Kuala Lumpur in 1.5 Days with Kids: Our Family Itinerary Around KLCC

We only had two weeks for our summer holiday. For my husband, Mas Bas, it was not really a holiday because he still had to work in several places. So we planned our trip around his work schedule.

He needed to attend an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur and meet clients in Surabaya. That was how our trip began with a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, where we stayed for three days and two nights.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur late in the afternoon. With Caesar and Milan still dealing with jet lag and Mas Bas busy with work, we really only had one evening and one full day to explore. Since we were staying near KLCC, we decided to keep our plans around that area.

Quick Answer

If you have about one and a half days in central Kuala Lumpur, staying near KLCC makes it possible to combine shopping, local food, Aquaria KLCC, KLCC Park and the PETRONAS Twin Towers. Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre are connected by a covered, air conditioned walkway. An underground pedestrian tunnel continues from the Convention Centre to Suria KLCC and the towers. This makes the route manageable with children, especially when the weather is hot or rainy.

Our route looked like this:

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur

We landed in Kuala Lumpur in the afternoon after an overnight flight from Amsterdam. We had booked our airport transfer while we were still in the Netherlands, so after leaving KLIA we only needed to find the driver who would take us to Ascott Kuala Lumpur.

We arrived at the apartment at exactly 5:00 p.m. After waiting a little while for check-in, we went up to our apartment on the 30th floor. We had a balcony with a direct view towards the PETRONAS Twin Towers. Caesar and Milan were excited because the towers looked so close from up there.

Why We Chose an Apartment Instead of a Hotel

We chose an apartment instead of a hotel because we wanted more space. We could have separate bedrooms while still staying together, and there was also a living room with a comfortable sofa, a dining table and enough room for Mas Bas and me to work.

Being able to do laundry also mattered because this was part of a longer trip. We had not travelled all the way to Malaysia for a short city break and then returned home. Kuala Lumpur was only the beginning of our route.

The apartment was also better for Caesar and Milan because they like to move around, and a normal hotel room would quickly feel too small. We could have booked two connecting rooms, but they usually cost more than one family apartment.

Shah Rukh Khan and Kuala Lumpur

We often watch films from different countries on Netflix, including Bollywood films starring Shah Rukh Khan. Caesar sometimes says that he looks like him, and it has become a running joke in our family.

When we walked out of KLIA, Caesar and Milan were surprised to see so many Indian Malaysians around us. They had not realised how multicultural Kuala Lumpur was.

The woman from the taxi service who met us was Indian Malaysian too, so Mas Bas told me to ask whether she knew Shah Rukh Khan. Of course she did. Another member of staff overheard us and said that Shah Rukh Khan was very famous in Malaysia. He had even received the title Datuk. None of us had heard that before, so I looked it up later to see if it was true. She was right.

Why Shah Rukh Khan Has the Title Datuk

In 2008, Shah Rukh Khan received the Darjah Mulia Seri Melaka, or DMSM, a Melaka state honour that carries the title Datuk. Reporting published at the time said the honour recognised his contribution to promoting Melaka through film. Part of One 2 Ka 4 had been filmed at A’Famosa Resort in Alor Gajah, Melaka, and state leaders believed the film had introduced the destination to an international audience.

Datuk is an official honour, not an academic qualification or an informal nickname. So yes, he can formally be addressed as Datuk Shah Rukh Khan. So the taxi staff was right. Shah Rukh Khan really does have the title Datuk.

Looking at the PETRONAS Twin Towers from Our Balcony

Even before we went closer, the PETRONAS Twin Towers already looked impressive from our balcony. They seemed to fill the whole view.

The PETRONAS Twin Towers are 451.9 metres tall and have 88 floors, they were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004, before Taipei 101 took over. They are still recognised as the world’s tallest twin tower buildings.

One fact I found interesting was how they were built. A Japanese consortium worked on one tower, while a South Korean consortium worked on the other. The team building Tower 2 reached the top first.

Between the two towers is a Skybridge on floors 41 and 42. It is designed to allow each tower to move slightly in strong winds instead of holding them rigidly together. Each tower’s floor plan is based on two overlapping squares that form an eight pointed star inspired by Islamic geometry.

The name PETRONAS comes from Malaysia’s national oil and gas company, which uses the complex as its headquarters. KLCC means Kuala Lumpur City Centre and refers to the wider precinct, including the towers, Suria KLCC, KLCC Park, the Convention Centre, hotels and office buildings. PETRONAS is the main landmark, but it is not the name of the entire area.

You may also recognise the towers from Entrapment, the 1999 film starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones. From our balcony, it was easy to see why they are so famous.

Our First Evening in Kuala Lumpur

After leaving our luggage and taking showers, we went out for dinner. Our destination was Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, a large shopping mall in the Bukit Bintang area.

It was within walking distance, but we did not want to arrive too close to closing time. Pavilion generally closed at 10:00 p.m. during our visit, although restaurant hours and final order times can vary. We took a taxi and were seated in the restaurant by 8:26 p.m.

