Ultimate Taman Negara Guide: The Best Things to Do in Malaysia’s Oldest Rainforest

Writing this Taman Negara guide, I found myself freshly enamoured with Malaysia’s oldest rainforest.

This underrated destination is located in peninsular Malaysia, 240 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur, making it an easy weekend or day trip from the city.

Thought to be 130 million years old, Taman Negara is home to tigers, macaques, and the largest flower in the world (the rafflesia).

I spent four days visiting Taman Negara from Kuala Tahan, its main tourist town.

I hiked to the top of Teresek Hill for views across the rainforest, took a guided night walk, and took multiple boat trips to different points along the Tembeling and Tahan rivers.

I saw fresh elephant droppings, macaques, scorpions and spiders… but best of all, after spending three weeks in the big city, I saw a totally different side to Malaysia.

In this Taman Negara guide, I’ll discuss whether it’s worth visiting, how to get there, where to stay, and the best things to do in Taman Negara. Let’s get stuck in…

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Where is Taman Negara?

Taman Negara is a large national park in Peninsular Malaysia.

Located 250 kilometres northeast of Kuala Lumpur, it is spread across the states of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu.

It takes three to four hours to drive from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Tahan, the main entry point for the national park.

Is Taman Negara Worth Visiting?

I’ve spent more than four months in Malaysia, and I’ve only met a handful of other people who have visited Taman Negara National Park.

Usually, tourists who want to see Malaysia’s diverse wildlife head to Borneo, where there are orangutans and the long-nosed proboscis monkey.

As 57% of Borneo is covered in rainforest and has many endemic species, it’s superior for wildlife tours.

I didn’t find Taman Negara particularly good for spotting wildlife. Most of the big animals like tigers, elephants, deer and leopards live deep inside the jungle.

Your chances of seeing them from the Kuala Tahan area are very slim.

However, I did spot some smaller creatures: insects, birds and monkeys. I saw scorpions, many spiders and other nocturnal critters on a guided night walk.

I also enjoyed my time in Taman Negara because many of the activities were so novel to me.

For example, the ‘rapid shooting’ activities were an unexpected pleasure because I turned back to child-like play, getting sprayed with water on the boat ride and then playing with mud and sticks on the beach.

From Kuala Tahan, you can also visit the Orang Asli tribe, an indigenous group in Malaysia.

In short, Taman Negara is good for:

• Spotting small insects and nocturnal animals
• Hiking
• Peaceful, rainforest atmosphere
• Boat rides and unusual tours
• Visiting the Orang Asli tribe

Can I Do a Day Trip to Taman Negara?

There are day tours to Taman Negara from Kuala Lumpur, but are they worth it?

Firstly, these day tours will involve a lot of travel. Driving from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Tahan takes three to four hours each way, so you will spend a lot of time in a van.

However, the itineraries do seem very good.

For example, this Taman Negara hiking tour fits in a three-hour hike to Teresek Hill (my favourite place in the national park) as well as a boat ride to the Orang Asli village.

Ideally, I’d recommend spending at least two or three days visiting Taman Negara to fit in more of the activities in my Taman Negara guide.

However, if you’re short on time, day tours are a good solution as long as you don’t mind the long travel day.

Here are the main tour varieties…

1. The standard Taman Negara tour

The standard full-day Taman Negara tour includes a visit to the Canopy Walkway and the Orang Asli tribe.

It also includes lunch at the floating restaurants in Kuala Tahan.

2. Hiking Taman Negara tour

If you’re in good shape, I recommend that you take the Taman Negara hiking tour instead.

The highlight is a three-hour hike to Teresek Hill, which has the best views over the national park by far.

It also includes a one-hour boat ride on the Tembeling River to the Orang Asli tribal village.

3. Private tour

If you’re travelling as a family, you might prefer to take a private Taman Negara tour.

This one includes the Canopy Walkway and a cruise down River Tembeling to visit the Tualang Tree and Lata Berkoh, a swimming area.

Taman Negara Guide: Where to Stay

To explore Taman Negara, you need to stay in Kuala Tahan.

This riverside town is opposite the entrance to the national park.

To enter the national park, all you need to do is take a boat across the river (for RM1) and purchase an entry permit for the full duration of your trip.

There is one hotel at the entrance to the national park, Mutiara Taman Negara.

It’s the best place to stay if you want to visit the hides at dawn because the river boats don’t ferry people from Kuala Tahan to the national park until 8am.

If you can’t afford it, you’ll need to stay in the main town across the river and wait until 8am.

I stayed at the budget hostel Agosto Taman Negara Hostel.

However, when the town lost water for several days, I ended up paying to use the showers at Wild Lodge Taman Negara, where they had backup water tanks.

