Review my Cameron Highlands trip: things to do, itinerary & cost [2024 updated]

1. About Cameron Highlands

• Cameron Highlands is the greatest tea-producing region in South-East Asia and Malaysia. Although there are many plantations in the valley now, “BOH Tea” is still the most well-known tea plantation and factory in Cameron Highlands.
• The highland is named after William Cameron – a British colonial government geologist and explorer who discovered this mountainous region in 1885. However, the discovery went lost for 40 years and was only known by the public until 1920 when George Maxwell – another British explorer – rediscovered it.

2. How to get to Cameron Highlands?

If you don’t drive a car, then the only way to travel to Cameron Highlands is by bus. Tanah Rata is the bus terminal in Cameron Highlands. Here are some common routes to Tanah Rata bus terminal:

From Kuala Lumpur to Cameron Highlands

Bus terminal in KL: Bersepadu Selatan (TBS) – the main long-distance bus terminal in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Duration: 3.5 hours.

Ticket: around RM40

Website to book ticket: CLICK HERE

From Penang to Cameron Highlands

Bus terminal in Penang: Sugai Nibong Bus Terminal

Duration: about 4 hours

Ticket: RM40

Website to book ticket: CLICK HERE

From Ipoh to Cameron Highlands

Bus terminal in Ipoh: AmanJaya Bus Terminal

Duration: 2.5 hours

Ticket: RM20-25

Website to book ticket: CLICK HERE

Note: The AmanJaya Bus Terminal is pretty far from Ipoh old town (where most of the tourist attractions are located in). To get to the bus terminal, you need to take a grab/taxi or catch a bus at Meden Kidd Bus Station straight to AmanJaya Bus Terminal at RM2.

3. How to get around Cameron Highlands?

Here are the most common ways to get around Cameron Highlands:

By car: Driving a car in Cameron Highlands is challenging with many blind turns and narrow roads. If you are confident with your driving skill, go ahead!

By motorbike: Motorbike rental costs around RM30/ 5 hours, 50RM/ 8 hours, RM80/24 hours. You can rent right at your hotel/guesthouse. Amazingly, you won’t need to top up so much petrol. I drove around for less than 5 hours and need to top up only RM1. That’s greattt!!

By tour: A common misunderstanding is that tours are expensive, however, taking a group tour would actually save you time and money as you can share the cost with other tourists as well. In Cameron Highlands, as there are limited ways to get around, joining a tour is also a good option.

You can consider this very affordable tour: Cameron Highland half-day tour which includes round trip transfer and transportation to Mossy Forest, Tea plantation, Butterfly & Insect Farm, and Strawberry Farm (Entrance tickets are not inclusive).

By taxi/grab car: If you don’t want to drive a car, it’s fine, you can take a taxi/grab. If you catch a random taxi, they normally will provide you with a fixed rate to popular attractions such as tea plantations, strawberry farms, etc. For example, a 3-hour drive to 3 places of interest of your choice costs around RM75.

Note:

• The traffic is super jam during weekends/holidays, thus, consider driving around by motorbike to skip the long line. In addition, it’s very hard to find car parking on those days.
• For motorbike drivers: Firstly, bring a thick jacket because it’s gonna be freezing. Secondly, a driving license is required if you want to rent a motorbike. And remember to bring the license with you all the way because the police may stop you anywhere.

4. Where to stay in Cameron Highlands?

There are 3 main areas to stay in Cameron Highlands: Tanah Rata and Brinchang.

• Tanah Rata: this is the largest town in Cameron Highlands where you can see a variety of restaurants, accommodations, and banks. The main bus station in Cameron Highlands is also located in this area. Places to visit in Tanah Rata:

Best budget-friendly hotels/ homestays in Tanah Rata: Hillview Inn Cameron Highlands PROMO, Bricks backpackers Hostel

• Brinchang: This is where most of the places of interest are located. Some of the most famous tourist attractions in Brinchang are Time Tunnel Museum, Cameron Flora Park, Sheep Sanctuary, Ee Feng Gu Bee Farm, Butterfly Farm, and Kea Farm market.

Best budget-friendly hotels/homestays in Brinchang: Wan Alyasa Hotel, TULIP HOTEL & APARTMENT

5. Where to eat in Cameron Highlands?

Below are several highly rated restaurants (both halal & non-halal) in Cameron Highlands that you can try.

