1 destination · 10 things to do

Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur is Southeast Asia’s great all-rounder: a skyline city of glass towers, Moorish colonial landmarks and Chinese shophouse streets, where the food is cheap, varied and astonishingly good and the day trips are as memorable as the city itself. Stand on the Skybridge between the Petronas Twin Towers, climb the 272 rainbow steps to the Temple Cave at Batu Caves, and walk Merdeka Square, where the flag of independent Malaya was raised in 1957. Spend a steamy afternoon in the cool galleries of the Islamic Arts Museum, eat your way down Petaling Street and Jalan Alor, then watch the towers light up from KLCC Park. Beyond the city, the pink-domed Putra Mosque rises over the lake at Putrajaya and a cable car climbs through the rainforest to the cool air of Genting Highlands. This guide books the tickets worth booking, points you to the free sights that matter most, and matches you to the right hotel, from a park-view suite beside the towers to a good-value base a minute from the hawker stalls.