If the wedding is on Saturday and you've got four or five days before work, a honeymoon road trip in Malaysia is the easy version of going away: no airports, and a car you'd never drive on a normal weekend. Keep it to one region. The romantic getaway from KL that works is three hours of driving a day at most, with the rest spent somewhere you wanted to be.
Pick the route by what you want to do there
| If you want | Go to | From KL | Driving | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cool air and slow mornings | Cameron Highlands | about 200 km | 3.5 to 4 hours | Weekend jams between Tanah Rata and Brinchang |
| Cool air, very little driving | Fraser's Hill | about 100 km | 1.5 to 2 hours | A narrow, winding last stretch |
| Food and old streets | Ipoh, then Penang | about 205 km, then about 150 km more | 2.5 to 3 hours, then about 2 | Traffic leaving KL on Friday |
| A beach | Cherating on the east coast | about 280 km | about 3 hours | The northeast monsoon, November to March |
If you only have two nights, choose Fraser's Hill. You'll arrive before lunch on the first day and never spend more than two hours in the car.
If you have four or five nights and like food more than scenery, drive to Ipoh for a night, then on to Penang for two or three, and come home on the expressway in one go. Our guides to KL to Ipoh by car and KL to Penang by car cover the exits and the bridges.
If one of you wants a beach and it's between April and October, go east to Cherating. Outside those months the sea is rough and many places close; our east coast road trip guide has the monsoon detail.
If you want cool weather and a proper hill drive, go up to the Cameron Highlands. Pick the Simpang Pulai road if the driver doesn't enjoy hairpins.
Pick a car for two people and two bags
On a honeymoon nobody needs the back seat, so this is the one trip where a two-seater makes sense. The catch is the boot.
- The BMW Z4, a two-seat roadster at RM 1,500 a day, and the Mercedes-Benz SLK 250 at RM 1,000 a day are both two-seat open-top cars. With no back seat to put things on, pack soft bags rather than hard suitcases.
- The Porsche 718 Cayman S, RM 2,800 a day, is a mid-engined two-seat coupé. It's the one to pick if the drive itself is part of the holiday, especially up a hill road.
- The Bentley Continental GT, RM 4,400 a day, has four seats, so the bags go in the back and nothing has to be left behind. It suits a long expressway day to Penang better than a roadster does.
- The Mitsuoka Rock Star, RM 1,900 a day, looks like a 1960s sports car and is built on a modern roadster. Two seats and a small boot: lovely for photos, tight for a week's clothes.
A convertible in Malaysia is a morning and evening car. Keep the roof up at midday and whenever the sky goes dark in the afternoon. Our convertible rental guide compares the open-top cars.
One of you does all the driving
On a Grandpride self-drive rental only the named renter may drive. You can't take turns, so plan the days around one driver: no single day much over three or four hours at the wheel, and stops every couple of hours. If neither of you wants to drive at all, a chauffeur can take you, priced by distance for one-way trips; our guide to a private driver from KL to other cities explains how.
The mileage, worked out
Every rental includes 120 km a day. You can add 50 km or 100 km a day, or take unlimited, and each works out cheaper per kilometre than paying for extra kilometres afterwards.
| Trip | Rough distance | 120 km a day gives | What to add |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fraser's Hill, 2 days | about 220 km | 240 km | Nothing, if you don't wander far |
| Cameron Highlands, 3 days | about 450 km with hill driving | 360 km | +50 km a day (510 km) |
| Cherating, 4 days | about 650 km with local trips | 480 km | +100 km a day (880 km) |
| Ipoh and Penang, 4 days | about 800 km with local driving | 480 km | Unlimited; +100 a day (880 km) leaves very little spare |
Rental cars stay in Peninsular Malaysia, so a run up to southern Thailand or across to Singapore isn't possible. Return the car with the same fuel level it left with; on a long trip, fill up in the last town rather than hunting for a station near home. The car can be delivered to your door the morning after the wedding, free within 10 km of our Petaling Jaya showroom and RM 100 elsewhere in the Klang Valley.
