Singapore and Malaysia are two countries, but on the map they are one piece of land with a narrow strait in between. Singapore is an island at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, and over the Causeway at Woodlands you are in Johor Bahru in a few minutes. From Singapore, Malaysia really is a stone’s throw away.
The difference is in your wallet. Singapore is almost twice as expensive as Malaysia: €55 a day against about €30, and a dorm bed costs €25 on one side of the bridge and €8 on the other. On the other hand, Singapore is the softest landing you can make in the region. Everything works, everyone speaks English, and you eat your first chicken rice in a hawker centre where nothing can go wrong.
So the question is not whether to combine them, but how. Start in Singapore or finish there? Go overland to Melaka and Kuala Lumpur, or hit the beach on Tioman first? Below are the two routes, how the border works and which month points which way.
Start in Singapore, or finish there?
Both work, and both have their strong side. Starting in Singapore is what we recommend to most travellers. You fly long haul into Changi, spend three or four days shaking off the jet lag and acclimatising in a city where you tap your bank card to get on the metro, then cross the border well rested. Every step after that gets cheaper. After Marina Bay prices, Melaka, where you get by on €22 a day, feels like a gift.
Finishing in Singapore has something going for it too. Changi is an airport you will happily hang around in for a day: the Rain Vortex in Jewel, opposite Terminal 1, falls 40 metres through an indoor rainforest and costs nothing to see. Put your bag in the baggage storage and spend your last evening there, when light and music play across the water. And if your trip carries on after Malaysia, Changi’s budget flights reach just about every city in the region, which makes Singapore a logical hub.
Two things to keep in mind if you finish in Singapore. Duty-free drink from Tioman or Langkawi is best left on the Malaysian side, because in Singapore you pay duty on it anyway. And if you bought a vape along the way, leave it behind before you cross: vapes and e-cigarettes are banned outright in Singapore, and getting caught costs tourists a S$700 fine too, about €470. Chewing gum cannot come into the country either.
Our verdict: start in Singapore and head north, so every bus makes your trip a little cheaper and you do the priciest days while you are still fresh
Over the border: Causeway, shuttle and bus
The border between Singapore and Johor Bahru is one of the busiest in the world, and you notice it. The buses to Melaka and Kuala Lumpur go over the Causeway, and on Friday evenings, weekends and public holidays the road grinds to a halt, which can add a few hours to your trip. So cross on a weekday if you can.
The smartest way past the queue is the train. The KTM Shuttle Tebrau takes five minutes from Woodlands to JB Sentral in Johor Bahru, for S$5, about €3.50. Prefer the bus? CW2 and 170 get you to the border for a few euros. The shuttle will not be around forever, though: in February 2027 the RTS Link, a short new metro over the same crossing, is due to open, and about half a year later the Shuttle Tebrau stops. Check which one is running when you travel.
Then the paperwork, and that takes two minutes. On most passports both countries let you in visa free for up to 90 days (Singapore gives Canadians 30), and both want six months of validity left on your passport. Each country has a free digital arrival card that you fill in within three days before you arrive: the SG Arrival Card for Singapore and the MDAC for Malaysia. Overland too, and on the shuttle too. With the card already done, your queue at the Woodlands counter is a lot shorter. Both countries also want to see a ticket for your onward journey, and this is how you get an onward ticket without locking in your route. Check your own nationality on our visa page.
Our verdict: fill in both arrival cards before you leave, avoid the Causeway on Friday evenings, and take the shuttle if you can
Route 1: overland to Melaka and Kuala Lumpur
This is the classic combination, and it is the obvious one. Melaka sits right on the road from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, so you travel without doubling back a single kilometre. A comfy bus runs straight from Singapore to Melaka in four to five hours, from about €18, and drops you at Melaka Sentral. That bus station is a few kilometres outside the centre: a Grab to the old town takes fifteen minutes and costs about €2.
In Melaka, suddenly everything is rusty red. The Stadthuys, the clock tower and the 1753 Christ Church on Dutch Square are Dutch, and between the buildings roll trishaws so loaded with fairy lights and plastic flowers that at night you hear them before you see them. Two days is enough. Time them well, though: from Friday to Sunday Jonker Street closes to traffic in the evening and becomes a night market full of chicken rice balls and cendol. Arrive on a Wednesday and you miss it. Coming at the weekend? Then you cross the Causeway in the rush, so leave early on Friday morning. Everything practical is on our Melaka page.
From Melaka Sentral buses run all day to the TBS bus station in Kuala Lumpur, two to two and a half hours for about €3. TBS is a few train stops from KL Sentral. Sleep in Chinatown, one stop further, where your first plate of nasi lemak costs two euros. Three days is enough for the old town, the 272 steps up to the Batu Caves and the Petronas Towers lighting up at sunset above KLCC Park. See our Kuala Lumpur page.
Short on time and want to go straight to the capital? Since December 2025 the electric ETS train leaves JB Sentral for KL Sentral, in around four and a half hours from about €16. With the shuttle first, you slide past every traffic jam. There are only a few departures a day, so get your ticket a few days in advance. The direct bus to Kuala Lumpur works too, in five to six hours for €14 to €30, but when it is busy it just sits in the queue on the Causeway with everyone else.
From Kuala Lumpur the rest of the west coast opens up: Ipoh, the Cameron Highlands, Penang and Langkawi. How to string those together is in our Malaysia itinerary.
