Johor Bahru Travel Guide: Malaysia Across the Causeway

See & Do

The old town, built on Teochew trade

The Chinese community came from Shantou in the mid 19th century, and the city was known as Little Swatow. The Chinese Heritage Museum on Ibrahim Road tells that story, and Tan Hiok Nee Street with Dhoby Street forms the Old Buildings Road trail of shophouses where Chinese and Indian businesses still trade.

The mosque, and the palace beside it

Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque went up between 1892 and 1900 on Jalan Skudai, its clock-tower minarets more Victorian than Malay. The Grand Palace, Istana Besar, holds the Royal Abu Bakar Museum and is where UMNO was founded in 1946. The Johor Zoo beside them, built in 1928, is the oldest in Malaysia.

Legoland and the Iskandar side

Legoland Malaysia opened in Iskandar Puteri in September 2012 as the first in Asia, with more than 40 rides. Danga Bay runs 25 km of waterfront along the strait.

Two countries, one crossing

Singapore is 20 minutes away when the queue behaves and two hours when it does not. The RTS Link is eight driverless trains on a five-minute run, one every 3.6 minutes at peak, 40,000 passengers a day at launch and 140,000 in the long run, from 6 am to midnight, projected to take at least 35 per cent of the causeway's traffic. Our Singapore guide covers the other side.

Eat

Malaysian prices with Singapore next door: that is the food argument.

What a meal costs

Numbeo's 1 November snapshot puts a meal at an inexpensive restaurant at RM15.00, about USD 4, a McDonald's combo at RM20.00, a 0.5 litre bottle of local beer at RM11.88 (USD 3) and a cappuccino at RM11.88. Nomads.com's medians agree: dinner USD 4, coffee USD 3, beer USD 4, a cola USD 1. Singaporeans cross for this, and dinner, a massage and groceries land at roughly two thirds of city-state prices.

Kopitiam mornings

Breakfast is the meal the city does best: kopitiam coffee, kaya toast and half-boiled eggs, then Teochew noodle soup for lunch. The heritage streets around Tan Hiok Nee are where the old coffee shops survived the malls. Nomads.com names Espresso Garage for coffee and THE FACTORY 30 around the clock; the Kuala Lumpur breakdown is the other Malaysian price point.

Where to Stay

Hotels price like a transit city, leases price like Malaysia.

What a bed costs

Nomads.com's medians are USD 49 a night for a hotel, about USD 1,047 across thirty nights, and USD 108 a night for an Airbnb, or USD 3,294 a month, which is well above the city's own nomad tier.

Where to base yourself

Reviews on nomads.com point at the gated communities of Leisure Farm and Bayou Creek for long stays, and at the centre around JB Sentral for anyone without a car. A studio in the centre runs USD 521, against Numbeo's one bedroom at RM2,181 (USD 535), which is agreement within three per cent. The cost breakdown has the rest of the month.

Logistics

Senai International Airport handles the flights, and the causeway everything else: buses and the Shuttle Tebrau to Woodlands, with immigration at the Sultan Iskandar Building. A local trip is RM3.00, about USD 1, and the average taxi trip USD 3.0. Grab works and is the sane default.

Cash is still the assumption in plenty of places, and nomads.com's panel reports cash only in practice, especially for foreigners, so carry ringgit even though malls take cards. Tipping is not expected. Tap water is not drinkable and is fluoridated.