Johor Bahru Transportation

Seems if you drive in from Singapore, the Tuas border crossing is a lot less crowded than the Woodlands checkpoint, but a bit out of the way.

Depends on how much time you have and how patient the driver is...

Johor Bahru's airport is known as Senai International Airport or in Malay - Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Senai. I am not certain as to when this airport serves International flights but I've read it in the local daily about flights from China landing here.

As far as I know, flights connecting with this airport are from Kuala Lumpur (KLIA & LCCT), Kuantan (Pahang), Pulau Pinang (Penang), Kota Kinabalu (Sabah), Sandakan, Sibu, Tawau, Kuching & Miri (Sarawak), Jakarta, Palembang & Denpasar (Indonesia), Macau, Rangoon, Bangkok, Manila, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Taipei, Pnom Penh, Pearl River Data and Singapore as well.

Tell the taxi driver to use the meter and you'll be fine. Most taxi drivers here are ok. Getting a taxi from City Square would be better that getting taxis near the immigration checkpoint. If you intend to get a cab to Tebrau City, it shouldn't be more than RM 20.

One of the best way to get to Johor Bahru, whether from Penang, Ipoh, KL or Melaka, is to take the express bus.

There are different grades of buses with varying prices. You can different leg room and even your own personal video movie console. So check to have a look at the photo of the bus type, the number of seater, whether individual movie console and also where the bus will stop at.

Some smaller companies will stop at different towns to drop off passengers or even wait to pick up passengers. So go for direct buses from larger bus companies.

Note that there are two major bus stations. Larkin is for long distance destinations. Kotaraya is for local destinations. There is bus stop to get to Larkin in front of the Indian Temple side at Jalan Wong Ah Fook, opposite City Square.

You can a train from Singapore into JB and northwards to Kuala Lumpur, Butterworth (Penang) and take another connecting train to Bangkok (Thailand).

Unfortunately, many sections of the railways are still single track and so train travel can be very slow - doubling the time taken by buses. Also due to reduced popularity, the train schedule is few and far apart.

But if you are a train enthusiast, why not.

There are many bus shuttles between Singapore and JB.

Some coming from Singapore prefer to use a common taxi, you wait until there are 4 customers per taxi or you can charter your own taxi to cross to JB. Reason is that you do not have to get out of the taxi with your luggage in the taxi booth for inspection instead of standing in the long queue for all passengers for immigration and customs that travel by buses and have to handcarry their luggage from the buses at border checkpoint.

It is also possible to just walk along the causeway between Singapore and JB. You can see some people walking when there is a heavy jam on the causeway.

Have flown several times in JB using the Senai International airport. Airport code: JHB

There are two airlines, MAS (Malaysian Airlines) and budget airlines Air Asia.

The distance of the airport to downtown JB is about 30km. There is a regular bus shuttle from downtown JB to the airport.

If flying on MAS, you can buy another prepaid coach ticket at booking that will take from Senai to downtown Singapore without having to go to JB downtown.

Driving into Malaysia via the Causeway has never been a breeze. If you're here on a short-term stay, I'd suggest you follow a tour group. But if you're here on a longer stay and would like to share the pains of what we feel when we drive up, do take up this challenge.

Firstly, there are toll charges on both sides of the Causeway:- Singapore charges S$1.20 and Malaysia charges RM2.60.

Secondly, the jam can last anything from 1 hour to 3 hours or more during peak periods. Instead, walking across the Causeway or even taking a bus might get you across much faster than driving. One way to circumvent this problem is to be at the Causeway before 7am.

If that's not enough to turn you off driving, there are sure fail road signs that are in their native language - Malay. You'd be lucky if you can decipher these road signs before you even pass them.

Moral of the Story? Don't drive unless you're pretty familiar with the roads in Malaysia.