Cameron Highlands

Cameron Highlands in Pahang is the biggest and arguably the best highland resort in Malaysia.  Popular amongst both locals and tourists, it provides a cool respite from the sweltering heat of the lowlands.    The sprawling lush valleys about the size Singapore has much to offer nature lovers.  My family stayed 2 nights in Cameron Highlands and did a full day local tour of the beautiful countryside.  We visited tea plantations, strawberry farms, Rose Valley, Lavender Garden, Bee and Butterfly farms, the Brinchang night market and more.  Here are 10 places to visit or things to do in Cameron Highlands.

1.  Tea Plantations

Visiting a tea plantation is the top thing to do in Cameron Highlands.  We visited the Sungai Palas Boh Tea Plantation which offered an educational tour of the tea factory.

No visit to a tea plantation is complete without sipping a cup of tea while enjoying the view of the plantation.  We had a lovely English-style breakfast with aromatic tea, scones and pastries at the Boh Tea Centre at Sungai Palas.

Here is a better view of the stunning vistas of rolling hills where the tea plantations are tendered.  Did you know that Cameron Highlands got its name from a British surveyor called William Cameron back in the 1800s?

It is also worth exploring the scenery just outside the Boh Tea Centre.

There was another Boh Tea plantation in Cameron Highlands which was further away from other attractions and where you have to traverse a windy road to get there. Definitely not suitable for my kids who would throw up or get a headache.  Apart from Boh Tea,  there were two other tea plantations  in Cameron Highlands – Cameron Valley and Bharat tea plantations. Both had tea cafés overlooking the plantation and stores to buy tea as souvenirs.  I especially liked the strawberry tea from the Cameron Valley tea plantation, pictured below.  Cameron Valley tea plantation was the easiest to get to, although the carpark was rather small.

2. Strawberry Farms

3. Rose Valley

Located at Kea Farm, a short distance from the Sungei Palas Tea Plantation, the Rose Valley is filled with more than 100 variety of roses and other types of flowers. The Rose Valley is perched on slopes along a small hill. Flower lovers would enjoy the Rose Valley.

4.  Cameron Lavender Garden

More flowers bloomed at the Cameron Lavender Garden.  As we entered the garden, we saw a sea of purple, red and yellow flowers sheltered under a large canopy.

On the higher slopes,  there were rows and rows of gerberas in all sorts of colours.  Visitors could also pick strawberries there.

5. Vegetable Farms

Our local day tour also brought us to visit the Watercress Valley, and a local vegetable farm that grew tomatoes and cauliflowers.

6. Bee and Butterfly Farms

Apart from flowers and vegetables, Cameron Highlands also has Bee Farms and the Butterfly Farms.  See more pictures of the beautiful butterflies and bees here –  Cameron Highlands Bee and Butterfly Farm.

7. Cameron Highlands Time Tunnel

The Cameron Highlands Time Tunnel is a local museum with lots of vintage items and memorabilia.   At first, I didn’t think we would enjoy the Time Tunnel much, but to my surprise it was actually quite educational for the kids.  My trio kept asking “What’s this?”, “How does it work?” or “Why?”  There were also things that I haven’t seen for ages and have totally forgotten about them, like the old light switches.  The Time Tunnel even had a photo of Singapore’s father and son PM,

8. Sunrise on Gunung Brinchang & Mossy Forest

Something really worth doing while in Cameron Highlands is waking up at around 4.30am, drive up to the top of Gunung Brinchang, climb up a watch tower with the cool crisp wind blowing at your face, and wait patiently while the sun reveals itself and the spectacular scenery.  Read more.

9.  Brinchang Night Market (Pasar Malam)

We went to the Brinchang night market (locally known as “Pasar malam”) near Star Regency Hotel.  It normally opens on Fridays and Saturdays but during Malaysian school holidays, it opens every night.  Local produce like  strawberries, vegetables, and fruits were sold in abundance at the night market.  There were also many stores selling vegetable fritters, crab fritters and prawn fritters. One thing to try was the corn with the white kernels.  The white corns could be eaten raw and surprisingly, it was sweet!  Apart from food, there were lots of value-for-money stuff and souvenirs on sale.  If you are driving, you need to go there early to find parking.

10.   Enjoy the local delights

Apart from the food at the Brinchang night market, steamboat restaurants seem to be quite a hit in Cameron Highlands.  We only ate at the steamboat restaurant once, though.  Most of the time, we ate the local food fare there.  Our favourite was Nolina food.  The food was cheap and good.   Try the blue nasi lemak with sambal chicken.  Nolina Food was just 5 minutes from Copthorne Hotel at the bend towards the direction of Ipoh.

Tips on visiting Cameron Highlands

If you are thinking of visiting Cameron Highlands, here are some friendly tips.

• If you are coming from the North-South highway, drive up from Ipoh instead of from Tapah.  The road from Ipoh is less windy than the one from Tapah.
• Don’t plan on visiting the Sungai Palas Tea Plantation on Monday because they are closed.
• Do consider joining local tours, especially to the Boh tea plantations and Gunung Brinchang, if you are not comfortable driving or if you don’t want to risk damaging your car.  The road was too narrow for bi-directional traffic.  Other attractions were easier to drive to.  I joined the local tour CS Travel and Tours which I booked from the Hotel travel desk www.cstravel.com.my.
• Don’t plan on going strawberry picking in the afternoon, especially after other tour buses have come and gone.  There won’t be much red and juicy strawberries to pick.  Try going for one which only opens on certain days a week (e.g. Thursday-Sunday). Go on the first day and first hour of the opening to get the best pick of strawberries.  I went to the one just outside Copthorne Hotel on Thursday morning when they just opened for the day and got the best pick of plump and juicy strawberries.
• There are many accommodations that can fit a family or group of 4 or more. I would have considered apartments, but I was travelling in a bigger group, so I had to find accommodations that could fit the whole group in multiple rooms. The ones I considered were:
  • Copthorne Hotel (formerly known as Equatorial Hotel) – It has 2 and 3 bedrooms with terrific view of the sunrise
  • Strawberry Park Resort – It has family suites for up to 6 guests
    
  • Other Cameron Highlands accommodations

We also went to enjoy the hot springs at the Lost World of Tambun, Ipoh, Malaysia before going to Cameron Highlands.

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