 million visitors to this mountainous agricultural region.
The Highlands climb 1800 meters above sea level and boast the coolest climate in Malaysia. The temperature averages 23-25C in the daytime, and 14-16C at night. While this may not sound remarkable, it is a huge relief compared to 30+ degrees and 90%+ humidity elsewhere in Malaysia.
In addition to an excellent climate, Malaysia’s farming center is known for its tea and strawberries, both Cameron Highlands highlights.
Getting to the Cameron Highlands
The trip to Cameron Highlands is a journey. While we loved visiting the region, we did not love the drive. From Pangkor, it’s 160km to the Cameron Highlands, and the drive takes over 3 hours. We were lucky to have rented a car: the bus from Kuala Lumpur takes 5 hours. There is one road in, and it is windy as it goes up the mountains. The road is good, well paved and in good shape, it is just one switchback after another for a good chunk of time.
Since 91% of the regions’ visitors are domestic, we were advised to visit during the week. We visited from Tuesday – Friday, and the one road in and out was still busy. In fact, the region was still busy, just with Westerners instead of locals. Needless to say, the drive was not part of our Cameron Highlands highlights, but these are.
Cameron Highlands Highlights: Tea Plantations
Since the region is the tea growing region of Malaysia, we prioritized visiting tea plantations. We’ve been to coffee farms but never a tea plantation, so this was a treat. Not only are they beautiful, they smell fragrant and lovely.
We visited two tea plantations and took the quick but free tour of BOH, the largest tea manufacturer and plantation in Malaysia. We fortunately visited between bouts of rain, so were able to stroll through the tea fields. It downpoured frequently in Cameron Highlands, resulting in the lush greenery.
Eating in Cameron Highlands
Unfortunately, grocery shopping in Cameron Highlands was disappointing. Since we rented a home with a full kitchen, we hoped to cook some of our meals there. We could not find one good supermarket with produce, protein, and alcohol in one place. In fact, we had to visit different shops for each thing we needed. Fortunately, the restaurant scene in Cameron Highlands made up for it. If you are going and want to cook, I would shop ahead and bring it in a cooler.
Tea houses
One of the interesting side benefits of the tea culture in Cameron Highlands is the profusion of tea houses and the high quality scones. We had some of the best scones and strawberry jam ever at a cute teahouse right near our accommodations in Tanah Rata.
Restaurants
As we’ve seen throughout Malaysia, the food scene is top notch, and it qualifies for our Cameron Highlands highlights. In addition to tea houses, the region is home to a glut of steamboat restaurants, what we know as hot pot. And yes, we tried those, plus a traditional British pub lunch.
During most of these meals, the rain poured from the sky, soaking the streets and irrigating the crop fields. While Cameron Highlands doesn’t offer the range of outdoor activities we see in most mountain towns, the restaurant scene was excellent.
Strawberries
Cameron Highlands is known for tea and strawberries, and the scones with strawberry jam were incredible. Also incredible are the fresh strawberries. We walked around this area with strawberry stalls, ice cream, smoothies and more and didn’t think to take any photos. I guess we were too busy sampling the strawberries. You can also go strawberry picking at any number of farms, or just do what we did and buy some for eating. The best strawberries I can remember eating were our Cameron Highlands highlights. A must.
Domino in Cameron Highlands
One of the best things about our time in Cameron Higlands was that we got to bring Domino. She was very chill for the long drive, and loved the accommodation! Her favorite part was sitting in the cat bed looking out the front window. From there, she could watch the world going by, including the neighborhood cats. RIP Domino.
Time Tunnel Museum
During one rainstorm, we stepped into the Time Tunnel Museum, and it was a trip. Full of old posters and photographs, games, toys, records, and more, it was a blast from the pop culture past, with plenty of regional history thrown in. It’s only a couple bucks to enter and worth a visit to see all the crazy cool stuff in the collection. All of the random quirky stuff in the museum is one person’s collection, which makes it even cooler. Plus, we learned a bit of local history on another rainy day.
If you go to Cameron Highlands, pack an umbrella and your appetite. Tell us your favorite spots in the comments.
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