Kuala Lumpur sits in the middle of the peninsula’s west coast with an excellent motorway network and a decent train, and a great deal is within two hours.
Batu Caves — half a day
Thirteen kilometres north, at the end of a KTM Komuter line, and reachable in half an hour for the price of a coffee.
The gold Murugan statue, the 272 painted steps, a limestone cavern with a temple in it, and monkeys that will take whatever you are holding. Go at eight in the morning.
Putrajaya — half a day
Twenty minutes by KLIA Transit: an administrative capital built from nothing on a rubber plantation in the 1990s, with a pink mosque, eight bridges and almost nobody on the streets.
Genuinely strange, and worth seeing precisely because it is not a normal city.
Melaka — a full day, better as two
Two hours by bus from TBS. The Malay sultanate that made this coast matter, then Portuguese from 1511, then Dutch, then British — a UNESCO site with Peranakan food and a Dutch square painted red by the British.
The best day trip from Kuala Lumpur, and better as an overnight. Go on a weekday.
Genting Highlands — half a day
An hour north, and up. A resort complex at 1,800 metres with Malaysia’s only licensed casino, an indoor and outdoor theme park, hotels and shopping centres, reached by the Awana SkyWay cable car — a twenty-minute ride over rainforest that is the best part of the trip.
It is not for everyone. It is a purpose-built entertainment complex on top of a mountain, permanently in cloud, and it looks like an airport terminal that has been dropped on a summit.
But it is ten degrees cooler, the cable car is genuinely spectacular, and the Chin Swee Caves Temple on the way up is worth the stop. If you have children, or you want to escape the heat for an afternoon, it works.
Kuala Selangor and the fireflies — an evening
About ninety minutes north-west, on the coast.
Kampung Kuantan on the Selangor river has one of the largest synchronous firefly populations in the world. You go out at dusk in a small wooden boat, without engines, and the mangroves along the bank are covered in thousands of insects flashing in unison.
It is genuinely extraordinary and it is not much publicised outside Malaysia.
Also at Kuala Selangor: Bukit Melawati, a hill with a Dutch-era fort, silver leaf monkeys and a view over the Straits; and Pasir Penambang for seafood.
There are organised evening trips from Kuala Lumpur, which is much the easiest way to do it.
Cameron Highlands — a long day, better as two nights
Three to four hours north, at 1,500 metres. Tea plantations, strawberry farms, mossy forest, and a hill station built by the British in the 1920s.
It is fifteen degrees cooler than Kuala Lumpur, which is why the British went, and why Malaysians go now.
BOH Tea Estate for the plantation view, the Mossy Forest on Gunung Brinchang, and the jungle trails.
It is a long way for a day trip and the road is winding. Two nights is right, and if you only have a day, Genting gets you the altitude in an hour.
Cameron Highlands is also where the American businessman Jim Thompson, who rebuilt the Thai silk industry, walked out of a bungalow in 1967 and was never seen again.
Klang — half a day
Half an hour by Komuter. The old royal capital of Selangor, and the birthplace of bak kut teh — pork ribs in herbal broth — which Klang does better than anywhere.
Also the Sultan Suleiman Mosque of 1932 and the royal town of Kuala Selangor’s older sister.
Sunway Lagoon and the theme parks
Sunway Lagoon, half an hour out, is a large and good water and theme park built in a former tin mine. If you have children and it is hot, this is the answer.
Practical
TBS — Terminal Bersepadu Selatan — is the long-distance bus terminal, on the LRT and Komuter at Bandar Tasik Selatan. It is modern, well organised, has an airport-style ticketing hall, and buses go everywhere. Book online for popular routes.
KTM ETS trains run north to Ipoh, Penang and the Thai border, and they are comfortable and cheap.
Grab works for shorter trips and inter-city Grab is possible but expensive.
A hired car makes the highlands easier and is unnecessary for anything else on this list.
If you only have one spare day
Melaka, without much hesitation. It is the only place on this list that would justify the journey from another country.