Our Top Picks For Interesting Things to do in the Cameron Highlands

By Elly McGuinness

The Cameron Highlands in Malaysia is a lovely place to visit and explore for at least a few days. Located on Peninsula Malaysia, it’s just a few hours by car South of Penang or North of Kuala Lumpur, or an all-day drive if you have kids?. There are a few clear winners when it comes to things to do in the Cameron Highlands, and we’re excited to share those with you today.

I don’t think the towns in the Cameron Highlands are amazingly beautiful or anything. The area has a bit of an eclectic look to it. It’s an important agricultural area, so that certainly forms part of the visual landscape. 

The Cameron Highlands weather is a big drawcard for locals. Cooler temperatures offer a welcome reprieve from the heat and humidity in the lowlandsand. There are also some lovely places to visit, plus plenty of delicious food on offer.

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Getting to and around the Cameron Highlands

If you plan to travel to the Cameron Highlands I’d definitely recommend hiring a car or driving your own car to get there. Alternatively, you could take a tour bus or ride a motorbike once you arrive. You really need a car or motor bike to get between the farms and other sights. 

Apparently, you can hire a driver to take you around the sights if you choose. However, it’s a little pricey compared to doing so in places like Indonesia. (We hired drivers at very affordable prices for our 10-day road trip in North Sumatra!). Another option is to get a taxi from one of the towns to a farm but you would have to ask the driver to wait and take you back. If you’re going for this option, make sure you negotiate the price beforehand.

One thing to know about the roads is that there is one main road in and out. The traffic was ok for us arriving on a Wednesday evening. However, when we left at 11:30am on a Saturday, the traffic was at a stand still. It took us 2.5 hours to drive 7km! Romy and I got out and walked for a while because it was more fun than being stuck in the car?.

If you’re coming from Kuala Lumpur, there are two routes to Tanah Rata and Brinchang, the main towns in the Cameron Highlands. The old route via Tapa has windier, more dangerous roads. We opted for the slightly longer new route via Simpang Pulai. Maybe the other route would have been better considering the stand still traffic we encountered!

Let’s get into this Cameron Highland attraction blog post with our top picks for places to visit in Cameron Highland.

Ayla, Romy and Colin eating strawberries at Raju's strawberry farm

The best things to do in the Cameron Highlands

Visit a strawberry farm

One of the main attractions in Cameron Highlands Malaysia are the many strawberry farms that are found throughout the countryside. Big Red Strawberry Farm is a popular choice. However, we decided to visited Raju’s Strawberry Farm.

We did think for a moment about whether we would go for the “pick your own strawberries” option since its twice the price of simply buying them (?). Ayla did end up picking her own, since it was kind of the point of going there. 

We love strawberries, and we enjoy showing the kids where their food comes from. The straberry picking activity is also a good lesson in patience, since you aren’t allowed to eat them along the way! Overall, we enjoyed our visit and would recommend visiting a strawberry farm as part of your itinerary for things to do in the Cameron Highlands.

Things to do in the Cameron Highlands-visit a strawberry farm-Ayla picking strawberries

Visit a tea plantation

The cool temperatures in the Cameron Highlands allow a wide variety of plants to happily grow there. As a result, the Cameron Highlands produces many of the vegetables that it’s too hot to grow in other areas of the country.

One of the big crops of the area is tea. The tea plantations  and Cameron valley tea houses have established themselves as major Cameron Highlands attractions. There are many tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands, which you could visit as part of a day tour, either independently, or with a tour company. We decided to visit the Boh tea plantation, which is one of the major ones. It’s situated on a hillside along one of the little narrow winding roads in the Highlands.

If you’re looking for the best places to visit in Cameron Highlands, make sure you visit a tea plantation! You’ll be rewarded with views over a brilliant, bright, lush green area. We loved walking along the cute little path and steps (with all the other tourists!) to reach the Boh tea cafe perched on the hillside. It has the most incredible view over the valley.

Ayla overlooking Boh Tea Plantation

Don’t go there hungry!

We made the mistake of thinking we could get a nourishing lunch there. It’s all just tea, pastries and cakes folks so don’t go there hungry like we did! It was also quite busy with both local and international tourists.

