Buy a Touch ’n Go card at any station on arrival. It works on the LRT, MRT, monorail, Komuter, most buses and motorway tolls, and it saves buying tokens.
MRT is the newest and best — two lines, deep, air-conditioned, step-free, with stations at Merdeka, Bukit Bintang, Pasar Seni and TRX.
LRT — the Kelana Jaya line is the one visitors use, through KLCC, Masjid Jamek, Pasar Seni and KL Sentral.
Monorail — old, small and crowded, and it goes exactly where you want in Bukit Bintang.
KTM Komuter for Batu Caves from KL Sentral.
KL Sentral is the interchange for everything, including the airport trains.
GOKL — four free, air-conditioned city-centre bus loops.
Grab is essential. It is cheap, the fare is fixed in advance, and for two or more people it often beats the train. Traffic at peak is severe, so use rail at 8am and 6pm.
Kuala Lumpur is hard to walk. Pavements are narrow, broken, blocked or absent, and it is 32 degrees. Plan by neighbourhood and take a Grab between them.
Use the covered walkways. A network of elevated, sheltered and partly air-conditioned bridges links Bukit Bintang to KLCC — about a kilometre without being rained on — and it is badly signposted.
No eating, drinking or durian on the trains, and it is enforced.
The airport is 28 minutes by KLIA Ekspres or 36 by the cheaper KLIA Transit, and much cheaper again by bus. See Kuala Lumpur Airport to the city.
Do not drive in the city. A car is worth it only for the highlands.
The full version is getting around Kuala Lumpur.