Cameron Highlands is the Malaysia almost nobody expects: instead of sticky heat, beaches and palm trees, a world of green mountains, mist, cool air and hills carpeted with tea all the way to the horizon. More than a thousand metres up, on the roof of the peninsula, this mountain retreat offers a delightful break from the tropical swelter and some of the most photogenic landscapes in the country: tea plantations tracing perfect contour lines, strawberry greenhouses, cloud forests covered in moss and ferns, and an old British-colony feel that survives in its Tudor houses and tea rooms.
It was precisely that — the cool climate — that drew the British, who in the early 20th century turned these highlands into a 'hill station' for escaping the heat and growing tea, vegetables and temperate-climate flowers. That legacy is still alive: today Cameron Highlands is Malaysia's great tea producer and a larder of strawberries, vegetables and flowers, and a much-loved getaway for Malaysians and travellers looking for nature, hikes and a cup of tea with scones in the mist.
This guide organises your visit with a practical, friendly approach: which tea plantation to visit, how to get to the Mossy Forest and the highest point, where to try the strawberries, which hikes to do, how to get around a mountain where a tour or a car makes sense, and how much things cost. Cameron Highlands is best enjoyed over 2 or 3 days, ideal as a cool pause between the hot cities of the west, and it surprises everyone who arrives expecting the tropics and finds mist, tea and a sweater on, right by the equator.
Cameron Highlands is named after William Cameron, a British surveyor who in 1885 mapped this plateau in the central mountain range, although — curiously — he never pinpointed the plateau that would bear his name and never returned to the area. Real development came decades later: in the 1920s and 1930s, the British saw these temperate highlands as the ideal place for a 'hill station', a mountain retreat for escaping the tropical heat, like the ones they already had in India. Roads were opened, bungalows, hotels and a church were built, and above all the first tea plantations were laid out — the most famous being that of the BOH company, founded in 1929 by the Briton J. A. Russell — along with cool-climate vegetables and flowers that supplied the cities. After Malaysian independence, Cameron Highlands kept growing as a farming region (tea, strawberries, vegetables, flowers) and as a mountain tourist destination. The area also gained a note of mystery in 1967, when the American Jim Thompson, the 'Thai silk king', vanished without a trace during a walk in these forests, an enigma that has never been solved. The full story of the 'hill station' is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Malaysia's historical and economic frontage: the coast along the strait through which every empire arrived, with Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Malacca and the tin highlands.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Cameron Highlands is named after a man who, ironically, barely knew it. William Cameron was a British surveyor who, in 1885, was commissioned by the colonial government to map the central mountain range of the Malay Peninsula. At the time it was a mountainous region covered in almost impenetrable jungle and inhabited only by the Orang Asli, the Indigenous peoples of Malaysia. During his expeditions, Cameron reported a broad plateau of gentle hills up in the heights, a fertile upland with a temperate climate that was unusual in the tropics.
Curiously, Cameron himself never pinned down the exact location of that plateau on his maps. He never went back to the area and died a few years later, with no idea what the place that would bear his surname would become. For decades his report sat almost forgotten in the colonial archives, and the plateau remained a remote, wild corner with no roads or settlements beyond the Orang Asli communities that had lived there since time immemorial.
Interest in those highlands only revived in the first decades of the 20th century. By then the British already ran much of the peninsula through the Federated Malay States. Just as they had done in their Indian empire, they were looking for cool places at altitude where they could escape the stifling tropical heat and grow temperate-climate crops. The plateau Cameron had glimpsed decades earlier fitted that colonial dream perfectly.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the British developed Cameron Highlands as a 'hill station', a high-altitude mountain retreat like the ones they already had in India (such as Simla or Darjeeling). These were cool refuges where settlers, officials and families could escape the humid heat of the lowlands, rest, recover their health and recreate a slice of British life in the tropics. The plateau's climate, mild all year round, was perfect for it.
Access roads were cut through the jungle, a tough job given the rugged terrain. Little by little the first bungalows appeared, along with Tudor-style hotels, a church, golf courses, rose gardens and tea rooms. A curious 'little England' was born right in the heart of Malaysia, with its cream tea (tea with scones), its fireplaces and its British air. Much of that feel can still be found today in places like the historic Smokehouse hotel in Tanah Rata.
