Is Malaysia any good in November and December?
The question gets asked every autumn and gets answered badly every autumn, usually with some version of “it's monsoon season, don't go”. That is wrong in a specific and expensive way, because Malaysia's northeast monsoon does not fall on the whole country. It falls hard on one side of it.
Which side you are on is the entire answer.
What the meteorological service actually says
The Malaysian Meteorological Department describes the northeast monsoon as running from November to March and calls it the country's main rainy season. Its own wording is that the monsoon brings heavy rain “especially to the states on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, west of Sarawak and east of Sabah”, and it names the flood-prone states directly: Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and East Johor on the peninsula, plus Sarawak and Sabah in East Malaysia (MetMalaysia, weather phenomena).
The southwest monsoon, from late May to September, is the drier half of the year for most of the country — MetMalaysia gives typical monthly rainfall of 100 to 150 mm in that period for most states, with Sabah the exception at over 200 mm because it catches the tail of Pacific typhoon systems. The peninsula's relative dryness in those months it attributes to the rain shadow of the Sumatran mountain range.
What this means for the places nomads actually stay
Almost every Malaysian base that appears on a nomad shortlist is on the west coast or inland, which is to say on the sheltered side. The exception is Kota Kinabalu, which is in Sabah and is explicitly named by MetMalaysia as affected.
| City | Where | Northeast monsoon exposure | Cost/month | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Langkawi | Northwest coast, Andaman Sea | Sheltered — lee of the peninsula | $1,200 | 3.7 |
| George Town | Northwest coast, Penang island | Sheltered — lee of the peninsula | $1,100 | 4.3 |
| Kuala Lumpur | Inland west, Klang Valley | Sheltered, but its own convective storms | $1,300 | 4.4 |
| Johor Bahru | Southern tip, west side | Mostly sheltered; East Johor is not | $1,100 | 3.6 |
| Kota Kinabalu | Sabah, Borneo | Exposed — named by MetMalaysia | $1,100 | 3.8 |
Malaysian bases in our dataset and their northeast monsoon exposure.
So the practical answer for November and December is: George Town, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur are fine. Not dry — nowhere three degrees off the equator is dry — but not in the monsoon's path either. If your plan was Kelantan, Terengganu, the Perhentian islands or Tioman, that plan is genuinely bad for those months, and most of the east coast island resorts close for the season rather than fight it.
The daylight side of the question, which nobody asks
Malaysia sits within about six degrees of the equator, and that has a consequence people arriving from northern Europe consistently underestimate. There is essentially no seasonal daylight variation at all. On the December solstice Kuala Lumpur gets 11h 56m of daylight; in June it gets 12h 18m. The whole annual swing is about 22 minutes.
Sunset in Kuala Lumpur on the shortest day of the northern year is 19:10. For comparison, London's is in the middle of the afternoon. If the thing you are escaping is darkness rather than cold, Malaysia in December solves it about as completely as anywhere on Earth can — and it does so on both coasts, monsoon or not. That is covered in more detail on the equatorial daylight page.
The visa position
Malaysia runs the DE Rantau nomad pass. Our index records an income floor of $2,000/mo, an application fee of $225, validity of 3–12 months, processing of 4–8 weeks, and health insurance required. The programme is administered by MDEC rather than by the immigration department directly (official programme site).
For a two- or three-month stay it is usually irrelevant — many nationalities get 90 days visa-free on arrival, which covers a full northern winter escape without any application at all. The pass matters if you want to stay longer or want the legal clarity of a work-authorised status. Full detail on the Malaysia country page.
One thing to carry across to Thailand
The same monsoon governs the Thai coasts, and it splits them the same way. The Andaman side — Phuket, Krabi — is dry from roughly November to April. The Gulf side — Ko Samui, Ko Pha Ngan — takes its heaviest rain in November and December, which is the exact opposite. People book Ko Pha Ngan for December on the assumption that Thai high season means dry everywhere, and it does not. If you are planning a Southeast Asian winter that includes both countries, plan it by coast, not by country.
Common follow-up questions
Does the monsoon affect all of Malaysia in November and December?
No. MetMalaysia states that the northeast monsoon brings heavy rain especially to the east coast states of Peninsular Malaysia — Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and East Johor — plus Sarawak and Sabah. The west coast, including Penang, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur, sits in the lee of the peninsula's mountain spine.
Is Penang or Langkawi good in December?
Yes, on the monsoon question. Both are on the northwest coast and sheltered from the northeast monsoon. It still rains — this is the equatorial tropics — but they are not in the path of the seasonal rains that flood the east coast.
How much daylight does Malaysia get in December?
About 11h 56m in Kuala Lumpur, with sunset at 19:10. Because the country sits within six degrees of the equator, day length barely changes across the year — the annual swing is under half an hour.
Which Thai islands are dry in December?
The Andaman side — Phuket and Krabi — is dry from roughly November to April. The Gulf side, including Ko Samui and Ko Pha Ngan, takes its heaviest rain in November and December. The two coasts run on opposite monsoon cycles.