Ultrafast transient absorption experiments and molecular dynamics simulations are utilized to investigate the thermal transport between aqueous solutions and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)- or polyethylene glycol (PEG)-functionalized gold nanorods (GNRs). The transient absorption measurement data are interpreted with a multiscale heat diffusion model, which incorporates the interfacial thermal conductances predicted by molecular dynamics. According to our observations, the effective thermal conductance of the GNR/PEG/water system is higher than that of the GNR/CTAB/water system with a surfactant layer of the same length. We attribute the enhancement of thermal transport to the larger thermal conductance at the GNR/PEG interface as compared with that at the GNR/CTAB interface, in addition to the water penetration into the hydrophilic PEG layer. Our results highlight the role of the GNR/polymer thermal interfaces in designing biological and composite-based heat transfer applications of GNRs, and the importance of multiscale analysis in interpreting transient absorption data in systems consisting of low interfacial thermal conductances.