Cameron Highlands Travel Guide is created to help you plan a trip there. All the important tourist attractions and places of interest are listed and describe. I hope you have will have a good time exploring Cameron Highlands with the information that I provide here.
About Cameron Highlands
Cameron Highlands in Pahang is the biggest highland retreat in Malaysia, located about 20 km east of Ipoh and about 150km north of Kuala Lumpur. Although located in Pahang, Cameron Highlands is more easily accessed from Perak. Cameron Highlands has an average height of 5000 ft (1,500 m) above sea level, and enjoys a cool climate. Temperatures in Cameron Highlands is usually no higher than 25°C but rarely falls below 10°C year round.
Cameron Highlands was named after William Cameron, the government surveyor who explored it in 1885 and cleared the jungle for development. The average height of Cameron Highlands is 1524m, with the highest point, Gunung Brinchiang, standing at slightly over 2000m. The mountain, topped by a transmission station, is accessible by car. There are three towns in Cameron Highlands, namely Ringlet, Tanah Rata and Brinchang.
Cameron Highlands is probably the only place in Malaysia to see tea plantations and strawberry farms. Tea cultivation was introduced to Cameron in 1929 by John Archibald Russell, who established the giant Boh Tea company. In its wake are the strawberry farms, flower nurseries, butterfly farms and golf courses. Recently, as Malaysians develop a penchant for hiking, trails are established to explore Gunung Brianchiang and Gunung Irau, as well as into the mossy forest.
This may sound surprising to you, but until recently, my only visit to Cameron Highlands before this was as an infant. I was too young to remember that but for the photographs. Although a trip to Cameron is considered "no big deal", it some how eluded me all these years until April 2004.
On this trip, we took the new road to Cameron, staying at a guest house in Brinchiang, a scruffy settlement anchored to the side of the mountain range. At night, the square in the middle of town is turned into a pasar malam. From our base in Brinchang, we visited the flower nurseries and strawberry farms. We drove to the Boh Tea plantations. Boh has two huge plantations, one in Brinchang and another further down in Tanah Rata, while another company, Bharat operates the third in Cameron. In my opinion, the most beautiful is the Boh Estate at Sungai Palas. With my powerful telephoto lens, I can pick out tea-pickers in the undulating sea of tea bushes, an truly marvellous sight.
The girls in the group had a ball at the flower nurseries and strawberry farm. And they had the chance to do what girls do: shop. With flowers and tea and strawberries and honey, Cameron Highlands offers everything to satisfy jaded urban visitors like us. I persuaded the girls to make the trip to Gunung Brinchiang (Mount Brinchang) as well as to visit the mossy forest. We engaged the services of Suresh, a knowledgeable ecology guide to help us better understand the workings of the mossy forest. He explained to us the different forest plants, such as the jungle bell (Didymocarpus), the Kacip Fatimah (Labisia) which is said to have medicinal value for womenfolk, and the White Star (Argostamma), a poisonous plant with lovely white flowers.
Suresh also explained to us why there are no mosquitoes on top of Gunung Brinchang. It all has to do with the ecology. Or to be precise, the chain of life, and how the existence or non-existence of one life affects another. If we had more time - and inclination - we could also trek to Gunung Irau nearby. We could see it from the top of Gunung Brinchang, and on that clear day, could see all the way to Ipoh.
To complete our sightseeing, we visited the Old Smokehouse near Brinchiang and the Tudor-style Lakehouse near Ringlet. These luxurious English inns, with their ivy-covered stone walls, fire place, and timber frames, offer us a glimpse of the moneyed lifestyle. And as for me, for now, it remains no more than a glimpse.
The panoramic view in Cameron Highlands is certainly breathtaking, as seen from the photograph above, taken in the morning at the Sg. Palas Boh Tea Plantation, on our way to Mount Brinchiang.
If you have never made a trip to Cameron Highlands, I would urge you to make a weekend trip there. It should be no problem to drive up there, or if you prefer, you could even organise a group of friend and AE Members to join you. AsiaExplorers has a 2-day 1-night weekend package that covers the itinerary shown in this.
Getting to Cameron Highlands
If you are coming from the south, such as from Kuala Lumpur, exit the North-South Expressway at Tapah (Exit 132) and follow directional sign to Cameron Highlands, 60 km in the northeast direction. Along the way, you will pass by the Lata Iskandar waterfalls. If you are coming from the north, ie from Penang, exit the North-South Expressway at Simpang Pulai (Exit 135) and take the new road to Cameron Highlands.
Hotel Room Price Checker
Before booking a hotel room, make sure you are getting the lowest price for it. Different hotel booking websites offers the same room at different prices. If you stick with one site all the time, you could be paying more for the same room. Now why pay more?
The form below is a Research Engine. It doesn't take bookings. Instead it lets you find the hotel booking website that offers the room you want at the lowest price. You can see and compare what different sites are offering, and then click to choose the one with the best price. Do this, and you're guaranteed to save a whole lot of money on your room reservations!
If you're flying somewhere, use our Flight Checker to compare the rates from different airlines. To use it, enter where you will be flying from, where you will be flying to, your departure date and return date. Select the number of passengers, and then click search.
Our engine will return you a list of possible flights that you can take. You can compare the fare of different airlines for your trip. Click on your selected airline, and we transfer you to the airline website.
AsiaExplorers is researched and written by Timothy Tye. Reasonable care is taken to check and verify the accuracy of the content. AsiaExplorers disclaims responsibility for any inconvenience, mishap, injury or death resulting from following the tips and advice provided directly or indirectly by this website. All pages may be printed out for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may use the information on this website on your blog or website so long as you place a dofollow link back to the page in AsiaExplorers where it appears. Photographs not credited to a third party belong to Timothy Tye and may not be reused in any form unless you are first given permission. Write in to inquire if interested. Third party photographs are governed by their respective licenses. To contact Tim, write to the following email address:
