Malaysia Heritage: A Foodie's Journey Through Kuala Lumpur, Penang & Ipoh
Nine days of markets, mansions and meals made by hand 9 DAYS · 8 NIGHTS · APRIL 2027 A small-group journey, curated by Tenina
Book Early, Arrive Refreshed Reserve your place before 30 September and we'll welcome you with a complimentary 60-minute spa treatment, redeemable at Uroot Spa during your stay in Chinatown — the perfect way to unwind before the flavours of Malaysia take over. Spaces are limited, so early birds get first pick of dates as well as the pampering.
Why You'll Fall For This Trip
Malaysia does not need to be figured out. It needs to be tasted — and someone else should be holding the map. This is a journey built for people who travel for the table: nine unhurried days moving between Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Ipoh, staying in three of the region's most storied addresses, guided everywhere by someone who already knows the best table, the best light and the best back-lane stall. There is nothing to plan, book or translate. You simply wake up each morning, and the day is already waiting for you.
Zero logistics, start to finish — a private vehicle and an English-speaking guide are with you every single day. Feast your way across the country: hawker legends, hidden wet markets, Peranakan heirloom recipes, and a hands-on cooking class in a working spice garden. Sleep in heritage icons, including the legendary 1885 Eastern & Oriental Hotel on Penang's seafront and a private hot-springs retreat carved into the limestone hills of Ipoh, the Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat. Dine your way through the region's most talked-about tables — a rooftop over the KL skyline, a cave restaurant inside a living limestone cavern, and lunch in a 19th-century indigo mansion. A small, sociable group, come with friends, or leave having made new ones. Genuinely easy: everything above is already arranged. All you bring is your appetite.
Your deposit has been paid here and reserves your place with us! The balance of the tour is $5400 AUD and last payment will need to arrive to us no later than Jan 31st 2027. BUT read on...there is so much on offer.
There is a single supplement of $1500 should you wish to travel solo.
There is a medium level of fitness required for this trip, you should be able to climb a flight of stairs unaided and walk at least 1km without any difficulty.
The Journey at a Glance
Nine days, three destinations, one continuous thread of hospitality — here is the shape of the trip before the detail.
DAY
DATE
WHERE
TODAY'S STORY
MEALS
1
Tue 20 Apr
Kuala Lumpur
Arrive · rooftop cocktails · dinner at Bijan
D
2
Wed 21 Apr
Kuala Lumpur
Street food walk · Vespa sidecar heritage tour · Jalan Alor
Fly to Penang · check in to the Eastern & Oriental Hotel · Kebaya Dining Room
B/D
5
Sat 24 Apr
Penang
Wet market · Little India · trishaw ride · lunch & tour, The Blue Mansion
B/L
6
Sun 25 Apr
Penang
Tropical Spice Garden & cooking class · Penang Hill · Auntie Gaik Lean's
B/L/D
7
Mon 26 Apr
Penang → Ipoh
Ipoh chicken rice · check in to The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat
B/L/D
8
Tue 27 Apr
Ipoh
Spa & hot springs at leisure · dinner at Jeff's Cellar cave restaurant
B/L/D
9
Wed 28 Apr
Depart Ipoh
Farewell breakfast · onward journey home
B
Where You'll Sleep
Every hotel on this journey is chosen for character as much as comfort — three nights each in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, two in Ipoh, bookending the trip with heritage and hot springs.
NIGHTS 1–3
Four Points by Sheraton Kuala Lumpur, Chinatown
3 nights · 20–23 April
Contemporary and easy, right in the pulse of KL's Chinatown — an easy stroll from Petaling Street's night market, old coffee shops, speak easy bars, all of the street art and the beginning of every morning's adventure.
NIGHTS 4–6
The Eastern & Oriental Hotel, George Town
3 nights · 23–26 April · Studio Suite King, Victory Annexe Wing
One of Asia's last great seafront hotels, opened in 1885 by the Armenian Sarkies Brothers — the same family behind Raffles Singapore and The Strand Yangon. The “E&O” sits inside George Town's UNESCO World Heritage core, its colonial verandahs facing the Straits of Malacca. Expect white-glove heritage service, the hotel's own Sarkies restaurant, 1885, and Farquhar Bar, and a suite in the newer Victory Annexe wing, all the grandeur of 1885 with the comfort of today.
