An Alsatian village
Colourful timbered houses, a square and fountain.
Hakeem Ibnfaisal — CC BY 3.0 · Stress 043 — CC BY 4.0 · Stress 043 — CC BY 4.0 · Cerevisae — CC BY-SA 4.0
A French-style village on the hills of Bukit Tinggi, some seven hundred and ninety metres up amid eighty acres of forest, inspired by the town of Colmar in France's Alsace and its neighbouring villages. The story goes that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad visited Colmar, fell for it, and persuaded the founder of the Berjaya group to build a version of it in Malaysia. The colourful houses with their steep roofs and timber beams are not real homes but hotel rooms, set around a square with a fountain, restaurants and shops. Around the village in the same resort are a Japanese village with a garden and tea house, a botanical garden, a rabbit park and horse riding, reached by a free shuttle. The official entry fee for visitors is about fourteen ringgit per adult and seven per child aged four to twelve, covering the French village, the Japanese village and the rabbit park. Most attractions open from ten to five. It is about an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur on the Karak highway, on the way to Genting Highlands, so many people combine the two in one day. The air is pleasantly cool and the place is popular with Arab families; come on a weekday morning to avoid the crowds.
Colourful timbered houses, a square and fountain.
A garden and tea house in the same resort.
Some 790 metres above the sea.
Berjaya Hills Resort, Bukit Tinggi, about an hour north-east of Kuala Lumpur
Yes, it is on the same road from Kuala Lumpur. Visit Colmar in the morning when it is quieter, then go up to Genting in the afternoon, or the other way round if a theme park is on your plan.