Taman Negara National Park sits right in the center of northern peninsular Malaysia. A gem left unspoiled as the rest of the peninsula turned into palm oil plantations.
We knew we wanted to take the kids to this untouched jungle and camp in the rainforest. We had a great time and want to share everything we learned with you. It wasn’t the easiest trip, but with planning, it’s worth the visit.
History of Taman Negara National Park
Taman Negara, which literally means ‘national park’ in Malay was the first area of land in the country to be given national park status in 1939, but under a different name as it was still under British rule. When Malaysia gained independence it was aptly named Taman Negara, which means ‘National Park’ in Malay.
As the young country expanded it’s export crop of palm oil, much of the rainforest was being cut down.
The jungle of Taman Negara is thought to be one of the oldest virgin rainforests in the world. Something needed to be done to save it from destruction.
So the land was zoned and made into a national park. Other national parks followed on the peninsula and in Borneo after Taman Negara led the way.
Another benefit to creating Taman Negara National Park was the protection of the Orang Asli’s home. The Orang Asli people groups are the original inhabitants of this area and many groups still exist inside the rainforest, living in their traditional hunter/gatherer lifestyle.
Why Do You Want to Visit
There is little original rainforest left on peninsular Malaysia, so showing our kids this virgin rainforest became important to us. We are used to the rolling hills of palm oil plantations when we take both the west-east and north-south highways. Getting to experience the jungle helps kids see what modern farming does to the land.
About Taman Negara National Park
Although Taman Negara takes up a large chunk of northcentral Malaysia, there are really only 2 roads to enter by.
The main entry to the park headquarters is from the southside of Taman Negara National Park.
The second entry is on the west side. Both entries to Taman Negara are about 3 ½ hours from Kuala Lumpur.
From Penang, it takes about 6.5 to 7 hours to get to Taman Negara National Park southern entrance, and around 5 hours to reach the west side entrance.
You can choose how much of the visit you want to do on your own and how much you want to do with a paid guide. There are many travel agencies available to help you plan your trip to Taman Negara. If you do not want the hassle of a self-planned trip, you can easily find a travel agency that can pick you up from your hotel, plan all your travel, and return you when you are finished.
However, that is not how we travel, and this blog post is to help those of you who are looking to travel to Taman Negara at least partially on your own. We will focus on the southern entrance into Tama Negara National Park and the things to do in Taman Negara with kids in that area. The southern entrance is the main entrance.
Where is Taman Negara National Park
Taman Negara National Park is on the central eastern side of Peninsular Malaysia.
Cost
When you enter the national park headquarters, go directly to the ticket office to pay your entry fee. When you pay for the Taman Negara entrance fee, they will ask you to fill out a form with passport numbers and information about your length of stay.
Taman Negara Entrance Fee
Adult/Child - 1 RM
(Foreign/Malaysian priced the same)
Camera - 5 RM
Payment must be made in cash.
The camera fee is really a cost per phone as phones have cameras. Even if we didn’t take pictures with one of our phones, since we had it in our possession, we needed to pay for it.
If you come for a day trip to the national park, this is the only cost you need to pay. If you come to sleep over you will need to pay for accommodations, whether it be the resort or a camping spot.
Best Time of Year to Visit
Taman Negara is a tropical rainforest. Visiting a rainforest means rain much of the time. So do plan for it when you go regardless of the season you go (or be ready to buy ponchos at the minimart in the headquarters!).
However, if you are wanting the best time of year to visit Taman Negara with your kids then you will want to go during the dry season. Well, we should say ‘drier’ season because it can rain anytime. The dry season is sometime in January through March or in June and July. Even during these months expect rain at least one third of the days each month.
By far November and December are the wettest months. If you can work around those months, we would recommend it. The trails in the rainforest get slick and muddy very quickly! We do not recommend going during these months.
Also worth a mention – since Malaysia is close to the equator and Taman Negara National Park is low elevation, the temperature fluctuates very little throughout the year. It is always warm with about the same number of daylight hours each day.
How to Get There
Self-drive
To get to the main southern entrance at the town of Kuala Tahan, you need to take a small road off the main west-east highway for about an hour.
You literally dead-end in the tiny town of Kuala Tahan. The river is the divide and there is no bridge to get to the other side!
Parking is available right on the edge of the river. Keep driving down, down, down. The road is rather steep, but it opens up once you get to the bottom you will see a nice sized parking lot.
On the river, you will see a plethora of large floating platforms tied to the land. These are an amalgamation of restaurants, ticket booths, and travel agencies.
There are signs showing which floating platforms will take you across. All boats charge RM 2 per person but may let little kids on for free (there are no sign about this, but it was our experience).