But Cameron Highlands wasn't just a colonial playground: its huge farming potential soon became clear. The soil and temperate climate made it possible to grow crops that didn't grow anywhere else in the country: cool-climate vegetables, flowers and, above all, tea. That mix of mountain refuge and farming larder would define the plateau's identity for good, and it drew new communities of workers who would change who lived there.
Cameron Highlands' great economic engine was, and still is, tea. In 1929 John Archibald Russell, a Malaysian-born British businessman, obtained a concession to plant tea in these highlands and founded the company BOH (BOH Plantations), which opened its first plantation, Boh Estate, on the plateau. The experiment was a resounding success. The cool climate, the altitude and the moisture from the clouds proved ideal for growing tea, and the hillsides began to fill with the rolling green blanket of bushes that is now the region's iconic image.
BOH became Malaysia's largest tea producer, a title it still holds, with several estates in Cameron Highlands. Tea turned into a symbol of the area and an everyday drink across the whole country. Over the years, vegetable farms, flower farms and, later, the strawberry fields that visitors love today joined the tea plantations.
All that farming needed labour, and much of it came from India. As on the rubber plantations of the lowlands, the British brought in large numbers of Tamil workers (from southern India) to pick tea, in very harsh conditions. Their descendants are still an important part of the local population today, and their heritage shows in the Hindu temples, the estate communities and the excellent Indian food you'll find in Tanah Rata. Chinese traders and farmers joined them too, giving the plateau the Malay, Chinese and Indian mix that is so typical of Malaysia.
The history of Cameron Highlands has its dark and puzzling chapters too. During the 'Malayan Emergency' (1948-1960), the guerrilla war between British and Commonwealth forces and communist insurgents, the highlands and their dense jungles became a conflict zone. The guerrillas hid in the jungle, and isolated plantations were vulnerable. The mountain roads and estates bore the strain of those years until the conflict died down and Malaysia gained independence in 1957.
But the episode that made Cameron Highlands famous around the world, and gave it an air of mystery that lingers, happened on 26 March 1967. That day the American Jim Thompson was on holiday in a bungalow on the plateau. He was the well-known businessman who had revived the Thai silk industry after the Second World War and become a familiar figure in Bangkok (his house-museum is still one of the Thai capital's attractions). He went out for a walk in the nearby forest, supposedly just for a short while… and never came back.
One of the largest search operations in Malaysian history followed, with trackers, Orang Asli, dogs and even mediums, but neither his body nor any trace of him was ever found. Jim Thompson's disappearance remained unsolved and fuelled all kinds of theories: that he got lost and died in the jungle, was attacked by an animal, had an accident, was kidnapped because of his past in the intelligence services, or planned his own disappearance. The mystery was never solved, and it gave the misty mountains of Cameron Highlands a modern legend that still fascinates visitors today.
After independence, Cameron Highlands kept growing as a farming region and as a tourist destination. Farming became more intensive and more varied. Greenhouses of strawberries, flowers and vegetables joined the tea plantations and vegetable plots, supplying Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and much of the country and turning the plateau into one of Malaysia's great larders. At the same time, tourism took off. It started as a weekend getaway for Malaysian and Singaporean families looking for cool weather, and later became a regular stop for international travellers touring the peninsula.
Today, attractions such as the BOH tea plantations, the Mossy Forest on the summit of Gunung Brinchang, the strawberry farms and the jungle trails draw crowds, especially at weekends, when the narrow mountain roads get jammed with traffic. The plateau keeps its charm (the tea, the mist, the colonial feel of the tea rooms), but it also faces the problems that come with its own success.
Uncontrolled growth in farming and tourism has come at an environmental cost. Hillsides have been cleared for new crops and greenhouses, and the results include soil erosion, landslides in the rainy season, rivers polluted by fertilisers and pesticides, and pressure on fragile cloud forests such as the Mossy Forest, which are unique and very sensitive ecosystems. The authorities and environmental groups have pushed for protection measures and controls, with mixed results. The challenge for today's Cameron Highlands is precisely this: balancing the farming and tourism that keep it alive with protecting the mountains, forests and climate that made it special in the first place.