Our verdict: the easiest and most logical combination, with Melaka as the perfect first stop after Singapore
Route 2: the east coast and Tioman first
Want sand under your feet straight after the skyscrapers? Then head northeast instead of northwest. Catch the early bus in Singapore to Mersing, about four hours, and the ferry from there to Tioman, another hour and a half to two hours on the water for about €12 to €17. On top of that you pay about €6 in cash for the marine park. Ferry times depend on the tide, so allow an hour or two of slack and take the earliest bus.
The contrast could hardly be bigger. In the morning you are on a metro where you cannot even sip water, in the afternoon you are walking a concrete path along the sea in Air Batang, without a single car, while a monitor lizard crosses in front of you. You snorkel off the jetty, walk via Monkey Beach to Salang and trek seven kilometres straight through the jungle to the empty beach at Juara. You can learn to dive here from about €200. And because the island is duty-free, a can of beer from the shop costs less than a euro, after the €6 for a bottle of Tiger in Singapore.
Two things to sort out. There is only one cash machine on Tioman, in Tekek, and it does run dry: bring enough cash from the mainland. And come in the right season. From March to October the island is at its best. From November to February the east coast is in the northeast monsoon, the ferries run far less often and most dive schools are closed. Save Tioman for another trip in those months. Everything about the island is on our Tioman page.
After Tioman you sail back to Mersing and take the bus to Johor Bahru or Kuala Lumpur. From Kuala Lumpur you are quickly back on the west coast, with Melaka two hours to the south. Heading for Borneo? Fly direct from Johor Bahru or Kuala Lumpur to Kuching. Not sure Tioman is the right island? Read Perhentian, Tioman or Langkawi.
Our verdict: the best combination if you travel between March and October and fancy jungle and sea after the city
Which month points which way?
In Singapore itself the month makes little difference. It is around 31 degrees all year and it rains in every month, usually as a short, heavy shower late in the afternoon. February to April is the most pleasant, with February the driest month. December and January are the wettest, but even then there is always a covered hawker centre or a mall within reach.
In Malaysia, on the other hand, the month decides everything, and with it your route:
- March to October: both routes work. Tioman is open and calm, and on the mainland you just keep moving, with the odd afternoon shower
- June to August: Kuala Lumpur is in its driest months, Tioman at its best
- November to February: go for route 1. The east coast is in the monsoon, while Penang and Langkawi in the northwest are at their driest from December to March
- January to March: the driest months in Melaka, with February in front
If your trip falls around Chinese New Year, Chinatown in Singapore is hung with lanterns, but Melaka is busier too. Travelling in October or November? Then you might catch Deepavali in Little India. Month by month detail is in the best time to visit Singapore and the best time to visit Malaysia.
Our verdict: from November to February it is Melaka and Kuala Lumpur, the rest of the year you get to choose
How many days do you need?
For Singapore three to four days is enough: a day for Marina Bay and Gardens by the Bay, a day for the neighbourhoods, a day of green and water. How to split those days, and how to do it in two, is in Singapore itinerary: 4 days. After that you can go three ways:
A week and a bit: Singapore, Melaka and Kuala Lumpur
Singapore (3), Melaka (2) and Kuala Lumpur (3), by bus from stop to stop. You see a world city, a colonial port town and an Asian capital, and from Kuala Lumpur you fly on or take the ETS train and the shuttle back to Singapore.
Two weeks: city, beach and city
Singapore (3), Tioman (3 to 4), Kuala Lumpur (3) and Melaka (2). From Mersing you ride to Kuala Lumpur, and you do Melaka at the end, on the way back to Singapore. That way you finish where you started, with a last evening under the Supertrees.
Three weeks or more: the whole peninsula, or add Borneo
Start in Singapore and then follow our Malaysia itinerary, which begins in Kuala Lumpur. With up to 90 days visa free in both countries on most passports, you have plenty of time.
Our verdict: give Singapore three days and the rest of your time to Malaysia, where every day costs half as much
Money, cards and budget
You travel with two currencies. In Singapore you pay in Singapore dollars, roughly one and a half to the euro, and contactless almost everywhere, right up to the metro gates. In Malaysia you pay in ringgit, roughly four and a half to the euro. In the cities cash machines are easy and you can often pay by card, but on the islands and at the hawker stalls it is cash. Which card to bring is on travel cards.
You feel the price difference straight away. In Singapore you budget €55 a day, with a bed for €25, a plate at the hawker centre from about €3 and a big bottle of beer for about €6. In Malaysia it is about €30 a day, with a bed for €8, a plate for €2 and a beer for €3. On Tioman and Langkawi beer is even cheaper, because they are duty-free. The full sums per country are in backpacking Singapore: cost per day and backpacking Malaysia: cost per day.
The secret of Singapore is that the best of it is free: the light show under the Supertrees at 7.45pm and 8.45pm, Spectra on Marina Bay, the temples and the Botanic Gardens. Pick one paid outing and save your money for Malaysia.
Singapore or Malaysia first: what do you recommend?
For most travellers: Singapore first. You land in the easiest city in the region, get used to the heat and the food without any stress, and every step after that is cheaper than the last. After three days of hawker food and light shows you take the shuttle over the border, and a few hours later you are in Melaka or Kuala Lumpur, where your plate costs half as much.
Finishing in Singapore is great if you are flying on from Changi, or if you want to end your trip with an evening in Jewel and one last chicken rice. Just leave your duty-free drink and any vape behind before you cross the border.
Our advice: fly into Singapore, cross on a weekday and pick your direction by the month. Between March and October head to Tioman first, from November to February go straight to Melaka. More on the city itself is on our Singapore page and on backpacking Singapore.