NIGHTS 7–8
The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat, Ipoh
2 nights · 26–28 April · Lake Villa or similar
An adults-only wellness sanctuary built into 260-million-year-old limestone hills, with private geothermal hot springs, an award-winning spa, and Jeff's Cellar — a restaurant set inside a living limestone cave. The perfect, slow-breathing final act.
Your Day By Day
DAY 1
Arrival, Kuala Lumpur
TUESDAY 20 APRIL 2027 • Meals included: Dinner
Touch down in Kuala Lumpur and settle in at your hotel in the heart of Chinatown — there is nowhere to be and nothing to do until this evening.
As the sun sets, the tour begins properly: pre-dinner cocktails on the stylish rooftop of EQ Kuala Lumpur, with the city's skyline dazzling all around you. From there, move on to dinner at Bijan Bar & Restaurant, long regarded as one of the finest tables in the city for refined, elegant Malaysian cuisine.
WEDNESDAY 21 APRIL 2027 • Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
After a light breakfast, meet your guide for an immersive morning walking through Kuala Lumpur's flavours, stories and everyday rhythms. Wander Chow Kit as the city wakes up, with a frothy teh tarik and classic morning snacks, then continue into Kampung Baru, KL's oldest Malay village, for nasi lemak and roti canai the way locals actually eat it.
In Chinatown, stop at a treasured stall for tau fu fah — warm soybean pudding in fragrant syrup — before a generous Chinese noodle lunch closes out the morning's edible history lesson. Return to the hotel to rest before round two.
Late afternoon brings a different kind of city tour: a pick-up from your hotel for an immersive Kuala Lumpur culinary and cultural experience, riding by Vespa sidecar through Kwai Chai Hong's reborn back lane, Little India Brickfields, a photo stop at the iconic Sultan Abdul Samad Building, and the postcard view of the Petronas Twin Towers. The tour ends at Jalan Alor, Kuala Lumpur's legendary night food street, where dinner — and the rest of the evening — is yours to enjoy.
Overnight at Four Points by Sheraton Kuala Lumpur, Chinatown.
DAY 3
A Slower Morning, A Countryside Lunch
THURSDAY 22 APRIL 2027 • Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
A free morning at your own pace, before heading roughly an hour out of the city to A Little Farm on the Hill, a charming countryside retreat, for a relaxed lunch from the Smokey Robinson menu among green hills and open air. On our last Malaysian foodie trip, this was everyones favourite experience and we are excited to bring you here!
Return to the hotel in the afternoon to rest and freshen up, before an evening transfer to Bala's Banana Leaffor an authentic Malaysian Indian banana-leaf feast — easily one of the most sociable, hands-on meals of the whole trip.
Overnight at Four Points by Sheraton Kuala Lumpur, Chinatown.
DAY 4
Onward to Penang
FRIDAY 23 APRIL 2027 • Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Check out and take a short included domestic flight from Kuala Lumpur to Penang (included) barely enough time for a coffee before you land. An English-speaking guide meets you on arrival and brings you straight to your hotel for the next three nights: the legendary Eastern & Oriental Hotel, on Penang's historic seafront.
Once you're settled in, the evening belongs to Kebaya Dining Room at The Seven Terraces, an award-winning heritage hotel serving some of the finest Peranakan and Indochinese cuisine on the island, traditional flavours plated with a contemporary hand. Smart casual dress.
HERITAGE STAY
Checking In to Living History
As you arrive at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, you're stepping into 1885 — the year Armenian hoteliers the Sarkies Brothers opened the doors on this stretch of Penang seafront, going on to build Raffles in Singapore and The Strand in Yangon.
Your suite is in the Victory Annexe wing, with the Heritage Wing's colonial verandahs, three storied restaurants and a private stretch of promenade all just a lift ride away. This is home for the next three nights.
DAY 5
Markets, Mansions and Trishaws
SATURDAY 24 APRIL 2027 • Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch
Start the day at one of George Town's oldest local markets, wandering stalls of fresh produce and household goods the way generations of Penangites have, with a local breakfast of roti bakar and kopi O.
Continue into Little India, past colourful spice shops and saree stores, sampling roti canai, teh tarik, samosas and local sweets along the way. Then climb aboard for a nostalgic thirty-minute trishaw ride through the UNESCO World Heritage core, passing Fort Cornwallis, the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower, Penang Town Hall and the Street of Harmony, where mosque, temple and church stand side by side.
