The Top indoor theme park in Penang, Malaysia has a number of interesting and novel attractions that will keep kids and adults well entertained.
During my search for kid-friendly places in Penang, The Top popped up - it looked really interesting with a few notable attractions that were well-reviewed in Klook. So, we decided to add this to our Penang itinerary.
The Top is located at Komtar Tower in Jalan Penang, George Town, and is called an indoor theme park. We didn't go for all the attractions there - some weren't of interest to us and some were closed when we were there too - so we settled on the Rainbow Skywalk and Observatory Deck, Jurassic Research Centre, Top Boutique Aquarium and Tech Dome. These were pretty interesting and kept us entertained for at least half a day.
Here's our review of these attractions:
Rainbow Skywalk and Observatory Deck
The Observatory Deck is located at the 65th floor of the Komtar Tower - the tallest building in Penang - and is an indoor air-conditioned observatory that gives you a bird's eye view of Penang.
There's a see-through glass walkway here, which you'll need to take off your shoes to walk on. We didn't walk on this because we didn't want to take off our shoes...ok, it's more like our knees went weak looking down😅
From here you can proceed to the 68th floor for Rainbow Skywalk which is an outdoor observatory. The view is truly spectacular from here, though it was pretty hot given that we were there around 1030am.
There's also a glass walkway here and this time, we went for it - felt quite silly if we were there and didn't go for it. Anyhoo, we didn't have to take off our shoes this time as they had shoe covers there.
It did feel a little scary at first looking down on the glass walkway but you get used to it. I think the trick is just not to look down at the beginning and only look down after you get accustomed to walking on the glass walkway.
As it was rather hot, we didn't spend a lot of time here, probably just about half an hour for both levels. I think it might be nicer to come here to watch the sunset and when it's not so hot. Looks like a nice place for an evening drink?
But do note that Rainbow Skywalk will be temporarily closed when it's raining.
Jurassic Research Centre
Jurassic Research Centre is modelled after Jurassic Park where a staff member will take you on a tour of the research centre that brought dinosaurs back to life.
If you have kids who like dinosaurs, I think they will enjoy this. Props to the staff who took our group on the tour - he was very articulate and animated as he introduced to us dinosaur fossils, and how they hatched dinosaur eggs and reared them into the giants they are. All these are fake of course, but it was just fun to go along with the flow and pretend we were at Jurassic Park.
There was one part, however, that might be a bit scary for younger children. We took a 'lift' that was supposed to take us to the outdoor area to see the dinosaurs. The lift rocked a bit and the sound was pretty loud as velopciraptors 'attacked' our lift (videos playing from the windows of the lift show the velopciraptors outside!). So you might want to cover your little ones' ears at this part if you think they might get spooked by loud noises.
At the end of the tour of the research facility, you get to walk around Jurassic Park to marvel at the dinosaurs. The area is quite small but it was still fun to see the dinosaurs, some move with the help of animatronics. We spent around 30 mins at this attraction.
I wouldn't say this is a must-see attraction but I think it is a fun one for kids who like dinosaurs and as an adult, it was a rather novel experience.
Top Boutique Aquarium
The Top Boutique aquarium is small but the decor was rather unique, with some tanks decorated with not your usual fish tank ornaments, like bowls and tingkats.
We spent about 40 minutes here as we strolled leisurely and read the signs to learn more the aquarium's marine life.
Though we've been to much larger aquariums like the ones at Sentosa and Osaka, we still enjoyed the Top Boutique Aquarium.
I probably wouldn't travel here specifically to see the aquarium but I think it's a nice attraction to check out if you're at The Top and like seeing marine life!
Tech Dome
The Tech Dome is a science exhibition with over 120 interactive science and technology exhibits. If you're from Singapore, I would liken it to our Science Centre, albeit a much smaller one.
That said, my girls still enjoyed interacting with the exhibits. They were interesting and rather fun, and they remarked that some of the things they saw and interacted with were what they had learned in school. So it's also an educational trip for them😉
The above exhibit above is called G-Drop - we have this at Singapore's Science Centre as well. Just that to experience this at Tech Dome, you'll need to pay a separate charge of RM6.
Though the place is not huge, we spent at least an hour here. As an adult, I found some of the exhibits interesting as well. If you're at The Top, I would also recommend visiting this attraction!
Here's a video of the attractions we visited at The Top:
Bonus tips for your trip:
i) Tickets for these attractions can be purchased individually or as a bundle
You can buy tickets from The Top's website and there are cost-saving bundles there if you plan to visit more than one attraction. At the time of writing, there's a promo for the 3 attractions above (excluding Tech Dome) at RM75 for adults and RM55 for children (I believe that means 12 years and below), while all 9 attractions at The Top costs RM95 for adults and RM58 for children.
The latter seems like a very good deal but we weren't interested in all the attractions. We bought our tickets from Klook as we did a calculation and found that for the attractions we wanted to visit, it was more worthwhile to purchase them as a bundle from Klook. We got the Klook Penang Pass which covered different attractions including those from The Top.
ii) Dining is available at The Top
There are a few dining options at The Top that are reasonably-priced. You can also venture out for food in the vicinity (there's no lack of good food in Penang!). The attractions are all seperate, so after visiting an attraction, you can head out of Komtar and come back again for the other attractions.
iii) Check operating hours before heading down
Rainbow Skywalk & Obervatory Deck is open daily from 10am to 10pm, and from 10am to 7pm on Tuesday.
Jurassic Research Centre and Top Boutique Aquarium are open daily from 10am to 7pm.
The rest of the attractions including Tech Dome are open Wednesday to Mondays. 10am-7pm. They are close on Tuesdays.
I will be sharing more family-friendly places to visit in Penang soon! Do watch this space!😉
Disclaimer: We paid for our tickets, and my opinions and reviews here are strictly my and my family’s own.
©Vivian Teo. All content and photos are copyrighted to Vivian Teo unless otherwise specified.