Next time, I’d stay at Wild Lodge Taman Negara from the start. I ended up booking most of my tours through this hotel, as the staff were so friendly.

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How to Get to Taman Negara

To reach Taman Negara, you need to get a bus to Kuala Tahan.

I booked my bus from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Tahan for £18 (100 MYR) on 12Go.

The air-conditioned minivans are operated by NKS Hotel and Travel Coach.

They depart from Travelodge Chinatown (near Petaling Street) every day at 8:30am.

They arrive in Kuala Tahan at 2pm, which amounts to a journey lasting five hours and 30 minutes – my minivan stopped for lunch, but bring some snacks just in case yours doesn’t!

Don’t panic when the van stops at a hotel with orange walls.

They will try to upsell you onto one of their tours, but there’s no need to buy anything because the park is really easy to explore on your own.

They will also ask you to fill in a form. This is fine, because you need it to get your entry permit for the national park later on.

How to Get to the National Park from Kuala Tahan

To reach the national park, you should take a boat across the river from Jetty Taman Negara. It’s next to the floating restaurants.

At the jetty, you need to pay RM1 (per person) to cross the river.

It only takes one or two minutes to reach the other side of the river.

Once they drop you off, you need to climb the staircase up to Mutiara Resort. After walking through the resort, you will arrive at the national park headquarters.

At the park headquarters, you need to pay for your license (RM 1) to enter the park. Make sure to bring the papers you filled in on your bus over.

If you have a camera or smartphone, you also need to pay for a camera license (RM5 per camera or smartphone).

If you plan on doing the Canopy Walkway (which I’ll explain more about later in my Taman Negara guide), you should also register and pay at the headquarters.

It costs RM5 for adults and RM3 for children.

The Best Activities and Things to Do in Taman Negara

1. Visit Tahan Hide to look out for wildlife

One of the easiest things to do in Taman Negara is visiting the Tahan Hide.

This wildlife lookout is only a 10-minute walk from the national park headquarters along a well-maintained boardwalk.

I went directly to the hide before starting my hike to Teresek Hill. On the way, I spotted macaques in the trees.

These macaques are clearly not used to human contact, as they quickly tumbled through the trees and away from us without showing any interest in snatching our belongings.

After reaching Tahan Hide, I climbed to the second story to look out over the natural salt lick.

I didn’t see any species here – granted, it was the middle of the afternoon – but from reviews, I see that people have seen creatures like wild boars, deer, hornbills and macaques.

Dawn and dusk are the best times for wildlife watching, and the longer you can observe, the better.

I returned to the Tahan Hide on a guided night walk. That time, I saw plenty of small, nocturnal critters around the hide.

2. Hike Teresek Hill for views over the rainforest

Teresek Hill is a three-hour hike that anyone in good physical condition can conquer.

Considering that the hill is only just over 500 metres tall, the view is exceptional.

I hiked Bukit Teresek on my first day in the national park and it remains my favourite activity in my Taman Negara guide.

Firstly, I highly recommend that you download an offline map of the Bukit Teresek hiking route on AllTrails.

At the summit, it’s very easy to make a mistake because there’s a path that continues downhill.

Thinking that Teresek Hill was a loop hike, our group went down this path.

There is a small sign way above the path that states: ‘All activities beyond Bukit Teresek trail, Canopy Walkway and Lubok Simpon must be accompanied by nature guide at all times’.

I had already seen this sign at several points along the main trail, so I took a brief glance at the sign and thought, “Great, I’m on the Bukit Teresek trail, so I won’t do that.’

We continued down on what we thought was the Bukit Teresek trail – in reality, this was not the correct way and we quickly realised that we were out of our depth when we started slipping and sliding downhill.

At the summit, you need to double back on yourself and take the same route back.

The Teresek Hill trail should take you around two to three hours to complete out-and-back.

It’s only five kilometres long, but there’s just over 300 metres of incline.

Malaysia is very hot and humid, so we were all very quickly streaming with sweat.

The trail is along a boardwalk for most of the route, although some sections are in dire need of repair.

3. Do the popular Canopy Walkway

The Canopy Walkway is a really nice entry-level way to experience the rainforest.

The netted walkway is raised around 45 metres above the forest floor, stretching from tree to tree.

You’re way up in the trees, so the foliage and the sounds of the rainforest are spectacular.

As long as you’re not afraid of heights, you should be absolutely fine doing the Canopy Walkway.

It only takes 10 to 15 minutes to walk the length of the walkway (around 550 metres).

Remember to pick up your tickets at the national park headquarters before going there.

4. Try a guided night walk

The guided night walk was my second favourite activity in Taman Negara.

I wasn’t expecting too much, considering that the only creatures I’d seen in the daytime were a couple of macaques.