Boats can take cash as payment. You can ask about QR payment with a Malaysian bank account and they might be willing to do that (we got mixed answers during our visit).
The boat will take you across the river (less than 5 minutes on the boat) and drop you somewhere on the other side. The jetty is being constructed in the second half of 2025, so boats are dropping other places where there are steps up to the park headquarters.
Once you are dropped, walk up the steep slope to the park headquarters area and pay. You are now officially in Taman Negara National Park.
Private Transfer
If you are visiting Malaysia and choosing not to rent your own car, you can book a van to Kuala Tahan where you can get dropped directly at the riverfront. You will be dropped off at the same parking lot you will use if you drive yourself.
There are many private transfer companies in Malaysia, so getting a driver from wherever you are coming from should be no problem. You can book ahead with Viator or another popular booking options, or you can ask your hotel to help you arrange a vehicle.
When you have finished exploring Taman Negara National Park with your kids, you can then pick up the private transfer in the same spot. This will be on the other side of the river where you were dropped off originally.
Safety and Packing
Packing is important because you need to bring everything across on a boat. On the national park side there is a small mini market run by the park. It has a few essentials you might need, but plan to bring anything you want to have along with you. So between your whole family, it should be manageable to carry.
Drinkable water is available in the minimart. It is a higher price than at minimarts outside the park, so we advise to bring in for cost and peace of mind. Of course, if you are staying longer than a day with a large family, it is hard to bring in enough water and it is nice to have access to purchase it.
Another thing to know is that there are a lot of bugs and leeches in the park. Even if you say you don’t mind bugs; you will quickly find you wish you prepared for the bugs and leeches. We went during the dry season, and there were plenty of leeches wiggling around the ground. In the wet season the leeches become much more abundant.
That said, most of us wore flip flops, shorts, and a t-shirt and just sprayed ourselves well with bug spray. We picked a few leeches off along the way and did still end up with one or two bug bites.
The teen, who has always harbored a massive fear of leeches, wore pants, socks, and tennis shoes with rubber bands around her ankles to hold her pants tight. She was able to stay leech free throughout our time in Taman Negara National Park.
Ponchos are also high on the parking list for Taman Negara because of the constant possibility of a downpour.
Swimsuit to go swimming in the river. The river is a great place to hop into and splash around in after or during your hiking.
Lastly, I would say to bring a basic first aid kit. The paths through the jungle are very uneven and there is a real possibility of scrapes and bruises. A few band aids and all-purpose ointment will go a long way. When we pack up a first aid kit we like to keep it simple. The mini market does sell some basic supplies such as pain killers and band aids.
With all that said, here is our list for a family:
Hiking clothes that can get dirty
Bug Spray
Poncho
First Aid Kit: band aids, ointment for bug bites
Footwear for hiking (close toed to help keep leeches off)
Leech-protection (optional) - socks/pants and rubber bands
Swimsuit
Snacks/Food
Water
Things you should keep at home:
Stroller – There is no good place to use a stroller inside the national park. They have built elevated platforms on a fair amount of the smaller hikes, but they are in in poor condition and rather unstable. We recommend choosing smaller hikes if your young child because they are going to need to walk. The other option would be to bring a baby carrier instead of a stroller.
Things to Do in Taman Negara with Kids
Once you have arrived at the park headquarters and paid, it’s time to explore.
The main thing to do in Taman Negara is hiking into the rainforest. There are multiple trails to hike depending on what you are hoping to do with your kids.
Before we went, we were warned that you couldn’t do much without a guide. But reality is, with a big family with different aged kids, there are a number of small trails that you can do without a guide. Though none of them take you that far from the park headquarters, if you hike all the small trails, there is more than enough to do.
Here we’ll outline a few of the smaller trails you can see on the map
Park headquarters to Lubok Simpson (riverbank) – This is a 20ish minute hike with most of the ground at one time constructed as a pathway. Steps are a bit sketchy at parts – always use the rope provided.
The ending spot is a glorious, very kid-friendly spot on the river. More on that later.
Hike from headquarters to Bukit Teresek (hill) – there are multiple paths you can take to get up the hill to the viewpoint.
You can take the same path as to the river and continue on past that. But coming directly from behind the Mutiara Resort will be a quicker hike.
Be aware of the steepness of the climb and how much time you take with littles. If starting in the afternoon, make sure you have enough time for your family to climb, look out, and return by dark.
Hike to Bumbun Tahan (hide) – From the park headquarters, you can walk in the forest to an animal hide to watch for animals. Just a short 10-minute hike on an elevated sidewalk, we recommend this for younger families with small children.
Each of these hikes brought you to something to do at the end. We think that is a great way to hike with kids (and get rid of those “why do I have to hike?” complaints!)
