Malaysia Solo Female Travel Safety Tips and Advice

On this page you will find first-hand, unbiased, and real safety tips, advice and reviews from women traveling solo, submitted directly from their personal experiences in the country.

Their opinions are unfiltered and submitted independently as part of the Solo Female Travel Safety Index, a ranking of 210 countries and regions based on how safe they are for women traveling solo.

The safety scores range from 1 to 4 with 1 being the safest and 4 being the most dangerous for solo female travelers.

You don’t need to login to read the below reviews. But do sign up or login to share your solo travel experiences, country safety rating and comments.

Malaysia Country data

We have compiled a few data points below that can help you better understand Malaysia and have more context when thinking about travel safety.

Official country name: Malaysia.

Etymology: The name means "Land of the Malays".

Capital: Kuala Lumpur.

Independence / foundation: The Portuguese and the Dutch were the first European colonial powers to establish themselves on the Malay Peninsula and Southeast Asia. However, it was the British who ultimately secured their hegemony across the territory and during the late 18th and 19th centuries established colonies and protectorates in the area that is now Malaysia.

These holdings were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. In 1948, the British-ruled territories on the Malay Peninsula except Singapore formed the Federation of Malaya, which became independent in 1957.

Malaysia was formed in 1963 when the former British colonies of Singapore, as well as Sabah and Sarawak on the northern coast of Borneo, joined the Federation. Singapore obtained its independence in 1965.

Population: 34 million.

Currency: Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
1 USD = 4.75 MYR
1 EUR = 5.11 MYR

Time zone: UTC+8

Languages spoken: Bahasa Malaysia (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai. Note - Malaysia has 134 living languages - 112 indigenous languages and 22 non-indigenous languages; in East Malaysia, there are several indigenous languages; the most widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan.

Religions: Muslim (official) 61%, Buddhist 20%, Christian 9%, Hindu 6%, Confucianism, Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions 1%, other <1%, none <1%, unspecified 1%.

Climate: Tropical climate. Annual southwest (April to October) and northeast (October to February) monsoons.

Real GDP (ppp – purchasing power parity): $963 billion.

Real GDP per capita (ppp): $28,400.

Main airports: Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Melaka International Airport, Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport.

World heritage sites in Malaysia

There are over 1,100 world heritage sites spread across more than 165 countries. New ones are added every year, and some may be removed from the list for various reasons.

Number of UNESCO listed sites: 4.

Top world heritage sites:

- Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley.
- Gunung Mulu National Park.
- Kinabalu Park.
- Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca.

Interesting facts about Malaysia

- The Petronas Towers, located in Malasya's capital city Kuala Lumpur, are the world's tallest twin structure with 88 stories and 451.9 m. From 1998 to 2004, Petronas Towers were the world's highest skyscraper.

- Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries in the world, the richest in biodiversity, including the rafflesia, the largest flower on the planet, which can be found in the Malaysian rainforest. It can grow up to 111cm across and it's nickname is “monster flower”.

- It is not just the natural habitat which is diverse; about 60% of Malaysia's population is not ethnic Malay but of Chinese, Indian and other ethnic origin.

- Jimmy Choo, the famous fashion designer known for his women’s shoes, is from Malaysia. He was born in Penang in 1948 and moved to the UK in the 1980s.

Further reading: N/A.

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Malaysia Travel tips

More about Malaysia on Solo Female Travelers

Coming soon.

Did you spot any errors? We do our best to keep this information updated and accurate, but things change. If you saw anything that is not right, let us know so we can fix it: [email protected].

About the Solo Female Travel Safety Index

Safety matters to solo female travelers, you told us so in our annual Solo Female Travel Survey, where year after year, women prove that this is their most important concern when traveling solo.

We wanted to do something about it, so we built these country-specific pages where you can find reviews and scores for 7 key variables affecting the safety of women traveling solo.

How to use the Safety Index

On this page, you will find the country score and the personal opinions on safety of other women traveling solo.

You can sort the comments by:

• The level of experience traveling solo of the reviewer (beginner = <5 trips solo, Intermediate = 5 to 10 trips solo, Experienced = >10 trips solo).
• The age of the traveler.
• Whether they are a visitor or local.
• The date they were posted.

The safety scores range from 1 to 4 with 1 being the safest and 4 being the most dangerous for solo female travelers. 

Thus, the lower the score, the safer the country.

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Looking for more safety resources?

This entire website is devoted to helping women travel solo. Check out the links below to learn more:

Solo Female Travel Stats: Results from the the largest, most comprehensive and only global research study on solo female travel trends, preferences and behaviors published.

Thanks to Jacobo Vilella for creating the Solo Female Travelers Safety Index ❤️