Getting to Johor Premium Outlets and Legoland Malaysia by Bus from Singapore

I've figured out how to get from Singapore's City Center to Johor Premium Outlets and Legoland, by bus, the Do-It-Yourself way because the Johor Premium Outlet Coach only runs on weekends, while tickets for the Legoland Coach service by WTS travel is a hassle to buy (you need to physically go to one of their branches) and you'll have to commit to a fixed travel schedule, which is not so ideal when you arrive past midnight - then go to dinner, the night before.

Taking the bus to get there is quite easy. It's much cheaper too. It's only harder on the way back because you're already tired by then and would willingly pay for the convenience of a coach, had a service been available.

There are several bus stops in Singapore that cater to buses that run the Johor Bahru - Singapore route. The most convenient one I've found if you're living near Singapore's city center is the Bus Stop on Queen Street (near Bugis).

Queen Street bus station.
You can just tell the cab driver to take you to where there are JB buses.

You can opt to take Singapore's local Bus 170,
but we prefer to take yellow Causeway Link (CW2) Bus.

Buses are quite frequent.
We've always seen a bus available for boarding.
You pay as you enter SG$2.40.
 (discount available for kids)

The bus normally leaves after 10mins.
We first tried this when my sister and her friend visited.

You get to Woodlands Checkpoint in less than 30 mins.

The bus drops you off, you clear immigration to exit Singapore, then you go out and board any Causeway Link Bus.

The ride is a short one which takes you across the water to JB.

After a few minutes,
you're already at the Malaysian Immigration.

It got a bit confusing after we cleared immigration because we thought we had to catch another bus to take us to JB Sentral. What we didn't realize is that JB Sentral is the mall connected to the immigration building. All you need to do is follow the signs, it will lead you to the next building where there is a bus terminal at ground level, and restaurants like KFC and Starbucks in the mall.

It's best to go check out the bus schedule first, then grab a bite to eat depending on how much time you need to kill.

This was the schedule for Johor Premium Outlets
the first time we went.

This was the schedule for Legoland,
when we went the last time.

If you have time to eat in JB Sentral, here are some places of interest.

Kopi Bun at RotiBoy.

I think it looks ans smells better than it is.

Sofia loves bread so she was happy.

There was also KFC.

They have potato wedges with cheese.

But Filipinos is Singapore cross the border for KFC because
they serve gravy in Malaysia.
The KFC in the Philippines is still so much better though.

If you are going to Legoland, you need to take LG1 from JB Sentral.

The bus does a quick stop at Larkin, but it generally leaves as scheduled.
Fare is RM5.00  or SG$2 (discounted for kids).

If you are going to Johor Premium Outlets, you need to take JPO1 from JB Sentral.

This bus hardly makes any stops from JB Sentral to JPO.
Fare is RM4.50 or less than SG$2.
It takes around 30 minutes to get there.

For both Legoland and JPO, the bus will also pick you up where it dropped you off for the return trip. The only difference is that Legoland is so new, there is no designated Bus Parking and no bus schedule posted. You need to go and ask Customer Services inside the theme park.

JPO is very organized.
The schedule and bus parking is clearly indicated.

Yahoo. Stores.

Finding bargains always has a degree of luck involved. I guess I'm lucky because every visit, we find a store with really sale stuff, that it makes it worth the trip. The tricky thing is normally, there is only one or two stores like that, so you can imagine, there are probably times when you might not be lucky enough to find something.

On my first visit to JPO, which you can read about here, we found a mother-lode of sale shoes at Vincci (VNC in Manila).

On our second trip, I only bought these.

On our second trip, the store that was really on sale was GAP.

 They were selling dresses at RM20 (SG$8) and tops at RM10 (SG$4).

I love this classy grey dress with cowl neck.

I can't resist a bargain so
I also bought the dresses with the frilly necklines.

I bought them in both colors. Hahaha.

I also bought a tailored black top.

and a Baby Pink Striped Boyfriend Shirt.

I also found a dressy top that fit well.

And a wrap blouse.

On our last trip, we had limited time so I only hit my favorite stores. Cotton-On was really on sale. Enough to make it worth our cab fare. Hooray.

The clincher when taking Causeway Link Buses is that they have no respect for the schedule for the return trips! Twice now, we have taken the JPO1 bus from the Johor Premium Outlets back to JB Sentral, and the bus left way before its scheduled departure time. This means that people who assume they are on time get left behind.

If you are interested in making a day trip out of both Legoland and Johor Premium Outlets, you can take JPO2 from Legoland to take you to Johor Premium Outlets (estimated travel time 45minutes), then you can take the JPO1 from there to go back to JB Sentral. The challenge would be to figure out what time the next bus will pass. We had a very stressful experience because while it sounded good in theory, we planned to take the last bus leaving Legoland at 7:50pm, knowing how unreliable Causeway Link is when it comes to scheduling, we were waiting for the bus as early as 7:30pm... and it never arrived!!! I honestly was quite stressed we would be stranded in the middle of nowhere in JB!!! At first, we were quite relaxed because there was a waiting cab that nobody was taking, so that was our insurance since we were not sure how far or how expensive it was to take a cab from Legoland to JB Sentral or to the Outlets, then the cab disappeared because someone took it!

I even chatted with the cops to ask them if they could give us the number to call a cab, but it seems people don't call for cabs in JB. It's a good thing I saw a cab pass by so we immediately flagged it, this was already a few minutes before 8:30pm so we were waiting and stressing for close to an hour. It's not really easy to ask for an estimate on how much it takes to get to JPO because the cabbie says they are required by law to use the meter. The estimate he gave me was around RM100+ (around SG$50) but it turned out to be a 20 minute drive through the toll-way and the total cost was just a little over RM70 (less than SG$30).

So I suggest, if you want to do both places, and there are cabs available, just take one.
If there are no cabs, you may want to email/ call Mr. JJ who drives a blue Executive Meter Taxi Service.
(+60 13  7881010 jj_mas78@yahoo.com) He's the nice driver who took us from Lego land to Johor Premium Outlets. He told us to just give him a call if we get left by the bus again because he lives 10 minutes away from JPO.

I hope all this information comes in handy. Getting stranded in the middle of nowhere in JB is a very scary thought. just saying.

BTW, to go back, all you need to do is get to JB Sentral, walk to clear immigration, then catch any Causeway Link or Bus170 to cross the border. You will need to pay before boarding. After clearing immigration on the Singapore side, the easiest way is to look for the taxi queue and take one. If you are not tired or in a hurry, you just need to go to the bus stop and take the correct Causeway Link Bus (CW2) or Bus 170 to drop you off back at Queen Street Station.