2 Days in Kuala Lumpur: The Perfect City Itinerary

If you have 2 days in Kuala Lumpur, you can experience a well-rounded mix of landmarks, culture, food, and panoramic views. Malaysia’s capital is compact enough to explore efficiently, yet diverse enough to offer something new in every neighborhood: modern skyscrapers, historic districts, temples, markets, and green spaces. Check out this 2 days itinerary in Kuala Lumpur for the essential places to visit!

Day 1 – Visit the key spots in Kuala Lumpur

Petronas Twin Towers

This is probably what we all think of when someone says Kuala Lumpur – the mythical twin towers raising over a skyscraper-rich cityscape. The Petronas Twin Towers were the highest skyscraper for a few years (1996-2004), with 451 m, and they still look absolutely impressive.

To see the Petronas, you can come from the front of the building, that has a small park with a fountain. There, you’ll see lots of locals offering you to take a picture of you. There’s been quite some controversy and the local government has issued fines, as some are pretty rude and others try to scam people after agreeing on a price. I saw many people taking their services though, so do at your own risk.

You can enter inside the lower floor of the towers to explore the shopping mall, or you can climb to the top for 127 RM (weekday) or 137 RM (weekend), which I skipped. If you cross the mall to the other side, you’ll reach a nice park (KLCC Park) from where you get greats views of the towers.

Merdeka Square

The Merdeka Square has a big significance in Kuala Lumpur since it was the first place where the Malaysian flag was raised after the declaration of independence in 1957. There are multiple relevant buildings surrounding the square. The Sultan Abdul Samad building (the most famous one) was under reparations when I visited.

Central Market

Located right next to the Merdeka Square, it turned out to be a great place for gift shopping and lunch. There was many small stores selling all kind of product, and on the second floor there was a food court with a large variety of food types. I tried some momos there and thye were tasty.

Sri Mahamariamman Temple

The region around the market is very lively, and worth exploring. One of the places I visited was the Sri Mahamariamman temple. As with any Hindu temple you need to remove your shoes before entering. Here, you can store them for 0.20 RM, and then come inside. The temple itself is free to visit.

KL Forest Eco Park

Located in the city, nearby the KLCC tower, you can find this small green haven. Established in 1906, this park has a dimension of about 9 hectars, with extensive vegetation. The highlight of the park is a tree walk, with hanging bridges. If you want to do a round trip, you can start going up the canopy and return by walking on ground, or viceversa. Personally, I found the tree walks in Singapore and in Costa Rica much more impressive than this one, but it’s still a nice walk.

The price to enter the park is RM40, and it closes on Fridays and on bad weather.

Back to the Petronas Towers at night

Maybe you’re not particularly impressed by tall buildings, in which case skip this. I am, however, and since my hotel was right next to the Petronas, I fully took advantage of visiting them at different moments of the day.

Evenings around the Petronas are as lively as daytime. The KLCC park also offers light and music shows with the fountains. Be aware that the park closes by 22:00 and you’ll be requested to leave.

Day 2 – Visit temples in Kuala Lumpur

Independently of which religious affiliation you may or may not have, some religious buildings are fantastic architectonic representations. This second day in KL allows you to visit a religious building from Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. In between, there’s some museums and gardens that you can also incorporate to your visit.

Batu Caves

This is one of the most famous activities to do in Kuala Lumpur and it’s absolutely worth it. The cave is on top of a staircase and is magnificent. Inside, there’s a Hindu temple, and around there’s plenty of monkeys, who will happily steal from any unsuspecting tourist. When I was visiting in November 2025, the Murugan statue was being refurbished.

The Batu Cave is a bit far from the city center. I wrote more details about this visit in this article about All you need to visit the Batu Cave.

National Mosque

The National Mosque was built in Kuala Lumpur in 1965 and the roof of the main hall has the shape of an umbrella, as a symbol of the protection of the King. In the entrance of the mosque they had some clothes to put on, mostly for women but I saw some guys wearing them too. Once inside, there’s a bit of a tour through a few rooms. The main sight is the prayer room, to which tourists can only enter in a small region. A lady who worked there offered to explain about the building, although the explanation quickly evolved into an explanation of Islam.