Best halal restaurants in Cameron Highlands

Ferm Nyonya

This is a Halal Nyonya restaurant nested in Tanah Rata which serves amazingly good food. On my Cameron Highlands trip, I ordered 3 dishes (fried egg, steamed fish, tofu) and all were tasty. Highly recommend the steamed fish with sweet and sour sauce!!!

• Address: 78A-D, Persiaran Camelia 4, Tanah Rata, 39000 Tanah Rata, Pahang
• Opening hours: every day, 11:00–15:30, 17:30–21:30

Highland Steamboat Cheese & Grill

Steamboat & BBQ is probably the best thing to eat to warm up our bodies in the chilly weather of Cameron Highlands. Highland Steamboat Cheese & Grill is where you can enjoy a variety of bbq selections, fresh veggies, seafood, drinks, and fruit cuts, including ice creams at an affordable price of RM35/head & free for kids under 6. If you want a bowl of cheese, you need to pay only RM10 additional.

Besides, there is also an area for kids to play with arcade toys and toy cars. Parents would love this restaurant so much, yah?

However, nothing is too good to be true. Some negative feedback is long waiting time, hard finding parking and the restaurant, and sometimes dirty utensils.

• Address: Persiaran Dayang Endah, Tanah Rata, 39000 Tanah Rata, Pahang
• Opening hours: every day except Tuesday, 17:00–00:00

Best non-halal restaurants in Cameron Highlands

Delicious & Happiness Cameron Highlands Restaurant

This is a Chinese restaurant that received many 5-star reviews from customers. According to some customers’ reviews, the food is amazingly yummy, the food portion is large, and the service is fast despite the full house.

Some highly recommended dishes: Assam fish, pork belly fried with dried chili, sweet and sour pork, crispy Marmite chicken, The herbal pig stomach & ribs, salt egg prawn eggs.

• Address: : no.16, Bawah Jalan Angsana 1, Brinchang point Cameron Higlands, 39100 Brinchang, Pahang
• Opening hours: every day, 12:00–14:30, 18:00–21:30

Singh Chapati

If you are into Indian food, don’t miss this restaurant. It serves delicious authentic North Indian home-cooked food. The portion served is also big and the staffs are very humble and kind. However, do expect long waiting times during peak hours.

Best foods to try here: vegetarian biryani, chicken butter masala, garlic paratha, paneer makhani, and sweet lassi.

• Address: No 1, Brij Court, Tanah Rata, 39000 Tanah Rata, Pahang
• Opening hours: every day, 13:30–14:30, 18:30–21:30

Restaurant Tuan Yuan

In this restaurant, you can order charcoal steamboat – a Chinese traditional hotpot that is very well-known in Cameron Highlands. It is said that the food here was fresh and delicious at a reasonable price. Specifically, the charcoal steamboat costs only RM25/set which includes veggies, noodles, egg, meat, prawn, la la, etc. 

Some other dishes to try: salted egg mantis prawn, buttered squid with oats, herbal soup, gui hua mee hoon.

• Address: 6, Jalan Besar, Brinchang, 39100 Brinchang, Pahang
• Opening hours: every day, 12:00 – 21:30

6. Things to do in Cameron Highlands in 2 days

There are way more places to visit in Cameron Highlands, however, in this blog post, I’m just gonna share my reviews about places I visited on my Cameron Highlands trip.

Cameron Flora Park

 

 

 

 

 

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Bài viết do maiii_travelog (@maiii_travelog) chia sẻ

This is a new place to visit in Cameron Highlands that you must visit because it’s just so beautifullll. It’s a huge blossom garden with many kinds of flowers displayed. Girls, this is your heaven, prepare your phone storage and battery well before coming here.

• Address: lot 191, 39010 Brinchang, Pahang
• Opening hours: 09:30–19:00
• Entrance ticket: RM50/adult, RM25/child

Read more: Cameron Flora Park review: ticket price, transportation, what’s inside?

Apiary Farm

I like this farm because it is a hybrid of a bee farm and a strawberry farm, therefore, I can save my time to experience 2 things in one place.

Here you can see the big bee hive through glass, very vivid and interesting.

The strawberry garden is also quite big, enough for you to experience and take pictures.

Besides, there are a cactus area and a souvenir shop as well.