Though once our kids were on the trails, they enjoyed all the fun rainforest plants – from pink mushrooms to thorny trunks to crazy Tarzan-type vines. There are so many unique things to see!
If you decide you want to do a full hike, the park map shows the Bukit Teresek Circuit (see map above) that you can follow the whole way around to create a loop. This would be a very big hike for younger children.
The River
This is not the same river you crossed from the parking lot to the national park. This is a smaller river that goes into the deep jungle.
At Lumbok Simpon, there is a nice long beach that is a perfect place for kids to play.
It is a pebbled beach, so many people have made stacks of stones to show they have been there. Our teen loved this activity!
Our boys loved getting in and swimming and playing in the water. There are no rapids here and the river is wide enough that the passing boats (kayaks?) won’t go near you.
The water is fresh and the jungle is still all around you, so it feels isolating but comfortable.
If you plan to do this hike, bring your kids’ swimsuits or expect them to get their clothes wet!
Hides
There are hides throughout the national park. These are made on open grassy fields where animals visit to go to the salt lick.
Salt licks are a natural phenomenon in the wild where animals find ground they can lick to get their needed salt for their diet.
We visited the Bumbun Tahan hide with the kids. We found that not only was there salt on the ground but also salt hanging from the one tree in the center of the field.
The ‘hide’ is a large cement structure with stairs going up 3 flights to a viewing platform. You stand or sit looking out at the salt lick and wait for animals to come. Patience and quiet is key here. It is a game of luck, but staying quiet helps!
Bird Watching and Animal Spotting
For kids so much of the fun in the rainforest is the creatures you can spot. You never know when you will see something.
We generally don’t focus our attention on birds as we would rather keep out eyes out for snakes on the ground or looking around to see if there are monkeys in the trees. However, Taman Negara National Park is a true bird paradise.
If you stop and stand still on the trail and just listen, you will be able to hear the different bird calls. We had fun trying to identify the birds who were calling based on the sounds. We were able to see plenty of amazing birds also.
While we did see some animals, we were more impressed by the birds.
Guided Tours within Taman Negara National Park
Although we like to do things on our own, there are a few things to do in Taman Negara National Park that are fun for kids, but can only be done with a guide.
How to Book a Guided Tour at Taman Negara National Park
You have options when it comes to booking tours.
You can book some tours ahead of time with online agencies. We do not recommend this method as most are offering the canopy walk. The canopy walk is one of Taman Negara’s most popular attractions. However, the Taman Negara Canopy Walk is currently under renovation and is not available. In September 2025, the park headquarters was not able to indicate when it would reopen in the future.
You can book all the different tours from within the national park at the The Mutiara Resort. You can consult the reservations desk and ask about the tours and book directly with them.
The third way you can book a tour for your family is by booking it on the city side of the river. Once you park, or get dropped off by your shuttle, you will be at the parking lot. The floating platforms where you catch your boat will offer tours also. Each one is a different company, but they all offer the same things. If you walk around the area a bit you will quickly see that there are many options available. There is an information center at the top of the hill that will also be able to answer a few questions, but we found the platforms along the river to be more helpful.
There might be slight variations in price depending on which one you go to, but they will all be around the same. This will be your cheapest option for booking a tour.
What Are Some Tours Available at Taman Negara National Park that are Good for Kids?
Visit an Orang Asli Village
First is a visit to an Orang Asli village. The Orang Asli are the original people of the Taman Negara area, and there are still groups that live in the forest.
We were told that while they were historically nomadic groups of people, some had permanent settlements now along the river. One of these settlements up the river accepts visitors. They give demonstrations to show their way of life, such as their traditional way of making fire.
Mutiara Resort has set times for the tour, and you leave directly from the resort. You ride in boats that are like motorized canoes down the small river to get there. The price is RM 100 per person. Expect to be gone for around 2 hours.
Rapid Shooting
For older kids, this may be a worthwhile activity to pursue paying for a tour since you can’t do this on your own. On this activity you will get to ride down rapids with your guide.
Boat Ride
If your kids just want to ride a boat down the river for the experience, we recommend asking the boatmen who transfer you across the river. These boatmen are trying to make a living shuttling people back and forth from one side of the river to the other. They welcome the opportunity to make a bit of extra money by giving a longer boat ride.
This is a fun way to see the jungle from the water. One boat that we used had a RM 15 river cruise option.
Jungle Trekking
If you enjoy hiking and want to go further than the shorter hikes nearby the headquarters, then you will have to hire a guide to take you on a jungle trekking tour. A jungle trekking tour lasts 3-4 hours, so if you are hiking with kids know that they will need to be reasonably competent hikers.