Whenever we travel, we try local food as long as it stays within what we are comfortable eating. That evening we chose Serai and ordered several Malaysian dishes to share. We ordered a lot and stayed until the mall was nearly closing.

We decided to walk back to the apartment instead of taking another taxi. Along the way, we saw more of Kuala Lumpur at night, took photos of the towers and stopped at a 24-hour supermarket for drinks, snacks and a few things we had not brought from the Netherlands.

Our Full Day Around KLCC

Mas Bas left early the next morning after having breakfast with me. He had to go to the exhibition, while Caesar and Milan slept longer. The time difference between the Netherlands and Malaysia had caught up with them.

Once they were awake, we walked towards KLCC to find somewhere for a late breakfast.

Using the KLCC to Bukit Bintang Walkway

Ascott Kuala Lumpur is close to the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre and the entrance area for the KLCC to Bukit Bintang Walkway. This 1.7 kilometre pedestrian route connects the Convention Centre with shopping, hotels and dining around Bukit Bintang, including Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

Most of the walkway runs above the street and is covered and air conditioned. From the Convention Centre, you can continue through an underground tunnel to Suria KLCC, the PETRONAS Twin Towers and the KLCC LRT station. The Convention Centre website also says that both routes are monitored by CCTV.

For a family spending most of the day around KLCC, this connection is useful. We could reach the Convention Centre and Aquaria without spending every journey in a taxi or walking for long periods in the heat.

Breakfast and the Languages We Heard in Kuala Lumpur

We had plenty of choices for breakfast around KLCC, from Asian dishes to Western food. While we were eating, we could hear several different languages around us.

Malay is Malaysia’s official language, but English is widely used in Kuala Lumpur, particularly in hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, tourist attractions and business settings. Tourism Malaysia notes that many Malaysians are multilingual, and Mandarin, Cantonese and Tamil are also commonly spoken within different communities.

I often heard people move between Malay and English in the same conversation. This informal Malaysian style of English is commonly called Manglish.

As an Indonesian speaker, I could understand a lot of Malay. Some words looked or sounded familiar but had a different everyday meaning from the one I knew in Indonesia. Here are a few examples:

English was the easiest choice for Caesar and Milan. But because they look Asian, people sometimes began speaking Malay to them automatically. Caesar then had to say, “Sorry, I don’t speak Malay,” and ask them to repeat it in English.

Visiting Aquaria KLCC

Our next stop was Aquaria KLCC. We went up and down several escalators before finding the correct direction, which was slightly ironic because Aquaria is located directly under the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

Aquaria KLCC is about 60,000 square feet and has more than 5,000 animals from land and water. Its main attraction is a 90-metre underwater tunnel, where visitors can see sand tiger sharks, rays, marine turtles and fish swimming above and around them.

Its location makes it easy to combine with other KLCC attractions. From our apartment, we could easily walk to Aquaria using the pedestrian walkway. The day we visited, several groups of kindergarten and primary school children were there on school outings.

Aquaria sells different admission categories for MyKad holders and international visitors. We may have looked local, but we did not have Malaysian identity cards, so we paid the general admission rate for foreign visitors. Ticket prices and operating hours can change, so it is better to check the official Aquaria KLCC website before visiting.

The Photo Counter Mistake We Did Not Expect

Inside Aquaria, photographers invited visitors to pose at several points. The photos could be viewed near the exit, and buying them was optional.

What we did not understand was that selecting the photos we liked would start the purchase process. Before we understood what was happening, two photos had already been printed by the staff and put into hard-cover albums. We ended up buying them, even though we had no idea where to put them at home.

Our lesson was simple. The staff had already told us the price, but we did not realise that once we chose a photo, they would print it immediately and we would have to buy it. So make sure you really want the photo before selecting it. The photo package cost considerably more than we expected in relation to our admission tickets.

Walking Through KLCC Park

From Aquaria, we walked towards KLCC Park. The midday heat felt strong to us after living in the Netherlands, but the mature trees gave parts of the park welcome shade.

With slightly cooler weather, I could have stayed there much longer. The park gives you open views of the PETRONAS Twin Towers and the surrounding Kuala Lumpur skyline without needing to go far from the malls and Convention Centre.

After walking around the park and seeing what was there, we went back inside the Convention Centre. A business exhibition was taking place, so we spent a little time looking around. KLCC building was not simply a passage between attractions but an active venue for exhibitions, conferences and other events. Business exhibitions were also part of the reason our trip had been planned around work in the first place.

Watch our Kuala Lumpur trip on YouTube: Want to see what this route actually looked like, from walking around KLCC to the places we visited along the way? Watch our Kuala Lumpur family travel video on Nasi en Stamppot.

How to Walk from Aquaria KLCC to Suria KLCC

It was already late afternoon, and we still had not had lunch. We had breakfast late, but now we were hungry, so we decided to eat at another mall, Suria KLCC.

Since we were already at KLCC, we could have walked back towards the Aquaria exit. From the Convention Centre’s Concourse Level, signs for “Suria KLCC / PETRONAS Twin Towers” lead to an underground pedestrian tunnel. It goes straight to Suria KLCC, so we would not have had to walk outside in the sun.

