If there is one time where advertising has done its work on me, it is definitely with visiting the Lost World Tambun Ipoh. I went from having no idea what this theme park was to firmly planting it on my bucket list. Thank you AirAsia flight magazines and seat back advertising!
It took a few years before I was able to tick off this park and write this Sunway Lost World of Tambun blog. But as soon as I could get to Ipoh, I was straight to this park so I could write this Sunway the Lost World of Tambun review!
And I am glad I did. This is a stunningly beautiful theme park and, at least the first time I visited, I found this well worth a day of your precious holiday time.
Below, I am going to walk you through all the Lost World of Tambun activities, attractions and things to do. I’m also going to give you tips for visiting, the cheapest Lost World Tambun ticket promotion, where to stay and all my thoughts in this Lost World Tambun review.
Already know you want to go? Find a cheap the Lost World of Tambun ticket here.
To give you some context, I first visited this theme park in 2017. I then returned in 2024. It was very similar both times, but my feelings about it changed in that time.
In part because it got more expensive and in part because I had older kids and had a different experience because of that. It’s also because I think we went at the wrong time of day and the park has changed its focus to be much more about a combined day/evening experience. I think it’s entirely possible I would have had a much more positive experience in 2024 if we had visited later in the day.
This will make more sense as you read through this review which is a combination of both my experiences.
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Contents
Sunway The Lost World Of Tambun Review
The Lost World of Tambun theme park is split into six different lands as well as having a night experience. I have split up this Tambun Lost World review to go through them one by one to help you plan your visit and understand why you should consider visiting this theme park.
Six lands may seem like a lot, but they are generally quite small so you can visit them all in half a day, although you’ll want longer to relax and enjoy. None of them are amazing individually but add them together and it makes for a lot of fun.
The biggest pro of this park is definitely its location. It’s absolutely, stunningly beautiful. Just look around as you visit and you’ll be taken in by the hills, the forest, everything. It’s definitely the most visually appealing theme park I have ever visited… and I’ve been to many!
I visited this park with a 5 and 6 year old and then later with a 7 and 13 year old. It was much more fun with my 5 and 6 year olds. The park is much more aimed at younger kids.
The Lost World Of Tambun, Ipoh, Perak Essential Information
Lost World of Tambun Address: 1, Persiaran Lagun Sunway 1, Sunway City Ipoh
Lost World Of Tambun Opening Hours: 10am-11pm weekends, public holidays and school holidays. Closed Tuesdays (except during school and public holidays). 11am-11pm other days.
The Lost World Hot Springs Night Park is open daily 6-11pm.
Lost World Of Tambun Amusement Park
The first land we visited in my Lost World of Tambun theme park review, the Amusement Park, is disappointing. It’s very small. The rides are all very low key and for younger kids.
There are flying boats, swings, a train, pirate ship and the carousel pictured above. There is one Lost World of Tambun roller coaster and it’s not at all scary. The scariest part is the Haunted Chambers – a haunted house. Unfortunately, this costs an extra fee to enter. It also doesn’t open until later in the day.
If you are someone after a huge Lost World of Tambun attraction ride, you will be disappointed. However, we didn’t find the lack of thrilling rides an issue as there are plenty of other things to do here – keep reading!
Lost World Of Tambun Tin Valley
In this area, you will get a Lost World of Tambun history lesson!
Ipoh had a booming tin industry in the 19th century and in Tin Valley, you can learn about this on information boards and by looking for tin yourself. This is a fun activity for kids and it’s interesting seeing old items and learning how elephants were used in the industry in the past. There is not much else here.
Unfortunately, when we returned in 2024, we were not able to look for tin anymore. I’m not sure if this was only at the time we visited – first thing in the morning – or all the time, but it meant this land was pretty pointless with nothing to do but read the boards.
Lost World Of Tambun Adventure Park
If you are looking for adrenaline in your Ipoh Lost World Tambun Theme Park visit, this is the land to head to!
In the Adventure Park, you can zip line, sludge through water-filled, dark caves, climb up high ropes, kayak and more. There are many challenging activities but unfortunately, they are at an extra cost.
It’s definitely a huge complaint of this park. It costs too much for most things for older people to be at a extra charge.
Lost World Of Tambun Petting Zoo
We had a lot of fun in this area in 2017. It had a huge hamster encolsure with so much for them to do, 55 species and many activities and it seemed like the animals weren’t totally miserable.
