Taiping sits less than an hour beyond Ipoh on the same expressway, and it's a much quieter town. KL to Taiping by car is about 266 km and takes around three hours on the North–South Expressway, expressway nearly all the way. It's a long day trip and an easy overnight one; the overnight is the better plan.
The drive
From PJ, join the North–South Expressway at Sungai Buloh and head north. The rest areas come in a predictable order: Rawang early on, Tapah about halfway, Sungai Perak after Ipoh, then Bukit Gantang shortly before Taiping. Tapah is the natural breakfast stop.
There are two Taiping exits: Changkat Jering (exit 146) first, then Taiping North at Kamunting (exit 148). Put your hotel or first stop into Waze or Google Maps and let it pick. Our guide to KL to Ipoh by car covers the first three-quarters of this road if you want to stop there on the way.
What to do once you're there
- Taiping Lake Gardens. A public garden since 1880, the first in what was then Malaya, laid out on old tin-mining land. Walk round the lakes early, before the heat.
- Zoo Taiping and Night Safari. The zoo dates from 1961 and sits inside the Lake Gardens. Its Night Safari opened in 2003 as the first night zoo in Malaysia, which is a good reason to stay the night rather than drive home.
- Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill). You can't drive up it in your own or a rental car: the road is closed to private vehicles, and access has been by the resort's own jeeps, which after the 2025 reopening were only for guests booked into the bungalows. Many people walk up instead. Check the current arrangements with the Bukit Larut resort before planning around it.
- Kuala Sepetang. On the coast west of Taiping, with charcoal kilns that burn mangrove wood from the Matang reserve, and riverside seafood restaurants.
Bring an umbrella. Taiping gets around 4,000 mm of rain a year, which makes it the wettest town in Peninsular Malaysia, and the gardens look their best right after it.
Day trip or overnight
A day trip is about 540 km and six hours in the car, all of it for one person: on a Grandpride self-drive rental only the named renter may drive. That's a lot for a walk round a lake. Stay one night and you get the Night Safari as well.
Every rental includes 120 km a day, with +50 km, +100 km or unlimited as options.
| Plan | Rough distance | +100 km a day gives | Choose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day trip | about 540 km | 220 km | Unlimited |
| One night (2 days) | about 580 km | 440 km | Unlimited |
| Two nights (3 days) | about 620 km | 660 km | +100 km a day |
Unlimited costs less per kilometre than paying the car's per-km rate after the trip. Take a Touch 'n Go card with the keys for the tolls, loaded with RM 50 to RM 500, and bring the car back with the same fuel level it had at collection.
The car
You don't need anything special for a highway run and a small town. The Honda Civic RS, a sedan at RM 800 a day, is plenty for two or three people, and the Toyota Harrier, an SUV from RM 600 a day, gives a family more room. If you'd rather sit in the back the whole way, a chauffeur can do the round trip for you; our guide to a private driver from KL to other cities explains the pricing. If three hours each way is more than you wanted, our list of day trips from KL by car has shorter runs.