That is the route we should have taken.

But we did not notice the signs, so we returned to the walkway we had used earlier, walked back towards Ascott and continued outside. We crossed the road at the traffic lights and eventually reached Suria KLCC.

We missed the tunnel and ended up walking outside instead. It was nice to see Kuala Lumpur during the day, but it was hot and the pavement was not very convenient. I would not take this route with a buggy or wheelchair. Walking through the Convention Centre would have been easier.

A Late Lunch and Shopping at Suria KLCC

Suria KLCC sits at the base of the PETRONAS Twin Towers, so once you enter the mall, you are already inside the same complex. The Malay word suria means sun, while KLCC stands for Kuala Lumpur City Centre.

The mall has hundreds of shops, along with restaurants, a food court, a supermarket and entertainment venues. We stopped for a very late lunch at another restaurant serving Malaysian food.

The portions were much larger than we expected. If several people want to try different dishes, I would order a few dishes for the table and share them instead of ordering a full plate for each person.

Mas Bas’s birthday was only a few days away, so Caesar, Milan and I also looked for a present. We chose a LEGO Lucky Cat.

The lucky cat is Japanese and is called maneki neko, which means beckoning cat. The raised paw represents a beckoning gesture rather than a Western style wave. These figures are traditionally associated with welcoming good fortune, wealth and customers, which is why they are often placed near the entrance of shops and restaurants.

For us, the present also became a symbolic wish for good luck and success in Mas Bas’s life.

At around 8:00 p.m., Mas Bas called to say the exhibition had finished for the day. He joined us at Suria KLCC for dinner. We chose Malaysian food again, even though the rest of us were still quite full from our late lunch.

Seeing the PETRONAS Twin Towers at Night

After dinner, we walked back to KLCC Park. The fountains and pool lights were on, and the Petronas Towers looked bright against the dark sky.

From KLCC Park, we walked to the Petronas Twin Towers and touched the first pillar we saw. As we stood there, we hoped that one day we might have an office inside the towers and Mas Bas could get a Datuk title too, just like Shah Rukh Khan.

People around us were taking selfies and family photos, while some were even posing for professional photographers. With the Petronas Towers lit up behind them, it was easy to see why so many people stopped for a picture.

On the way back to the apartment, we stopped once more at the 24 hour supermarket for Malaysian snacks and drinks that we could not easily buy in the Netherlands.

Mas Bas had to keep working that night, while I started editing our travel videos for the Nasi en Stamppot channel. We were travelling together, but we both still had work to do.

Was One and a Half Days Enough for Kuala Lumpur?

One and a half days gave us enough time to explore the area around KLCC and Bukit Bintang, but it was nowhere near enough to see all of Kuala Lumpur, so we did not try to fit faraway neighbourhoods and attractions into the same trip. Staying in one area made things easier, especially with jet lag and Mas Bas still having work to do.

The next morning, we still had a few hours before leaving Kuala Lumpur, so we went to Batu Caves. With its colourful staircase, large golden statue and monkeys, it felt very different from the modern KLCC area, so I will share that part of our trip in a separate story.

For a short family trip, staying around central Kuala Lumpur gave us a bit of everything: local food, Aquaria, a city park, shopping, covered walkways and views of the towers during the day and at night. We missed a few signs, had lunch very late and even ended up buying expensive photos at Aquaria. Those things are part of travelling together too.

Have you visited Kuala Lumpur with your family? Which place would you add to a short KLCC itinerary? Tell me in the comments. I would love to read about your trip, and maybe we can try your route the next time we visit Kuala Lumpur.

Tips for Exploring KLCC and Bukit Bintang

Practical Tips from Our Route

• Stay near KLCC if your priority is Aquaria, Suria KLCC, the towers and Pavilion.
• Use the covered KLCC to Bukit Bintang Walkway when the weather is hot or rainy.
• From the Convention Centre, look for the Concourse Level tunnel to Suria KLCC and the PETRONAS Twin Towers.
• Check current attraction tickets and opening hours before travelling because these can change.
• At attraction photo counters, confirm the price and purchase process before selecting an image.
• Allow a slower morning if children are adjusting to the time difference.
• Share several dishes if your family wants to taste more local food without ordering too much.
• Choose the indoor route or a taxi if you are travelling with a buggy, wheelchair or someone who finds heat and road crossings difficult.

Frequently Asked Questions

Work with Twinkle So Bright: Do you offer a product, service, or family travel experience that could make a city trip like this easier, more practical, or more enjoyable? This article is open to relevant partnerships that add useful value to the journey. View collaboration options

You May Also Like

• We Couldn’t Fly to Dubai Because of a Visa: An Expensive Lesson from Our Trip
• Visiting Fuzhou for the First Time: A Complete Visitor Guide
• Family Travel Labuan Bajo
• Umrah From the Netherlands as an Indonesian: Real Experience, Tips, and What to Expect
• How to Apply for a Japan Visa from the Netherlands as an Indonesian