Have the best day out – Ten Tips for Visiting the amazing KidZania in Kuala Lumpur

Despite there being several locations around the globe, we’d never visited Kidzania before. We’d heard great things and decided to venture there for our son’s birthday when staying in Kuala Lumpur. It’s a full on day, but we’re sharing our top ten tips, useful information and things we wish we had known before visiting so you can really get the most from your visit to Kidzania.

The concept of Kidzania is that it is a city for kids, where they can work to earn money, spend their money on experiences or save up their wages to shop at the end of the day. Whether it is being a window cleaner, working for the police, getting your driving license or being a surgeon, it is both fun and educational. We spent 5 hours here before we were all exhausted. We hope you find this guide to visiting Kidzania in Kuala Lumpur full of helpful tips.

Getting there

Timing, Tickets and Costs

Our ticket as a family of four cost £65, children admission being more expensive than adults. Under 2s go free, 2-3 year olds are £10, children 4-12 are £20 and adults are £12. The centre is open 7 days a week, 10am – 6pm. We arrived around 11.15 and it was nice and quiet, but from around 3pm it started to get really busy. Until then our kids were barely queuing, but then queues of up to 30 minutes started forming. I can’t imagine what it must be like on a weekend.

Kidzania tip no. 1 – Try to go during the week and earlier in the day for reduced queues and a quieter experience. There are also some activities in the far corners of each floor which always seemed very quiet. If queues get long, then head in that direction.

You must purchase your tickets online in advance – you can do this from here. You will receive your tickets via email with a link to register your ‘selfies’ in advance. The entrance and exit barrier operate on face recognition technology!

Kidzania tip no. 2 – DO THIS! You can’t enter until you have done so and the kids are desperate to get in whilst you are messing around with your phone, photos, date of births etc.

How it all works

Once you enter the Kidzania city, it is an assault on the senses – it is loud, busy, visually stimulating. The first thing your kids will see is other children climbing on walls directly in front of them! Or a ambulance or fire engine driving past their faces. This means you are straight into the thick of the action and demands to do this, that and the other. There is someone there to explain how it works, but let me try and do that for you now so you are more prepared and raring to go.

Each child gets given 50 Kidzos, the official currency of Kidzania, not just for Kuala Lumpur but all Kidzanias around the globe. Each activity in the city has a sign which outlines how long it last, the most suitable age, but most importantly whether it costs Kidzos, or whether they earn Kidzos. The general rule of thumb is that doing a job such as fire fighter, dentist, paramedic, vet etc. will earn you money – the longer the job, the more Kidzos you earn i.e. learning about earning. If it is an experience such as wall climbing, driving or dancing, then it will cost them Kidzos i.e. learning about spending.

Here’s a quick summary of wages versus costs:

Firefighter – earn 10 Kidzos

Grocery packer – earn 6 Kidzos

Television presenter – earn 10 Kidzos

Wall climbing – costs 12 Kidzos

Kidzania tip no. 3 – you have to be 110cm and NOT wearing open toe shoes to be allowed to climb so those travelling sandals won’t cut it!

Smoothie making – costs 15 Kidzos

There are also a few activities which cost proper cash such as ice cream making – 15 RM (£3).

Kidzania tip no. 4 – any car enthusiast will spot the cars you can drive in pretty quickly (cost 10 Kidzos). But to do that they need to get their driving license (cost 12 Kidzos), and to do that they need to pass an eye test (cost 5 Kidzos) – so a drive in a car is going to cost them 27 Kidzos of their precious 50 starting pot, and around 30 minutes before. The drive itself is 10 minutes and only 5 kids can drive at once, so do this early and avoid having to stand in queues for long – even only 10 kids in the queue will be 30 minutes of queue time.

There are 2 floors to Kidzania and best estimate over 50 activities they can do. If you are going with more than one child, and there is a big age gap, then prepare yourself for splitting up. Thankfully we went as a two adult family, as we ended up split up for the first 90 minutes as they both ran towards what they wanted to do.

There are also a few activities which are so popular you have to book a timeslot, such as pilot simulator, airline training, fire fighting, acting classes, so make sure you know which these are and get your kids booked in as soon as you arrive.

Kidzania tip no. 5 – I would limit activities you have to book to 1 or 2 as otherwise you’ll have a full schedule and not be able to be as spontaneous with what they see and then want to do, when you are rushing from pre-booked slot to another. We chose the firefighting (for them both) and airline pilot (for Alicia).

Even if you were there all day, for the full 8 hours, I doubt you would manage every activity, so have that as an expectation and just do as many as you can manage. There are also acting auditions and dance classes which are at scheduled times, so maybe check the timings out early if you think that is something you would like to do.

Kidzania tip no. 6 – to be a news presenter, there is an auto cue to read, so whilst our youngest was prompted by the staff, it does help if they can read by themselves.

Facilities and Good to Knows

Aside from all the activities, the facilities at Kidzania are really good. There are a few eateries such as subway, a Malaysia restaurant, cookies, donuts, cafes. Toilets are plentiful and clean.

Kidzania tip no. 7 – take your own food and eat it whilst waiting for activities. This will help distract the kids from the fact they are waiting. The kids also won’t want to be dragged away to go and ‘have lunch’.

Kidzania tip no. 8 – the air con is strong, it was cool in there. Definitely don’t dress for the 30+ degrees that is outside, or take a jumper!

There are 2 shops for the kids which are near the exit (and entrance as it happens). One shop takes Kidzos as currency, and the other is your standard gift shop with over priced toys!

We made the mistake of thinking the kids would want to save and earn a load of Kidzos for the shop at the end, but when we got there you either needed 3000 for something half decent, or 80, 150, 250 or 400 Kidzos got you various items of plastic tat. We very quickly realised this and then went off spending their wages on more of the experience type activities which we had tried to swerve them away from.

Kidzania tip no. 9 – don’t feel you need to earn and save loads of money – generally do 2 earning jobs to every 1 spending experience and you’ll get through the day with not much issue. There’s no need to bank a load of cash for the shop! Or visit the shop first to see if there is anything they want to save their cash for.

Kidzania tip no. 10 – when leaving you are not in the centre of KL, and we had to wait 20 minutes for a Grab. Not what a tired family needs, to if travelling by taxi, keep an eye on that and book before you leave!

As you finish you day if you do come out tired and hungry, Kidzania is attached to a shopping mall, Curve NX, there’s a McDonalds out front and even an Ikea over the road so that could be a dinner stop if you are partial to their meatballs!

And finally…..there is a lot of hanging around for grown ups. Especially if your kids are a bit older and more independent, so maybe take a book with you!