If you’re someone who finds the city stifling, hot and chaotic (like me) it’s really important to be able to get out of it and into nature within an hour or two. Luckily, KL is a gateway to many beautiful jungle locations and we spent one of the recent public holidays over in Kuala Kubu Bharu.

We stayed in a container hotel called Sarang by the Brook. It is a well established, cheap and easy hotel with a swimming pool and an included breakfast of nasi lemak! For 3 of us, the room was an ok size to sleep in but the sofa bed was extreeeeeeemely hard. We were unlucky to stay at the same time as a large family group, who took up most of the communal space and made a lot of noise, but if you could manage to avoid this kind of situation you’d have a peaceful time in nature.

At around rm250 a night it remains an affordable option for a nature get away in comparison to many of the other options, which have gone up in price phenomenally since COVID.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/rPN6rAABnr6ya9YYA

Kuala Kubu Bharu has some beautiful hikes, waterfalls and rivers. We found the best spot on the Friday. This google maps link will take you as close you can get to this spot. You then need to drive down a questionable dirt road for about 10 minutes until you find yourself at a place to park.

There are spaces to rent along the river- rm30 for a day.

Stunning, quiet and clear waters. We stayed here from morning until evening and we loved it. If you can find it, this is the place to be.

The next day we went to Kuala Kubu waterfalls. Big mistake. Even by 10am it was rammed with people frantically and bizarrely abandoning their cars along a single track road. One man was completely stuck after parking his car in the mud and it took us about 15 mins to help him manoeuvre his way out. Anyway, we had committed to the situation now by paying rm2 for some kids to lift up the entrance barrier so here we were.

It’s a nice spot but the limited shade will quickly be taken up by a family and their entire belongings. If you can go in the week and go early I am sure it is less intense.

There’s also the Selangor Dam viewpoint on the way to this waterfalls that makes a nice picture.

If you like a park, visit Taman Tasik Milenium. They have a weird dinosaur themed play area your child will be buzzing for!

I would really recommend Kuala Kubu Bharu for a weekend away from KL. If you don’t have a small child, there are many hikes that you could do that I wish I could have done! A pleasant, sleepy town on the edge of nature with great street art, food bazaars and, if you feel you need that taste of the western world, they even have a pizza hut.