Pedrana Botanical Gardens – Planetarium, Orchid Garden, and Butterfly Garden

Close to the National Mosque, you can enter into the Botanical Garden area, which offers multiple options for everyone’s taste. You can visit the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, which has a very interesting building, which I skipped due to time, as they recommend 1-2 h to visit it. Not too far is the Planetarium. Entering to the exhibition is free of charge, but you need to pay for additional activities. It’s quite a small planetarium and focuses more on kids activities.

Then, you can reach the Orchid Garden, which is also free. There’s less species of orchids than I though there would be (and less when I compare it to the Orchid Garden in Costa Rica), but it’s nonetheless it’s a nice walk and the orchids are beautiful. Nearby is the Butterfly Garden. The entry fee is 30 RM, which is rather steep for Malaysia, but nonetheless well worth it. The garden is very cool. Inside, there’s quite a large area dedicated to the butterflies, and you can see them flying around. They were huge! On the exit, there’s a small exhibition of insects, where you can see other (very large) specimens.

Thean Hou Temple

The Thean Hou is a Chinese temple, with beautiful red lanters hanging over the patio. The temple, while in the city center, is located a bit further away from other attractions, so taking a Grab is the simplest option to arrive there. Once in the temple, you can explore the patio area and then climb to a second floor, from where you get nice views of the temple. There are also some gardens on the back of the temple, which were decorated in a romantic style when I visited. There’s also another garden that has sculptures of animals of the Chinese zodiac, with a short description of the characteristics of each.

Personal highlights

While I did like Kuala Lumpur, I felt a bit stressed with the traffic. Cars were running fater than I experienced in Vietnam, where I eventually found a way to cross the streets without following the locals. Here, cars were faster and would often ignore it if you were trying to cross.

Anyhow, my personal highlights of the trip were:

• The food scene. I haven’t written anything in this article because I ended up trying a lot of international cuisine as well, but there’s so many great choices of restaurants in KL that I wished I had more days just to eat!
• Petronas Twin Towers. It’s a classic, but as such, it’s a great place to visit. The whole area around the towers is cool to walk. If you have the chance to visit them during the day and during the night, do it! It’s a different feel.
• Batu Caves. This was my first temple in a cave, and it’s really worth checking. If you liked the Batu Cave, you should visit Ipoh, where you can see more temples in caves.

Practical Information

How to arrive to KL?

The easiest way is to fly there. One of the advantages of KL is that they have e-gates for some nationalities, including EU passport holders, so passport control is extremely quick! KL is well-connected through a railway system, so if you happen to land in a different city, such as Penang, you can easily reach KL by train.

How to get from the airport to the city center?

There’s two main ways that I’ve seen. One is to take Grab, the local ride-sharing app (install Grab before coming, it takes a while). The other option is to take the train. Trains in Malaysia are very convenient and in my limited experience, they were punctual too. The only drawback I saw was that it was really cold in them!

How to move around KL?

The easiest alternative is to use Grab, which is rather cheap if coming from Europe. There’s also a public transport system, which reaches all the points of interest, but obviously takes longer, as KL is a large city.

Is KL walkable?

I’m going to say it depends on what you consider walkable. Can you reach point A from point B walking? Yes. Will it be a pleasant walk? Not necessarily. My impression was that often pedestrian streets would disappear or be occupied by businesses or motorcycles. Cars usually don’t let you pass, so be careful crossing the roads. There was also an instance during my trip in which cars started ignoring the traffic light because it was taking too long to switch, creating accident-prone conditions.

Continuing your trip through Malaysia?

Check out this post on Ipoh for a day tour from KL, and Penang as a two days addition to your Malaysia trip! If you want to go international, expand your trip by visiting Singapore or Bintan (Indonesia).

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