There are other tours available at Taman Negara, but most of them are not ideal for families. If your children are older than the overnight two-day trek where you visit some caves, hike, visit the native settlements, and camp at a hide would be a great tour. There are also fishing tours available.
Where to Stay in Taman Negara National Park
Once you have crossed over to the national park side of the river, you have two choices of where to stay – Mutiara Resort or camping at the Mutiara campsite.
All other lodging options are in Kuala Tahan on the other side of the river.
Mutiara Resort in Taman Negara National Park
Mutiara Resort is a lovely family-friendly resort with loads of individual bungalows. The resort has family bungalows that holds 5 people. Most of its rooms fill up very quickly, so if you want to stay here you need to book early.
Mutiara Resort does a great job of combining the feelings of comfort and luxury with a feeling of being in the jungle. Trails go directly from the back of the bungalows into the rainforest.
Camping
There is a campsite behind the park headquarters that is also run by Mutiara Resort. This is where we stayed.
The campsite costs RM 10 per person (adult and child).
There are tents and sleeping bags available to rent from the resort, but you should fill out the booking form on their website ahead of your visit.
We asked about camping further inside the national park but were told we could only do so with a guide and booking ahead. Because we just showed up, we paid at Mutiara and headed to the campsite that is a few minute walk from the park headquarters.
The campsite area is an open space with jungle around a few hundred meters beyond the park headquarters.
There were a few showers and squatty potties to use and that is where the amenities ended. For us, that’s enough when we are camping and as it became night and there were no lights or noises next to us, we definitely felt we were in the jungle.
The Mutiara Resort runs one restaurant and one minimart in the park headquarters. The minimart sells all the supplies you might need that you forgot.
Where to Stay Near Taman Negara National Park
Kuala Tahan is the town that is directly across from the Taman Negara National Park. Kuala Tahan spreads out along the river and the national park is obviously its main source of income. Besides resorts and a few restaurants, Kuala Tahan does not offer much to do. It really is a town that serves as a base camp for the national park.
Kuala Tahan does have a few mini markets that will serve to replenish your food, snacks, water, and any other necessities that you will need for your time in Taman Negara National Park. We recommend buying your things in Kuala Tahan instead of the tiny market within the park. The prices in the town are normal Malaysian prices, and within the park they know they have a monopoly and can charge more.
With the ferry ride such a reasonable price, having accommodation on the city side makes a lot of sense. The Mutiara Resort within the park fills up very quickly, and being able to get a room can prove difficult. So having other options available in Kuala Tahan is great. They are also much more budget friendly than the Mutiara Resort.
Kuala Tahan offers a fair number of accommodations to choose from that are well suited for families.
Tekoma Resort Taman Negara is located just off the main road coming into the river where you get your ferry to the park headquarters. Sitting at around a 7–10 minute walk away from the river makes it a great location to hop over into the national park. Tekoma Resort also offers rooms that can fit up to 7 guests making it a wonderful option for large families. The rooms are basic and no frills, but they do offer a swimming pool to unwind at the end of the day.
Tebing Guest House offers standard rooms, but it also has a house available for rent with two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. This unit comes with a stovetop, refrigerator, and a stocked kitchen. This means that if you are able to bring or acquire food in the town, then you will be able to prepare food for your family while you are staying there. We have always felt this is a great way to keep the budget lower when on a trip, and we often look for accommodations that have cooking facilities.
Benteng Taman Negara is one of the closest accommodations to the river. With views from your room looking out at the ferry boats that take you to Taman Negara, Benteng Taman Negara cannot be beat for location. The rooms are tiny and very basic, but if you are willing to use it as your launching point it is perfect. Benteng Taman Negara is a great option if you don’t want to camp but need to keep your budget low as the prices are very reasonable.
What Else Can I do in Malaysia with my Family?
Malaysia has many fun things to do with a family and with kids. Taman Negara is known as the major national park on the peninsula, but there are many other fun things that you can do to get your family out in nature and off the beaten path.
If it is the river and adventure that you enjoy, then we recommend you spend some time and explore Gopeng with your kids. Gopeng is the adventure area of Malaysia, near Kuala Lumpur. It offers rafting, hiking, caving, and all sorts of fun things. Another option would be to explore the Cameron Highlands for a more classy, cool. strawberry picking kind of fun.
The beaches in Malaysia are great. Finding the perfect beach for your family can be tricky, but if you are wanting a beach that is less known, pristine, and away from the main tourist areas, then we highly recommend Kapas Island. After living in Thailand for over a decade and visiting great beaches, Malaysia’s Kapas Island lives up to that same standard. It has quickly become one of our favorite beaches to go to as a family.