Next month I have 4 hour and 7.5 hour layovers in Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 1. Any decent places to eat in KLIA Terminal 1? I’ll be on my own and usually feel a bit nauseous when flying! Do I need to change money to Ringgit to buy food in the airport? Any advice will be gratefully received!
I’ve spent a lot of time in KL airport as I used KL as a base when spending a year in SE Asia. Don’t be tempted to go into KL on your longer layover. The airport is quite far out and transport is only really a cab. Your credit or debit card will be fine at the airport.
I’ve not actually eaten anything substantial at the airport but I believe they have a food hall, which should have multiple stalls. Food halls in Malaysia, even in shopping centres are usually pretty good but some stalls are better than others. Peter @klyeoh , should have some good advice.
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For a 7.5-hour layover, you can visit a couple of places in KL.
But saying that a cab is the only way downtown is ridiculous.
OTOH, KL public transport is quite unintelligible, with a mix of monorails, light rails, and commuter rails that don’t nicely coalesce when mapped out.
There’s an airport rail that goes to a station called KL Sentral, which is not central from a tourist’s perspective. However, if you’ve got the patience – and tolerance for humidity – you could walk from that station through the botanical garden, by the national mosque, and then end up in Chinatown.
You might want to take a Grab back from that point, since KL taxi drivers are (in my experience) uniformly shifty.
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Deciding whether to go into KL depends a bit on time of arrival and how tired you are, plus next travel steps. For a 4 hour layover I wouldn‘t bother. There is good food to be had at the airport, just follow the crowds.
For the longer layover, it depends on the factors mentioned. Another option is to rent a room at the airport hotel. That is what I did earlier this year, although I had an actual overnight stay. It’s a good hotel, they have a pool, you can chill out take a shower and eat well.
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Hotel Sama Sama is where I stayed. I paid around 100 euro.
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When I last used KL (admittedly in 2017) there was no MRT to the airport. So my mistake.
As for Sentral not being central it’s 10 mins walk from Petaling St. Also the MRT map is piece of cake. Buf maybe that’s because I’m a Londoner and am used these things?
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Thanks for this info. My 7.5 hour layover is during the afternoon/evening. I’m travelling on my own, which I’m not very used to nowadays (husband and son travelling separately because I couldn’t get enough time off work for us to travel together). So I will probably be a bit nervous about going into town just in case I ran into any delays getting back for my flight. I might just hang out in the airport food court if it’s decent. Otherwise the hotel sounds like a possibility.
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Earlier this year I had a 10 hour layover in Hong Kong. I booked a day pass for a spa/gym at a hotel, and spent half my free day there. That’s something you could also do at Sama Sama - I see they offer spa passes for 20 euro. Then you can just drop your stuff in a locker, take a shower, and make use of all the facilities in the hotel.
Another option is to look for a restaurant closer to KLIA. Even if you are going into KL you will only eat at one place presumably. Gordon Ramsay actually came out of KL to drive to this local place, which is 25 min from KLIA. Aunty Ain’s Garden Cafe. I haven’t been there but it looks good.
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Unfortunately, I’d not used KLIA ever since the COVID lockdowns, so my knowledge of the airport will be outdated.
That said, @damiano 's suggestion to stay at the airport hotel is very sound advice. KLIA is eons behind Singapore’s Changi Airport in terms of facilities and dining options.
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Thanks everyone for the tips. Aunty Aini’s Garden Cafe looks great.
I suppose I’m overthinking things, but as a lone female traveler not familiar with the country and not speaking any local languages, I’m a bit wary of taking a cab on my own. I’m very familiar with India and speak a couple of local languages there but I would never, as a lone female, get a cab from the airport in any Indian city. I have lived in London and am comfortable negotiating public transport systems but it might be a tight time frame to do so. Maybe next time I’ll plan to have a longer layover so I can explore. Or just plan a proper trip to Malaysia. I share an office with a colleague from KL and she’s always recommending I should go!
I’ll check out the Sama Sama hotel.
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KL used to have the worst cab service I’d ever encountered anywhere. But the advent of Grab (the local version of Uber) meant KL now has a more reliable service, with accountable drivers.
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Completed my 2 layovers in KL. The first one was only 4 hours, so just spent some time wandering around Terminal 1. Had a fried rice at a place called Grandmama’s, which seems to be a chain serving Malaysian food. The fried rice had a few tiny prawns in it and was covered with shredded lettuce and a few crispy potato sticks - a presentation I haven’t come across before. It had a good flavour but was quite oily. Service was super fast. I think it cost around 29 ringgit with tax and service.
Had to go to Starbucks and get a frappe type iced coffee thing to get the oily taste out of my mouth. I never go to Starbucks but this was the quickest way to get something cold and hopefully refreshing before the flight. I am always at sea when ordering at Starbucks. The girl at the counter was very patient and explained she couldn’t make it extra strong with espresso or less sweet as they just use a powder mix for the iced blended coffees. Anyway, it was too sweet and milky and I had to throw it away after a few sips.
