One of the common problems of tourists when traveling to places of interest, they are sometimes confused with those offers from different travel agencies or travel platforms about where to go to. A lot of factor needs to be considered. These include accommodation, transport, food, language, currency exchange rate, and so on and so forth.

This time around, let me share with you a tip when traveling to Singapore and Johor Bahru in Malaysia for few days. As a tourist, I would definitely stay in Johor Bahru for my accommodation rather than in Singapore because of the currency exchange rate. Definitely, Johor Bahru’s cost of living is cheaper compared to Singapore. 

In terms of geographical location, these two major cities are actually connected with each other via land transport.  In fact, these two major cities are among the most visited countries in  Southeast Asia. It has a lot of interesting places that attract tourists to spend time on holiday trips with their family and friends.   

Should you happened to be in Johor Bahru or Singapore and wish to travel to these two neighboring countries, I would suggest you use the Travel Bus Pass Card. It can be used for 2 days or three days unlimited bus ride for a cross-border transaction with this popular yellow bus.

We've set our holidays in Singapore but because of the cost of living there is too high,  we've decided to move to Johor Bahru in Malaysia since it's nearby to Singapore. We book our hotel to one of the 3-star hotels in JB with complimentary breakfast and we only spend cheaper rather than staying in Singapore.   

What we did was we scheduled our itinerary trip in Singapore and in Johor Bahru. We settled those popular places in Singapore by transporting back and forth with the yellow bus named as Causeway Link. 

At first, we need to keep enough coins for both Malaysia and Singapore dollars. It so happened that one of the passengers told us to use a cashless card so it will be more convenient cause we cannot get back the change of our bus fare- the bus driver cannot return to us the change since we need to drop our fare inside the bus farebox.   

We went to the counter and we saw this Travel Bus Pass Card. It says it can be used for either three days or two days. So, since we were traveling to these two countries during our first day, we decided to avail of their three days bus pass and immediately went to use it going to Singapore.   When we are the CIQ bus bay area in Johor Bahru going to Singapore, we just showed our travel bus pass card to the bus personnel and he asked us to queue like a regular passenger. When it’s our turn to pay our fare, the bus personnel just asked us to tap our card on the bus card reader machine, and boom--- the screen showed free ride.

Folks, it's easy to use, just tap and ride the bus. Then when we reached the Singapore Customs and we are at the bus bay area, the bus personnel there also asked us to tap the card inside the bus card reader machine and again it’s a free ride even if we use a different Causeway Link bus. It was really convenient. Then we went to Queen Street to take the MRT going to Universal Studio Singapore. The travel bus pass card is not usable to the MRT there. We need to pay our train fare at their counter.  

When coming back, we also use the same travel bus pass from Queen Street terminal (In Singapore) and tapped it on the machine at the counter inside the station and it appeared free ride. So, since it free rides no need for us to pay our cash in SGD.  

Even when we exited Singapore and took a different Causeway Link Bus, the driver just asked us to tap our card on the card reader machine inside the custom bus bay area, and its free ride until we reach JB Sentral. Wow, this was so cool. We saved a lot on our transport expenses.

Since we purchased a three days unlimited ride, we used the card to go to Sanrio Hello Kitty Town and Thomas Town in Puteri Iskandar, Johor (Part of Malaysia). It’s quite far from JB Sentral where we booked our hotel. We used the travel map from their website and we used this Causeway Link Bus LM1 from JB Sentral. We just tap the card at the bus card reader machine and it states free ride. 

We spend about 6 hours there since the view of the ferry terminal is also quite good. We took photos outside after we finished our tour inside Sanrio Hello Kitty Town and Thomas Town.   The sad thing here is that we need to wait for the LM1 bus service to pass by the area. So, what we did was that we called their customer service center +607 360 2244 to connect us to their supervisor. The customer service informed us about the estimated arrival of the bus. So, we waited for about half an hour.

We boarder the yellow Causeway Link bus (LM1) to go back to JB Sentral and our fare were free. Then we just used grab car to go to our hotel.  Since we still have one day to use it, we decided to go to Legoland Malaysia the following day. We went to JB Sentral again and we took the LM1 bus service to get to Legoland. We used the same route yesterday.

Actually, we are supposed to go to Johor Premium Outlets but we ended up going to Legoland.   The ride was free again even when we went back to JB Sentral.   The only inconvenient here is that we have to wait for the bus at the bus stop. They have a counter at Mall of Medini just nearby Legoland, and we asked when is the bus coming and the customer service officer has able to assist us. 

This is the only issue we found out about public transport here in Legoland Malaysia Resort. It is the same with our experience in Hello Kitty. We have to wait for the bus. But if you are going to Singapore, they have a bus service called CW7L that goes to CIQ Second Link in Tuas Checkpoint. the bus interval is quite frequent so the usage of a travel bus pass to get back to Singapore via the second link would be very convenient to you.

When we asked the counter staff about going to Johor Premium Outlet using our Travel Bus Pass Card, he informed us that we can still use the card since the validity of the card is on the next day afternoon around 2 PM.  So, we went to JB Sentral bus bay area the following day and wait for the yellow Causeway Link JPO1 bus service. It's very straightforward. We just tap the card on the card reader machine and it stated the free ride. 

We’ve spent about 2 hours there and decided to immediately be back in JB Sentral at around 1 PM. The ride was okay. It went well and we enjoyed our adventure in Malaysia and also in Singapore.

My Travel Tips:

Crossing the Causeway between Malaysia and Singapore is quite challenging. It very jam but I guess that is part of the traveling journey when crossing the causeway. The best way to cross the causeway is at about 9AM to 4 PM except for Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Public Holidays.

When crossing the Causeway, you don’t expect to use the same bus until the end of your journey. You need to bring with you your belongings as you cross the causeway for immigration clearance purposes. You need to be careful with your belongings. Close it properly to avoid any unnecessary things that may compromise your entire holiday.

Always refer to the guide map when you travel so that you will always have a guide. Internet connection along the journey may not be accessible to you unless you are in a restaurant that has a free WiFi connection. 

If the bus you’ve taken on your first journey left you inside the immigration, you don’t need to be worried, you can use other Causeway Link buses to cross the border without paying- just show them your bus pass card. 

I hope that this journey could able to help you guide your way to those places we've visited during our journey to Singapore and Malaysia.

Disclaimer: This trip documentation was captured in 2019. Routings may have been adjusted or updated.