At the Boh Tea Plantation you can sample any of the local favourite brews and take a short self-guided tour around the factory at certain times. There’s also a little mini movie screening where you can learn about the history of the plantation and the processes your tea goes through. Despite the fact that it’s very touristy and we ended up staying hungry while we were there, we really enjoyed our visit.

Things to do in the Cameron Highlands-Visit a tea plantation-Boh Tea

Go hiking

If you’re looking for Cameron Highlands things to do and you really want to get amongst nature, there are plenty of great hiking trails in the area.

‘Mossy Forest’ is maybe the most popular /famous Cameron Highlands trail. This is evidenced by the fact that you have to pay 30rm per person to walk on it. Other trails, such as the ones I meandered on are pretty mossy forest-like. Therefore, I didn’t feel the need to go to that one.

Mossy Forest is also not-so-convenient to drive to.It’s about 30 minutes drive further on from the boh tea plantation, along a little windy road. That didn’t appeal much to me either, as it’s probably an hour or so to get back to the villages from there.

The hiking trails in the Cameron Highlands are all numbered. For example, you can hike up Mount Brinchang via trail 1. I use maps.me to navigate trails like these. It tends to be more reliable than relying on signposts!


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“Me time” hiking in the Cameron Highlands!

We only had two full days in the Cameron Highlands,the first of which was spent out and about as a family visiting the strawberry farm and tea plantation.

By day two both the grown ups wanted ‘alone’ time, especially knowing that we had two consecutive overland travel days coming up next!

I got the morning to explore. Hiking is one of my most favourite things to do in the Cameron Highlands or anywhere! Therefore, I was intent on making it happen. I also wanted to drink coffee by myself so I limited myself to two hours of hiking ?☕. The family got struck in a traffic jam later so I ended up getting plenty of coffee time!

Me time hiking in Cameron Highlands Malaysia

The hiking trails I took in the Cameron Highlands

I kept my hikes simple because Colin had the car. This meant I was going by foot from the town and back again. The cool thing is that you can get onto the hiking trails quickly enough from town. It just meant that I didn’t climb any peaks this time.

First I headed to Robinsons Falls via trail 9. I didn’t see a single other person on the trail. It was rather slippery even with trail shoes, so it’s not really a very family-friendly trail. It’s probably wise to take a buddy too, in case of a sprained ankle. You can continue along trail 9 up to the peak if desired. This takes maybe another hour or so.

From Robinson’s Falls I headed back to the park in town and along trail 4 to Parit Falls. Again, I didn’t see anyone on this wee trail, which was less slippery and therefore more family-friendly. There was only one little spot where the hillside was falling away so you have to scramble a little. Sadly, there’s a bit of rubbish floating around under the falls bit it’s a pretty trail otherwise.

Things to do in the Cameron Highlands-Hiking Trails-Robinson's Falls

Other things to do in the Cameron Highlands

There are some other fun things to do in the Cameron Highlands if you’re staying a little longer, or like to get through the sites faster than we do! Here are a few more ideas for what to do in Cameron Highlands:

  • The girls visited the Butterfly Farm with Colin
  • You could also visit bee farms
  • Check out the time tunnel museum, which is the local museum in the town
  • Visit a tea house
  • Enjoy the delicious Malaysian Indian food on offer in many restaurants
  • Some hotels offer ‘high tea’ where you can enjoy the English influence of scones with your tea
  • The Agro Technology Park could be a good option for a Cameron Highland place to visit, especially with kids. There are gardens, strawberries, rabbits, and butterflies to see there
  • Visit the weekend night market in Brinchang, or the morning wet market in Tanah Rata
  • Check out Sam Poh Temple, a large Buddhist temple perched on the hill in Brinchang
  • Visit Mah Meri art gallery

We hope you found our Cameron Highland trip blog useful, and that you now have plenty of ideas of things to do in the Cameron Highlands. Are you planning on visiting the Cameron Highlands? Please feel free to join the conversation and leave a comment below!

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About the Author Elly McGuinness
Elly has been inspiring people to make sustainable changes to their health, fitness and lifestyle for 20+ years. She takes a holistic approach to wellbeing, is the creator of the Holistic Health Highway and is the author of the Amazon 5-star reviewed book ‘Burning Fat for Good’ which you can get here.

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