KL Tower Layover: Kuala Lumpur From 300 Metres
Part of the full Kuala Lumpur in One Day: The Twin Towers
Menara Kuala Lumpur puts an open-air deck and a glass box 300 metres above the middle of Kuala Lumpur, and the last patch of rainforest inside the city covers the hill it stands on.
Menara Kuala Lumpur hangs a glass box off its deck at 300 metres
Menara Kuala Lumpur reaches 421 metres to the tip of its antenna and carries two places to stand: an enclosed observation deck at 276 metres, glazed the whole way round, and above it an open-air Sky Deck at 300 metres with nothing between you and the air but a rail. Two glass boxes are cantilevered off that deck with clear floors, which is where the queue forms and where almost every photograph of this place is taken.
The enclosed deck alone is RM33 for a non-Malaysian adult; the Sky Deck and Sky Box together are RM78, and Malaysians pay roughly two-thirds less on both. Tickets for either level are sold in advance through a tours and activities platform, which on a flight day is worth more than the discount: the counter queue on a clear evening runs longer than the ride up.
Rain shuts the open deck, and the replacement ticket lasts a week
The Sky Deck closes whenever the weather turns, which in Kuala Lumpur means most afternoons in the wetter months, and what you normally get in exchange is a revisit slip valid for seven days rather than money back. That is a reasonable arrangement for a resident and a useless one for somebody flying out the same night, so call the tower’s hotline before setting off rather than after paying.
Everything on this hill runs through its own gate. The tower has a security check and a lift lobby that controls what goes up; the forest reserve at the bottom sells its own ticket at its own counter; and the access road from Jalan Punchak is served by a free shuttle van rather than walked. That is three separate points where a suitcase becomes somebody’s decision rather than yours.
A canopy walkway runs through the last rainforest in the city
Bukit Nanas was gazetted as a permanent forest reserve in 1906, made a wildlife reserve in 1934 and a bird sanctuary in 1950, and the 10.5 hectares that survive are the only tropical rainforest left standing inside Kuala Lumpur, with about half of it never logged. A steel and rope canopy walkway runs roughly 200 metres through the trees at about 21 metres up, with the tower’s head showing through the leaves above it.
Three short trails run off it at ground level, and the whole circuit takes about forty minutes. It stopped being free in 2020: RM40 for a non-Malaysian adult, RM10 with a Malaysian identity card, and the ticket counter shuts about an hour before the park does, which catches people out more than the price does.
Two stations sit on opposite sides of the hill
Bukit Nanas monorail station is on Jalan Sultan Ismail below the western side of the hill, and Dang Wangi is a few minutes north on the line that runs south to KL Sentral. KL Sentral is where the KLIA Ekspres leaves from: 28 minutes non-stop to Terminal 1 of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL), RM55 for an adult, every 20 minutes and the last train at midnight. Allow an hour and three-quarters from the tower lobby to the terminal door, including the shuttle down and the wait on the platform.
The tower is a better evening stop than a daytime one, because the view is the whole product and the city looks like more of a city with the lights on. If the gap is a daytime one, the full Kuala Lumpur route spends it better on the mosques, the market halls and the colonial core, none of which depend on the weather at 300 metres.
Two separate ticket counters and a security check make this a poor itinerary to carry luggage through. The nearest drop-off points sit around Bukit Bintang and KL Sentral, and the second of those is on the way to the airport anyway.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do during a layover near Menara Kuala Lumpur?
Go up, then go down into the trees. The tower's enclosed observation deck sits at 276 metres and costs RM33 for a non-Malaysian adult; the open-air Sky Deck and its glass Sky Box at 300 metres cost RM78 and are the reason most people come. At the foot of the same hill, KL Forest Eco Park is 10.5 hectares of rainforest gazetted in 1906, with a canopy walkway strung between the trees, charged separately at RM40 for a foreign adult. Three hours covers both without hurrying. The Sky Deck is the part to book ahead and also the part that shuts in bad weather, so the enclosed deck is the fallback rather than a wasted trip.
How do I get up to the tower from the road?
There is a free shuttle van between the main gate on Jalan Punchak and the tower lobby, running about every 15 minutes from 8am to 10pm. The alternative is walking the access road up the hill, which is steep, narrow, shared with cars and entirely uncovered, and takes around fifteen minutes. Almost nobody who has seen it in the middle of the afternoon walks it twice.
What happens if the Sky Deck is closed when I arrive?
The open deck shuts in rain, lightning and high wind, and the compensation is normally a revisit slip valid for seven days rather than a refund, which is no use at all to somebody flying out that night. There is a hotline to check the deck's status before you set off. If it is shut, the enclosed observation deck at 276 metres is still open and still worth the ride, and you pay the lower fare instead.
Is the forest at the bottom of the hill still free?
No. The forestry department introduced a charge in 2020, and it is RM40 for a non-Malaysian adult against RM10 for a Malaysian, with children and under-sixes at token rates or free. It is a separate gate and a separate ticket from the tower, on the same hill. Opening is daily, with the ticket counter closing about an hour before the park does, so arriving late in the afternoon can mean looking at a shut counter with the trees right there.