However, at night, the rainforest comes alive – if you know where to look.

Our guide was an expert at finding nocturnal critters, using blue ultraviolet light to highlight scorpions creeping the bushes and venomous spiders on tree trunks.

The number of spiders is, frankly, frightening… the biggest spider we saw was resting peacefully on the edge of the main sidewalk.

Our guide described the two spiders above as ‘hunting spiders’.

I believe that the smaller, green-tinted spider is the mildly venomous green huntsman spider.

The hairy caterpillar, pictured above, is also just as dangerous; the hairs can cause an allergic reaction.

5. Get dinner at a floating restaurant in Kuala Tahan

Next to the Taman Negara jetty in Kuala Tahan, there are several floating restaurants on the Tembeling River. I mean, how can you resist?

They all serve typical local cuisine, including drinks like teh tarik, mango shakes and coffee ‘o’ and meals like keuy tow, fried mamak and mee hon.

Arissa Floating Restaurant is the best-rated floating restaurant on Google Reviews.

If you’re looking for a restaurant away from the water, I particularly liked Ann Restaurant. It’s a very reliable breakfast spot that serves banana pancakes, coffee and egg dishes.

6. Take a river cruise to Lata Berkoh and the Tualang Tree

Lata Berkoh is one of the most underrated things to do in Taman Negara National Park.

The only way to get there is by taking a cruise down the Tembeling River. We set off early in the morning, so the river was particularly beautiful.

We cruised down the river on a long, wooden boat powered by a motor.

Although we didn’t see any wildlife, this time of the day is also a good time for animal spotting because they are more likely to come out of the rainforest to get water in the morning.

After cruising for around 15 minutes, we arrived at our first stop: the Tualang Tree.

This is thought to be the oldest tree in the rainforest, at around 500 years old.

It’s also humongous. In general, tualang trees (Koompassia excelsa) can reach heights of up to 88 metres.

Locals believe that the tree houses spirits, so local loggers have always avoided coming into contact with it.

Eventually, we reached our main destination, Lata Berkoh, which is a 45-minute boat ride from the ferry terminal.

To reach Lata Berkoh, we made a short hike of around 20 minutes along the riverside.

Lata Berkoh is advertised as a waterfall, although I’d describe it more as a sort of ‘river rapids’ where the water tumbles through the rocks.

As a result, there are a few deep ‘pools’ where you can wade or sit in the water.

We carefully clambered over the rocks until we found a nice spot to sit with our feet dangling in the water.

It was a great place to relax in the sun, and with some forethought, a picnic would be pretty epic.

The boat ride back to the ferry terminal was, again, spectacular. By the early afternoon, the water had reverted to its usual shade of brown, typical of the rainforest setting.

7. Go ‘rapid shooting’

I wasn’t expecting to go on one of the Taman Negara rapid shooting tours, but with one spare afternoon leftover, we wanted to try something different.

The ‘rapid shooting’ tours in Taman Negara involve boarding a narrow, motor-powered boat.

The driver then navigates through some very minor river rapids, intensely weaving left and right to spray the tourists with water.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much, but it was so much fun.

Our guide then pulled into a riverside beach for a couple of hours, showing us how to use the mud to scrub our skin.

It’s also a nice place for a swim. There was a hollow log floating just offshore, so my friend and I played with this for a while.

If you’re the kind of people that can make anything fun, I highly recommend this tour.

It was one of my favourite afternoons because it took me back to being a child: having mud fights, playing with logs and stones, and swimming in the river.

8. Spend the night in a cave

Now, one of the activities I wanted to do – but couldn’t, due to the rain before our trip – was the overnight cave trek in Taman Negara.

This two-day trekking tour is not easy. However, it’s very unique.

After a hot and humid six-hour hike in the rainforest, you get to spend the night in a huge cave deep in the rainforest.

On this trek, you venture deeper into the jungle with your experienced Taman Negara guide, so I heard that groups have spotted elephants, tiger prints and other animal tracks.

Obviously, though, this is a very remote trek so there are no proper toilets and food comes in the form of instant noodles.

9. Visit the Orang Asli tribe

The Orang Asli are an indigenous group on peninsular Malaysia.

In Taman Negara, the Batek tribe allows tourists to visit a makeshift village where they can learn more about their culture and way of living.

The Batek tribe are nomadic, so they often move locations in Taman Negara.

However, the ‘village’ showcases their typical shelters (made from palm trees).

The Orang Asli gather and hunt food in the rainforest, so they will also show you how to make a fire to cook food and how to use the blowpipe, their traditional hunting weapon.

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I hope you found my Taman Negara guide useful!

I’d love to hear about your experience in the national park, so feel free to leave a comment below with your own experience and anything you’d like to add to my Taman Negara guide.