Penang Tours and Trips

My family (husband and daughter) and I had a wonderful time on this adventure to Singapore and Malaysia. The hotels in the large cities were nicely appointed and located conveniently close to eateries and shopping malls. The breakfast in the hotels had a wide selection of delicious food to choose from, especially at the Paradox Hotel. The guides were friendly and informative. The drivers were skilled, especially the one in Malaysia who had to navigate a large bus through narrow winding roads on a stretch of mountain with motorcyclists weaving between cars. My only complain would the the meal on our 1st night in Singapore which consisted of American bar food (fries, fish sticks, fried cauliflower, quesadilla, chicken skewers). I did try a Singapore Sling. I was hoping for a Singaporean cuisine to start our trip. I also think that visiting 1 wet market and 2 villages was enough. My family skipped the 3rd village tour and 2nd wet market. Instead, we preferred spending time perusing local shops, trying local cuisine and snacks, and experiencing a foot reflexology which was popular. Luckily, we packed appropriately for the sudden daily downpour with thunder (raincoat) and hot temperature (UV umbrella, hat portable electric fan). In Malaysia, always carry toilet paper since not all restrooms have them. As a bonus, our group of 22 became close friends and watched out for each other. I would highly recommend this trip to others.

You need local cash for optional tours, and the optional tours were a bit pricey. Be prepared for 33 C temperatures. During Ramadan many restaurants (in Malaysia) may be fully booked for Iftar after about 7:30 PM (sunset).

Group dinners, except for the farewell dinner, were not that good. They seemed to be consistent with standard American-style Chinese food. The farewell dinner, which was Nyonya style cuisine, was much better and more fitting for the trip's destination.

It gave a good selection of experiences in Malaysia but a few too many temples. Choose a tour outside Ramadan. Malaysia has great food but the meals on this tour were very safe, until the very last meal in Penang, which was excellent.

There were a few things that I was not happy with. Every hotel in Malaysia had a tax that we had to pay in cash. We were not advised of this prior to our trip. As well we could only pay for our extra excursions in cash not with our credit card which we were also not aware of. Consequently we did not book any because we were not travelling with that much cash and finding an ATM was not always easy. Our tour director would take us on long walks in the heat of the day and then return us to our hotel by 3:30. By which time we were played out from the heat and did not want to do anything for the rest of the day. When we went to see Little India she walked us around the outside of the buildings and then back on the bus. The same was true for China town. When we were walking she would walk very fast never looking back to see if we were all following. She would go directly to where she wanted to go not stopping to point out anything on the way. In Malaysia all the breakfast were Malaysian food only they was no American except perhaps toast. When she bought any food for us to sample she never bought enough and so most people did not have a sample. I found Singapore to be a very nice country and was very happy with this part of the tour. I found Malaysia to be a very interesting country but because of the tour guide I was much less impressed with it. The best part of Malaysia was the rikshaw ride.