Merdeka 118's Observation Deck Opens: What to Know Before Visiting The View at 118

Seeing 118 from Vertigo

You go up through the hotel lobby at 2 Jalan Conlay, and the deck is open every day from 6 p.m. to midnight. Low seating runs along a glass parapet, and from there you can pick out the Twin Towers, KL Tower, the TRX cluster and 118 without moving. Dress is smart casual and premium drinks run RM60 to RM80. Come at sundown for a drink, because the food is hit and miss.

The Petronas deck

PETRONAS Twin Towers Skybridge & Observation Deck is the view most first-time visitors want. It also puts you inside the building you have been photographing all week. Your ticket takes you onto the double-decker Skybridge that joins the two towers at level 41, then up to the enclosed deck on level 86. It is all behind glass, so you get no open air and no wind up there.

A non-Malaysian adult pays RM127 on weekdays and RM137 at weekends, and it's RM42 to RM45 with MyKad. Entry runs in timed batches, so arrive 15 minutes before the time printed on your ticket. Latecomers are not admitted. Allow about an hour inside, and book well ahead, as the slots go.

It's open from 9 a.m. to 10.30 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday, with last admission at 9.30 p.m. Most Mondays it's shut, though it opens until 8 p.m. on the second, fourth and fifth Monday of the month. KLCC station on the LRT Kelana Jaya line has an underground walkway running straight into Suria KLCC at the foot of the towers.

KL Tower and its hill

KL Tower (Menara Kuala Lumpur) is the one with air on your face. The indoor Observation Deck sits at 276m. The Sky Deck is above it at 300m and open to the sky, which is why photographers come here for the Petronas skyline. Two glass boxes project out over the drop. You leave your shoes at the entrance and get a minute or two inside one.

It's open daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. A non-Malaysian adult pays RM80 for the indoor deck, RM140 for the Sky Deck and RM180 for both, with the Sky Box a further RM10. MyKad holders pay RM30 to RM55. The queue peaks in the hour around sunset and at weekends.

Rain and thunderstorms close the Sky Deck and the glass boxes while the indoor deck stays open. Keep your ticket if that happens, as the tower usually lets you return. If you want dinner up there, ORBIT Revolving Dining turns at 282m in the same shaft, with buffets at RM219 to RM269 and hi-tea at RM99 to RM119.

KL Forest Eco Park Canopy Walk is on the same hill, Bukit Nanas, so the two fit into one morning. The walk is a suspended wood-and-steel bridge running about 200 metres through the treetops, with the tower's white shaft rising through the branches above you. It's open daily from 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. and closed every Friday, and heavy rain shuts the bridge, sometimes at no notice. Entry is RM40 for a non-Malaysian adult, RM5 for a child and RM10 with MyKad, paid in cash at the entrance, with no online booking. Give it 30 to 45 minutes, or join a ranger-led walk, which goes every two hours from 10.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

Free skyline spots

Saloma Link (Pintasan Saloma) is the footbridge linking Kampung Baru with the Jalan Ampang side near KLCC, and the lit Twin Towers rise straight ahead as you cross. The canopy over your head is modelled on a Sireh Junjung, a betel-leaf wedding arrangement, and washes through changing colours after dark. It's free and open from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. Late afternoon into sunset is the time to be on it, and early morning is quietest. Kampung Baru LRT station sits right by that end, and there's a lift if the ramps are hard going. Vendors will offer to photograph you at night, and some charge for it.

TRX City Park at The Exchange TRX is a real park laid out on the roof of a shopping mall. You get a lawn, raised timber walkways through tropical planting and a koi pond, with the glass towers of the TRX district standing all around. The walkways are where people shoot the night lights. It's free and open every day, and the mall below trades from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tun Razak Exchange, the one interchange station on the MRT network, has a pedestrian link into the mall concourse. Most people stay an hour or two.

Thean Hou Temple stands on a hill in Robson Heights, off Jalan Syed Putra, and its open upper terraces look across to the skyline in the distance. It's a working temple, with six tiers of roofs, dragon columns and hundreds of red lanterns strung overhead. Go for the temple and take the view as a bonus, because the towers are a small, hazy silhouette from here. Entry is free, donations welcome. It opens at 8 a.m. and closes somewhere between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., so go earlier in the evening to be safe. No station is near the hill, so take a taxi or ride-hail. Allow an hour.

Rooftops for a drink

Marini's on 57 sits on Level 57 of Menara 3 Petronas, beside the Twin Towers, so you look across at the lit spires at eye level. The bar opens at 5 p.m. and runs to 1.30 a.m., later on Friday and Saturday. Dress is strictly smart, with no caps, shorts, slippers or flip-flops, and the bar and lounge are over-21s only. A window table in the restaurant has a minimum spend of RM300++ per person.

SkyBar Kuala Lumpur is on Level 33 of Traders Hotel in KLCC, where curtained booths line floor-to-ceiling windows and the Twin Towers fill the frame across KLCC Park. It opens at noon, which makes it the easy daylight choice, and closes at 1 a.m., later on Friday and Saturday. The pool is for hotel guests, so non-guests get the booth, the view and the drinks. Cocktails are RM50 to RM70, and a window booth near sunset is worth booking.

Heli Lounge Bar is the strange one. You order in the indoor lounge on Level 34 of Menara KH on Jalan Sultan Ismail. Then you go up onto the roof, which is a working helipad by day. At night there's rope round the edge, sofas on the concrete and city lights the whole way round. Beers start at RM35, and expect a cover of RM50 to RM100 that comes off what you drink. It opens at 6 p.m. and closes at midnight early in the week, later from Thursday, and it's shut on Sundays. Confirm the hours before you set out. Get there before 9 p.m. for a sunset seat and a looser door, as slippers and sandals are refused later in the evening. If unfenced heights bother you, leave this one out.

A day out at Genting

Awana SkyWay is the cable car up to Genting Highlands, 10 minutes over 2.8km of rainforest, running daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. A standard gondola is RM11 one way and RM19 return. The glass-floor gondola is RM32 one way and RM54 return, dropping to RM29 and RM48 if you book online at least a day ahead. You can break the ride at Chin Swee station and walk up to the Chin Swee Caves Temple at no extra cost. Coaches from KL Sentral to the terminal beside the lower station take an hour and a half to two hours, from RM11 to RM21 one way. Do it only if you have a spare day, because cloud often sits over the summit and takes the view with it.

Closures and bookings

The Petronas deck is closed most Mondays and the forest park every Friday, so set those two days against each other when you plan. Book the Petronas time slot and a sunset booth at SkyBar ahead of the day, and treat the open-air decks as weather-dependent. See the Kuala Lumpur guide and the Kuala Lumpur hotel search.