On my wanderings, I saw what Terminal 1 KLIA has in terms of food offerings and it seemed much less exciting than what my husband and son scored at Changi Airport in Singapore (they were travelling separately to me because of my work commitments).
For my 7 hour layover on the way back from Australia, I had booked into Sama Sama. There now seems to be an ‘Express’ branch of Sama Sama located within the terminal, so I booked that online. I was glad I did, because the aerotrain was not running while I was there, and the express branch is well-located and signposted in the terminal building. The ‘deluxe’ room was good, I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as deluxe - highlights were the shower, which had good water pressure, air-conditioning that was easy to adjust (I hate rooms that are freezing cold) and a really nice bed with a good selection of pillows. Only problem - no room service that I could find access too. The TV menu seemed to suggest room service but the sub-menu was blank. I didn’t feel like calling the front desk so just ate some nuts and bread rolls I had stashed in my purse from the flight. And then grabbed a jalapeno cheese bagel from a cafe type place called tea leaf coffee cafe (something like that, can’t remember, I was rushing) and inhaled it before security. It was actually not bad and they had toasted the sliced bagel nicely and provided a couple of pots of a good cream cheese and a wooden knife. Again, my husband and son were living it up in Changi, sending photos of wonton soup and cheung fun.
I must say, customer service in Malaysia is really great. All the young people I came across in the restaurants, cafes and hotel were very polite and responsive. The only exception was a slightly grumpy middle-aged Indian lady cashier at the Grandmama place - as a slightly grumpy middle-aged Indian origin lady myself I feel I can make that judgement. But generally, I feel Malaysian customer service is of a much higher standard than the UK.
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You survived KLIA pretty much unscathed! I must say I was a bit worried for you, or anyone who had to stay there for a protracted time. Changi Airport Singapore is really eons ahead in terms of facilities and dining options.
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I’m in Penang now and I leave early Wednesday morning on my way back to Japan with a 16 hr and 45 minute layover at KLIA. When I booked my ticket, the airline highly recommended I don’t try to leave the gate area and wait there for my connection, but that just seems insane to me.
So I went to the airline counter in Bangkok again (I flew to Penang from the smaller of Bangkok’s 2 airports, Don Mueang) and another agent told me that as long as I inform the agents in Penang upon check-in that I intend to leave the gate area, I should be fine.
That makes sense to me because my flight from Penang to Kuala Lumpur is obviously considered a domestic flight (I am flying from KLIA to Osaka/Kansai).
If I am told not to leave the gate area, I have no idea what I’ll do for 16 hr and 45 min! Wish me luck!
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Flights to Osaka Kansai were leaving from KLIA Terminal 1. If your layover is that long you can book yourself into a lounge or the Sama Sama express hotel in the terminal. Even with a 7 hour layover I was glad to be able to have a room to myself, take a shower and a nap. The Sama Sama express allowed bookings in 6 hour blocks. If you book online there is a small discount. You just need to pick the correct Sama Sama hotel (I think there are 3).
Otherwise there is not much to do at KLIA and just waiting at the gate will be super boring!
PS. If it was Malaysia Airlines that gave you advice to wait at the gate, I would take it with a pinch of salt. Their advice and service can be inconsistent. When I did my online check-in in Australia, the website would not issue a boarding pass for my KL to London journey - it said to obtain it at the airport. At Adelaide airport, the check in counter staff said I would need to get it at KLIA! I refused, saying they needed to issue me the boarding pass now at Adelaide. And lo and behold, they were able to do that very easily.
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I think you’ll be okay if you leave KLIA for a while. But be aware that you then can’t take your luggage with you out of the airport. Your suitcase will be held at KLIA and that is probably the reason why the airline doesn’t want you leaving the airport.
So, I’d pack a small bag for hand luggage and keep some essentials in there for during the day. I assume the 16h change is just during the day.
Sama Sama is a good choice though. Last year I came from Phuket landing at KLIA around 7PM I think, and needed to fly 8AM in the morning to Hong Kong. I already felt a little bit under the weather in the plane from Phuket to KLIA, and when I landed, I got ill very quickly. I ended up rushing to my hotel room at Sama Sama and pretty much slept until the next (early) morning. No way I would have liked going into KL that time!
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Thank you for your reply.
I’m using an LCC, so I both arrive and depart from KLIA2, the LCC terminal.
I took a look at the rates at Sama-Sama express and even for just 6 hours (with an online discount), the rate is just a bit lower than the rate for 3 nights at my hotel here in Penang, so staying at Sama-Sama isn’t a viable option.
Looking at a map of KLIA2, there does seem to be a wide variety of eating options beyond security (←VERY important!) including a dim sum shop. I’ll surely be eating there as I love dim sum and besides a few shumai in Bangkok. didn’t have any while on this trip.
All-in-all, I’ll just have to make do with what KLIA2 has to offer.
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Thank you for your reply as well.
As I told medgirl, Sama-Sama isn’t a viable option due to price.
I have decided to stay in KLIA2 (LCC terminal) and use the time to eat things I didn’t get a chance to on this trip.
And I have one checked bag and one carry on. I’ll keep my carry on with me while waiting for my departure flight to Japan.
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