Lunch is at Indigo Restaurant, set inside the iconic Cheong Fatt Tze — The Blue Mansion, followed by a guided tour of the mansion itself: a 19th-century merchant's residence famous for its indigo-blue façade and its graceful blend of Eastern and Western architecture.
The rest of the day is yours — dinner is easily found among the E&O's own restaurants, or out exploring George Town's endless list of hawker legends.
DAY 6
Spice Garden, Hill Station and Heirloom Recipes
SUNDAY 25 APRIL 2027 • Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
This is a full, joyful day built around three of Penang's best experiences — no free time required.
SIGNATURE EXPERIENCE
Tropical Spice Garden — Hands-On Cooking Class
The morning begins at Tropical Spice Garden in Teluk Bahang, Southeast Asia's award-winning spice sanctuary, planted across a former rubber estate and now home to more than 500 species of tropical flora. A guided walk through fragrant, jungle-shaded trails introduces the herbs and spices that define Malaysian cooking, straight from the source.
From the garden, you move to the on-site cooking school for a fully hands-on class — your own cooking station, guided by generationally-taught home cooks sharing treasured family recipes and real technique, not just a demonstration.
Lunch is the meal you just made: an authentic, spice-rich spread you can genuinely claim credit for, before an easy return to George Town.
From the spice garden, return to George Town and head up to Penang Hill, the island's highest point and site of its oldest British hill station. A scenic funicular carries you to the summit, where panoramic views stretch across George Town, the mainland, and — on a clear day — both Penang bridges.
Come evening, the funicular brings you back down for dinner at Auntie Gaik Lean's Old School Eatery, savouring authentic Peranakan cuisine built from treasured family recipes.
Overnight at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel.
DAY 7
Onward to Ipoh
MONDAY 26 APRIL 2027 • Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
After breakfast, set off for Ipoh, roughly two and a half hours by road. On arrival, a late lunch introduces you to one of the city's most beloved specialities — Ipoh's famous chicken rice.
From there, it's on to the luxurious Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat, where the rest of the afternoon is yours to enjoy the resort's natural hot springs, wellness facilities and tranquil, limestone-ringed surroundings. Dinner is served at the resort.
Overnight at The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat.
DAY 8
Hot Springs and a Cave for Dinner
TUESDAY 27 APRIL 2027 • Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
A relaxed morning at leisure, with time to properly explore the resort's spa and wellness experiences, framed by limestone hills and lush greenery. Lunch is served at The Pomelo, the Banjaran's own restaurant.
In the evening, dinner moves somewhere unforgettable: Jeff's Cellar, a spectacular restaurant set inside natural limestone caverns — easily the most talked-about meal of the trip.
Overnight at The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat.
DAY 9
Departure
WEDNESDAY 28 APRIL 2027 • Meals included: Breakfast
A final breakfast at the resort before checking out. Your driver meets you at the resort for the transfer to your chosen airport, and the onward journey home — full, relaxed, and already planning the next trip.
Airport transfers can be arranged for Ipoh (with direct flights to Singapore), Penang or Kuala Lumpur. Each price for the transfer varies and will be added to your trip once you have notified us of the airport you wish to transfer to:
IPOH pp $80USD
PENANG $260USD
KUALA LUMPUR $257USD
In the instance of more than one traveller, these rates will be significantly reduced.
A train from Ipoh to KL central station is very cheap, takes about 2.5 hours and you can upgrade to top of the class tickets for around $30AUD.
What's Included
Transfer from KL airport to hotel
8 nights' accommodation: Four Points By Sheraton Chinatown (KL), The E&O Hotel, Penang and The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat (Ipoh, lake villa or similar)
Incoming transfer and tours in a private air-conditioned vehicle
Internal flight between KL and Penang (subject to surcharge based on time of booking)
Qualified English-speaking guide assistance throughout
KL immersive walking food tour (Chow Kit, Kampung Baru, Chinatown)
KL Vespa Sprint city tour
George Town trishaw ride
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion guided tour
Tropical Spice Garden visit and hands-on cooking class
Penang Hill funicular experience
All meals as outlined in the itinerary (breakfast, lunch and dinner as specified per day)
All entrance fees, donations, tolls and parking fees
All applicable government taxes and service charges
Not included: international flights and airport taxes, optional tours, meals marked as own expense, personal expenses, tipping, and travel insurance.
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