• Address: Jalan BOH, Tanah Rata, 39000 Ringlet, Pahang
• Opening hours: 09:00–18:00
• Entrance ticket: free

Ee Feng Gu Bee

It is a renowned bee farm in Cameron Highlands. A plus point is that they painted and decorate the bee farm colorfully which is great to snap photos. However, talking about the experience, I don’t feel like it’s a good place to go as most of the premise is a shophouse and the bee hive display is not as vivid and accessible as the ones in Apiary farm.

• Address: Green Cow, No 75, Batu 43, 39100, Pahang
• Opening hours: 08:00–19:00
• Entrance ticket: free

Lavender garden

This is another instagrammable floral garden to visit in Cameron Highlands. It’s not that huge compared to Cameron Flora Park but it has different kinds of flowers, especially lavender.

Besides flowers, you can also take pictures with a beautiful castle, and small colorful houses displaying several countries’ flags, and try some ice cream. Their signature ice cream is lavender ice cream, but trust me, its taste is weird, you better try the strawberry flavor.

• Address: 59, Brinchang, 39100 Brinchang, Pahang
• Opening hours: 9:00 – 19:00
• Entrance ticket: RM20/adult, RM10/child

Kuala Terla Tea Plantation

This is one of the major tea plantations in Cameron Highlands where you can enjoy the breathtaking view from the hilltop.

To get to the top, you need to use the transportation service of Cameron Adventurous ATV & Safari. You can either choose ATV or Jeep to get around the tea plantation. The price for ATV is RM80/person and for a jeep ride is RM18/person.

Besides, there is a stop where you can experience an air swing at an additional charge of RM5/person and visit the tea plantation. And the last stop is an in-house safari (which is small and has nothing much to see).

Regarding my experience, I chose the Jeep ride and paid an extra RM5 to take pictures with the air swing. To be fair, the air swing was one of the best experiences that I had in Cameron Highlands. However, the jeep ride is totally not worth it, especially if you travel with the elderly and kids.

Thus if you want to have fun, choose ATV instead.

• Address: Cameron Adventurous 49th miles kuala terla, 39010 Tanah Rata, Pahang
• Opening hours: 09:00–18:00

Pasar Malam – Night market

Cameron Highlands is pretty boring at night as there is nothing much to do. Thus, Pasar Malam is, of course, a must-visit attraction in the evening.

There are many small stalls that sell everything from delicious foods, clothes, souvenirs, etc. And don’t forget to try some Chocolate Strawberry, it’s over my expectation.

Note: Do expect heavy traffic on the way to Pasar Malam, especially during weekends and holidays. If you want to skip the line, drive a motorbike. Otherwise, it might take you an hour to get there and it’s pretty hard to find car parking as well. Too scary… I remember…

• Address: 12, Jalan Golden Hills 1, Brinchang, 39000 Brinchang, Pahang
• Opening hours: Friday & Saturday: 17:00–23:00
• Entrance ticket: free

👉 Want to rent a car for your trip to Cameron Highland from Kuala Lumpur? Contact me via Whatsapp +60 149.776.712 (Mai) or my Instagram for the best price 💸.

Time tunnel museum

This museum is way more interesting than I expected. It provides information about Malaysia during the war, the history of Cameron Highlands, and displays all the antiques which are the childhood memories of many Malaysian. If you are a local Malaysian, you will find it so familiar with all the toys, old TV, old barbershop displays, etc.

Behind this museum is a garden where you can pick strawberries, feed rabbits, etc.

• Address: Cameron Highland, 39000 Brinchang, Pahang
• Opening hours: 09:00–18:00
• Entrance ticket: RM8/adult, RM6/child

Sheep sanctuary

 

 

 

 

 

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You wanna feed sheep and take pictures with them? Let’s go to the Sheep sanctuary. Personally, I’m super excited about this attraction because that was the first time I saw sheep haha.

You will be provided with a small box of food to feed the sheep after purchasing entrance tickets. If you still want to feed them, you can buy more at the vending machine, price is RM4/box and RM10/3 boxes.