In 2024, the animals looked miserable. Many also seemed to need food. You can buy food to feed them (it was either RM20 or 30!), and we declined. The animals went crazy climbing over each other when they saw us hoping we would give them food. It was sad and a little scary.
There are tons of animals here, but many looked terrified.
There are also many birds and reptiles, including many snakes. We did enjoy the bird enclosure.
In 2017, we also enjoyed being creeped out in Tarantula Alley. This is built into the surrounding limestone hills and there are many types of tarantulas on display. However, we couldn’t find this in 2024. It’s still on the maps so maybe it exists.
You can find giraffes, zebras and even a cat enclosure. They don’t look great.
The upside is that this is a very scenic area which is beautiful to walk around.
Lost World Of Tambun Tiger Valley
Tiger Valley is home to some big Siberian tigers which you can watch. There is also a tiger feeding show where you can learn more about these magnificent creatures.
We weren’t here at the right time to see this.
Lost World Of Tambun Water Park
The Lost World Tambun Water Park was our favourite area in our review Lost World of Tambun. Really, it’s the main area and this is a low-key water park that happens to have a few rides and animal attractions.
It’s a lower key water park compared to somewhere like Sunway Lagoon, but it has everything you need for tons of fun… as long as you have a travelling companion!
There are water slides, THREE! kids’ water playground areas, a “lazy” river, a wave pool and a beach area. Again, it’s not super thrilling (although some of the water slides aren’t bad), but it is fun.
For younger kids, the playground areas are just fabulous and I appreciated how there are many shady areas to sit.
The water slides are great. We had five big ones to try plus there were some smaller ones round the biggest water playground. There is also another extra big waterslide but it didn’t open until 4pm, so we didn’t get to use it.
The big downside with the waterslides is that they all require two people on a raft to use. So if you don’t have another person with you to go on them, you miss out.
Or if you are in a group of three, like I was both visits, someone misses out or you can’t do it. The first time I was there with 5 and 6 years and they couldn’t do it together and I couldn’t leave one alone so they missed out.
This time, I had to stand around for ages waiting while they did it. They don’t have seating or much shade round the slides which added to my frustration with this. If you are a solo traveller, you’ll miss out all together.
On the upside, the big wave pool complete with a daily pool party with music and live dancing is definitely my highlight. It was fun to float around watching the show surrounded by some of the best scenery I have seen anywhere. The surrounding limestone cliffs are amazing.
My biggest disappointment of this area was the lazy river. It costs RM30 to hire a tube (you get RM10 back, but still, very expensive) and the worst part was all the mucking around paying to hire this and then finding it wasn’t actually a lazy river ride as it wasn’t lazy at all. There is no current so you have to push yourself along and it wasn’t clean either.
Thankfully, the fun pool party made up for our disappointment and it really is hard not to have an awesome time when surrounded by so much beauty.
Lost World Hot Springs Night Park
If you are looking for a truly unique experience, you should definitely consider visiting the Lost World Hot Springs Night Park. Open in the evening, you can see what this theme park is like after dark!
This is sometimes combined with a day ticket and sometimes separate, you get access to:
- Lost World Hot Springs and Spa – there are 12 hot spring pools to relax in! You can also have a massage at the Lost World of Tambun Spa (extra cost) and there is a fire show you can watch from some of the pools.
- Luminous Forest – learn the story of the Malayana Tribe as you walk through glowing forests and hear music. It’s quite an experience!
- Lost World Petting Zoo By Night – the petting zoo has a whole different look in the evening and you can watch nocturnal animals in action including a special walk through Tarantula Alley.
- Ipoh Street – this replica of Ipoh Old Town comes alive in the evening with some great food options and various cuisines on offer.
Lost World Shows And Entertainment
There are some low key shows and entertainment. You can see the schedule from our list visit above.
Unfortunately, you can’t trust the schedule on their own website. Our recent visit here did not start off well when we arrived nice and early as their site said that the welcome show/dance was at 10:40am. We arrived before this as I remembered enjoying it last time to find the ticket counters weren’t even open yet with no way to enter and see a show.
Once we could get in, we did and didn’t find the show. Not even at 11am like the sign says. I think it may have been outside the entrance so we had already come in and missed it 🙁
How The Day/Night Park Works
This theme park seems more centred on its night attractions and set up for mid to later afternoon visitors who are staying until the evening.
As you may have noticed when reading through this, quite a few attractions weren’t available when we visited from about 11am to 3pm. Given there isn’t all that much to do at this park, it was quite disappointing and meant we were well and truly done within four hours.
