When considering a trip to the Penang Tropical Fruit Farm our considerations are always the same. What’s the budget and what will the kids love; when it comes to travel the slogan for us is ‘happy kids = happy life’! Our kids, like most, love fun, outdoors, nature and activities that get them active. As for the budget, it’s always tight – travelling for a year is no small undertaking! The Penang Tropical Fruit Farm fits the bill nicely.
Food at a family activity location is always a risk. You never really know if you’ll be caught out with high tourist prices with no other options until you get there as many food places don’t have websites. However, I’m pleased to report the food at Penang Tropical Fruit Farm is reasonably priced as are the tropical fruit farm tour tickets. It’s a bit of a hike to get out there, but the 45 minutes in a Grab is pleasant, travelling a winding jungle / coastal road, dodging monkeys and admiring beaches along the way. We bought the Tropical Fruit Farm Tour with the fruit and smoothie platter at the end, under 5 years olds are free.
If you are looking for other things to do on Penang Island check our experience walking the Penang Heritage Trail, or our location review of Penang Island and Georgetown.
What’s the verdict?
What a way to spend a day! The tour itself is a very pleasant walk through their orchard in the jungle and took around an hour. We had a guide to ourselves – yay. It was quiet on a weekday and the owner was telling us they still haven’t recovered from the post covid drop in tourism yet.
A lot of the fruit is in season in December, so you get to try all manner of tropical fruits fresh from the tree. Most of them we’d never even heard of great learning for us all. You then go in store to taste their range of fruit enzymes which they talk you through all the health benefits. After that is sampling their local honey which is amazing.
When you factor in the travel time, a huge tropical fruit platter and lunch, admiring the tropical jungle views and wildlife – this was easily a half day activity. We all rated this one really highly, well worth the trip. The highlight was the miracle fruit. Suck it for a few minutes and then eat a lemon. It changes everything you eat for the next 20 minutes from sour to sweet!
Our tips for the Penang Tropical Fruit Farm
- It’s outdoors. They will provide an umbrella if needed, but I imagine it wouldn’t be fun in a downpour. Check the weather before you go as its quite the drive to get there.
- Usual tropical travel rules apply – bring water, sunscreen and insect repellant.
- There’s a well-priced fruit shop where you can stock up on fresh fruit, enzymes, honey and the usual tourist trinkets. The restaurant is also good value which was a pleasant surprise as there’s no other options.
- Our guide was excellent and spoke very good English!
- You can skip the tour and get a fruit platter from the store to still sample all the fruit available. A good option if the weather is no good or you are short on time.
- The fruits available are seasonal, we were there in December and the selection was very abundant.
- Whilst a Grab will get you there, it’s a bit tricker getting back as due to its isolation. You can’t easily get a grab back as the usual tourist transport routes haven’t fully reopened. They provide a service dropping you back in a nearby town for US$7 at a bus stop where you could hop on a bus. We easily caught a Grab home from the bus stop. They will also call you a taxi for a direct lift from the fruit farm, but it’s not recommended as it’s metered and very expensive.
- If you want to combine this activity with others, nearby is Entopia Butterfly Farm, Spice Garden and The National Park where you can walk or get a boat to Monkey Beach or Turtle Beach. ESCAPE Penang is also close by, but it really is a full day (even two) activity.