• Address: Pasar Malam Kea Farm, Brinchang, 39100 Brinchang, Pahang
• Opening hours: 09:00–17:30
• Entrance ticket: RM8/adult, RM5/child
• Website to book tickets: CLICK HERE

7. My itinerary for 2D1N in Cameron Highlands

This is the itinerary of my Cameron Highlands trip:

Day 1:

• We arrived at Cameron Highlands at 1 pm.
• We visited Apiary Farm where I could see a bee farm and strawberry farm at the same time
• Had lunch at Ferm Nyonya restaurant.
• Check-in hotel: Father’s guesthouse and took rest.
• 4 pm, we rented a motorbike from our hotel to get around
• We headed to Time Tunnel Museum and spent about 40 minutes there.
• After that, we dropped by another bee farm called Ee Feng Gu Bee Farm. There is nothing much to see here.
• We had dinner at Cameron Organic Produce Steamboat restaurant. The steamboat was bland and the meat is not fresh, veggie is claimed to be organic. Overall, not recommended!
• Then we drove to Pasar Malam – a night market. It was full of people here. There were many foods to buy as well, highly recommend the chocolate strawberry.
• Back to the hotel and rest.

Day 2:

• We had breakfast in the food court nearby Sheep Sanctuary.
• Visited Sheep sanctuary. This one was quite fun and interesting.
• Then we went to Flora Park Parking and waited for the truck to take us to Cameron Flora Park. The total visiting time was about 1 hour.
• We headed to Kuala Terla Tea Plantation to experience a Jeep ride and air swing.
• After that, we just drove back to Kuala Lumpur directly.

8. How much did I spend on my 2N1D Cameron Highlands trip?

Below is the cost breakdown of my 2D1N trip to Cameron Highlands:

Accommodation

I stayed at Father’s guesthouse and it cost RM130/night/double room. This is a kind of medium-budget accommodation. For a 4-5 star hotel, the price for a double room is from RM190/night/ double room

Food for 2 people

• Lunch at Ferm Nyonya restaurant: RM88.50
• Steamboat at Cameron Organic Product steamboat restaurant: RM60 (it’s not nice at all, so I didn’t recommend it above)
• Chocolate Strawberry at night market: around RM6/cup
• Icecream at Lavender garden: RM8/cone
• Drink and cake at Cameron Flora Park: 41RM

Attractions tickets

• Cameron Flora Park: RM50/head
• Lavender garden: RM20/head
• Time tunnel museum: RM8/head
• ATV adventurous & Safari: Jeep ride-  RM18/head, air swing: RM5/head
• Sheep sanctuary: RM8/head

9. How many days in Cameron Highlands is enough?

As mentioned above, I went to Cameron Highlands for only 2 days 1 night, and surely it was not enough to fully explore it. There are much more places to visit such as the Mossy forest, Strawberry farms, Cactus garden, etc. However, I skipped it all and tried to find places where I can do several experiences at once. And to be honest, we were so rushed during our trip, it was like a marathon, trying to visit as quickly as possible.

Therefore, I would suggest visiting Cameron Highlands for at least 3 days or even 4 days.

10. Things to bear in mind when visiting Cameron Highlands

• There are many attractions in Cameron Highlands, but some offer the same thing as another.

For example, the most famous thing to do in Cameron Highlands is to pick strawberries. To be honest, most of the attractions in Cameron Highlands offer this experience (such as the Time tunnel, Lavender garden, Apiary farm, etc.).

Thus, you don’t need to go to the strawberry farm to pick strawberries but can do it anywhere else, combined with other activities to save time.

Here are some attractions that provide multiple activities:

Apiary Farm: bee farm, strawberry garden cactus garden.

Time tunnel museum: museum, strawberry farm (behind it).

Lavender garden: flower garden, strawberry garden.

• If you drive a car, bear in mind that there are many blind turns and it will be quite dizzy while driving.
• As the weather in Cameron Highlands is pretty cold all year round, especially after sunset, you should always bring a jacket with you.

👉 Want to rent a car for your trip to Cameron Highland from Kuala Lumpur? Contact me via Whatsapp +60 149.776.712 (Mai) or my Instagram for the best price 💸.

Above is my Cameron Highland travel guide which has every information about Cameron Highlands such as how to get there, where to stay, where to eat, places to visit, itinerary & cost etc. Hope you find this post helpful and share your experience below.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

1. When is strawberry season in Cameron Highlands?

The strawberry season in Cameron Highlands is from May to August. During this time, visitors are permitted to enter the farm and personally pick their own strawberries. 

2. What to buy in Cameron Highlands?

One thing in Cameron Highlands that every tourist wants to buy is, needless to say, strawberries. Besides strawberries, this destination is also famous for fresh veggies, tea, honey and flowers. You can find those things in most of the attractions in Cameron Highlands.

3. How high is Cameron Highlands?

Situated at an elevation of 5,000 ft (1,500 m) above sea level, the highland is notable for being the highest point in Malaysia that can be reached by road.