Towards the end of our visit, the theme park seemed more alive, more people were showing up and it was becoming more fun.
I think if we had arrived between 2 – 3pm and then stayed into the evening, we would have had much more fun. There is more we could have done, and we may have been less frustrated by things like finding it hard to buy water and toilets being shut as we walked around.
I highly recommend that if you visit Lost World of Tambun, you don’t make our mistake and visit later in the day.
Tambun Lost World Ticket Promotion
It’s easy to buy tickets on arrival but for the best prices in the Lost World of Tambun promotion, I highly recommend you buy tickets in advance here.
We always use Klook to buy our tickets in advance as they are completely trustworthy, easy to use and save us a lot of money.
If you wish to visit the Night Park as well (I recommend you do!), you can also buy a discount Ipoh Tambun Lost World ticket here.
Note that there are different prices for local vs international visitors.
Food In Tambun Ipoh
There are some great food options at the Lost World of Tambun. Malaysia. They are reasonable prices too and not the usual theme park rip off. We had some great dishes in the hawker centre area and tasted some great local food.
There are quite a few food stalls throughout the park and you won’t have problems finding something to eat. Ipoh Street is also open during the day and a great place to head.
The big downside of food and drinks here is that you can’t take any in. They checked our bags and even removed our water. While I am used to theme parks saying no food and drinks, they have never not allowed us to take water in before.
To make this even worse, nowhere was open to buy it when we first opened – at least not until I walked over 10 minutes looking. Most stalls were manned already, but they couldn’t take payments yet.
It’s hot and sweaty and completely irresponsible to tip out your water without a way to easily get more.
Hotels Near The Lost World Of Tambun
While it is easy to visit this park from Ipoh, it’s even more fun to stay on site, especially if you want to visit the Night Park.
The Sunway Lost World Hotel is the place to do this.
Located right next to the theme park, you can easily access all facilities. There are a range of room types from standard hotel rooms to executive suites. There is also the option to go glamping by staying in tents.
Click here to see the latest prices now!
How To Get To The Lost World Of Tambun Ipoh
The Lost World of Tambun location is just outside of Ipoh and it’s easy to get here if you are in Ipoh, although it is not convenient for public transport.
From the centre of Ipoh, it’s about a 20 minute taxi trip. I recommend you catch public transport to Ipoh and then taxi from there. Grab taxi app is the best way to get a great taxi deal. It cost us RM10 to get there from central Ipoh.
If you are driving, even better. There is plenty of parking on site.
If you are coming from elsewhere in Malaysia, you can book one of our private transfers here.
Lost World Of Tambun Map
And here is a Lost World of Tambun park map:
Final Thoughts
Despite all my complaints in this review, we did have a good time at Lost World in Tambun theme park. The first time we visited, we had a great time. It is very well presented with some interesting attractions, and the pool party is a great way to end any day.
I do think you could have a great time visiting here if you have the right expectations and visit later in the day.
I also think I would have had a much better time if the cost was far less. I wouldn’t be as critical if it didn’t cost so much to visit. It shouldn’t be as much as other big theme parks when there really isn’t much here. Too many things cost extra, and not little amounts extra. When there are so few rides, water attractions, etc, you shouldn’t have to pay an extra RM20+ to access them. It is crazy.
Small things started to annoy me too when we started with disappointments with no welcome show, our water thrown out and no easy way to get more, no toilet paper, etc. Even getting set up with a locker (RM25) was overly difficult and annoying.
But with a later in the day visit, the right expectations and not thinking about the money, you can have fun. Focus on the water park and enjoy.
The plus side is that this is a truly beautiful part of the world. It’s the best looking theme park I have ever been to. The surrounding limestone cliffs are just beautiful and they do make the name of the park very appropriate. I really did feel like I was in a lost world during my time here. A stunningly beautiful one!
We visited on a weekday during the school term and never lined up for anything and often felt like we had areas of the park to ourselves.
So if you find yourself in the area and are looking for something fun to do, especially if you have kids, I do recommend Sunway’s Lost World of Tambun theme park. As long as you are happy with the limitations I mention. It’s different to others we have been to and you can have a lot of fun.
Click here to buy a discounted Ipoh Lost World of Tambun ticket now!
If you need help planning your Ipoh itinerary click here or click here for more things to do in Ipoh.
Click here to read about Sunway Lagoon, a huge theme park in Kuala Lumpur.
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