Langkawi Hotel Reviews
Langkawi is an excellent ''all round'' destination - it has some beautiful beaches and resort hotels and you could easily spend a week just sat on the beach - but if you are looking for a slightly more active holiday there is plenty to do and explore. We hired a car for a few days - would definitely recommend this as the roads are good and quiet and it allows you to see more of the island''s beautiful scenery. We also did a day trip to the mangroves which again was excellent - we started off in Kuah town and were taken by speed boat around the island and then sailed down through the mangrove swamps. Along the way, we saw dolphins, sea eagles, monitor lizards and monkeys - lunch at the Barn Thai restaurant was included (this is worth visiting for its location alone - it is situated in the middle of the mangrove swamp and accessed via a wooden walkway!).
Recommended to take the Cable Car ride in Langkawi. Beautiful Scenery for those avid pohotographers.
My trip has been a quiet one with the love of my life. We stayed in the resort, the resort bistro, and on the beach most of the time thinking it''d be a hassle to move out to town since we didn''t have a car. But to our surprise, there were actually rows of souvenirs and sundries shops, restaurants, and bistros right infront of the resort! We managed to get a few souvenir and clothing items, had chinese for dinner in the restaurant opposite of the resort, and a drink of beers in a bistro along the street on the second day itself. You can also find an internet cafe right down the street to your right coming out from the resort. Moving around the island is not a problem either if you can drive or ride a bike as the car/bike rental shop is right next to the resort. Now, the only regret we had was that the trip was just too darn short!
Langkawi and Pentai Cenang are very relaxing and quite laid back. There are sites to see but if you just want to laze and chill out that''s fine too. A trip on the cable car is hair-raising but worth the visit. A visit to the seven wells requires a bit of walking and quite strenuous in the heat. We visited many restuarants, The Lighthouse and Bon-Ton slightly more expensive but both in beautiful settings especially the Bon-Ton! Narelle at the Bon-Ton invited us as day visitors to spend some time at the resort and use its facilities. Wonderful frozen cocktails and the best dessert (chocolate tort with tiramsu ) I have ever tasted!!! Please visit and say hello from Bill and Ed (the 2 Irish guys) to Uma and Theo at "Chompa Chompa" pub and restaurant. She is a wonderful, delightfully eccentric Tamil woman who will immediately make you feel welcome. She is also a great cook! Theo, also very welcoming serves a mean drink as many of our late nights can testify! Food and drink very reasonable. Also visit Debbie''s Irish Pub next to Chompa Chompa. A bit of a misnomer as there is nothing to suggest an Irish pub and only qualifies as Debbie''s husband is Irish. She too will make you feel most welcome.
If you stay in Tanjung Sanctuary you need a car or a motorcycle. Taxis are expensive!
The location is perfection if you are looking to relax or whether you are wanting to go out and do things. There are tonnes of little adventures to be had. The go-kart racing is fantastic. Waterworld interesting and they are still renovating and improving it - go so you are at the shark tank around 3pm as that''s when you see a diver hop in and feed them hand to mouth. There is a great pakistani/indian restaurant up the road just beside the sun plaza shopping complex and the red tomato is a welcome taste of home. The owner is really nice and knows a lot about the area so you can ask her a lot of questions if need be. I took the Coral Island tour and went snorkeling. I CAN''T express how amazing and fun this was. The people were extremely nice and helpful and your lunch is included in the price. GREAT thing to do even if you are just wanting to laze around on the beach.
Pelangi Beach hotel is located on Pantai Cenang. This beach isn''t the prettiest on the island. There was a fair bit of rubbish washed up on the sand and in parts there was a strange rotting smell. Pelangi Beach Hotel is however, up the far end of the beach and therefore probably one of the better hotels to stay at on this stretch. There are a few shops and other restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. A really great spot to eat is the Red Tomato Beach Cafe. Excellent food and service. Also very clean, and great sunset views during dinner.
We took a mangrove tour which was a great day out on the water with many varied activities learning about the mangroves, and ecology; bat hunting (with camera not guns!), getting fingers nibbled by fish and feeding eagles. The guide was extremely knowledgeable - Biden -contacts details with Bon Ton. Well worth the day out.
Recommend doing the snorkelling trip to Palau Payer - was the most awesome trip. But be warned to apply a good waterproof sunblock as everyone''s backs got quite burnt from spending all day floating in the water.
Langkawi is a lovely island, fairly quiet on the nightlife side but if you like your food it is amazing! The seafood is fantastic, especially at the Bon Ton and for traditional and very cheap Malay, the hawker cafe ''BZ Sempoi'' is definately worth a visit (centre of the island). The cable car is a good morning out with great views and a sunset cruise is a worthwhile experience. The best bit is just jumping into a car and exploring - we discovered the new Four Seasons resort - an amazing place! Generally, a great place to relax and unwind.
Definitely go to the "Barn Thai" restaurant for lunch or dinner. It''s about a 40-minute cab ride from the hotel, but worth every penny because the restaurant is in the middle of an awesome mangrove forest.
Langkawi is a great island and it is very cheap to hire a car or moped for the day and explore. The roads are very quiet so it is very easy to get around. Places I would recommend to see is the cable car which is very high but you get fantastic views.There are a few shops and coffee shops there too. The waterfalls are worth a visit but they are not really in full flow during dry season. Underwater world is also excellent place and there is also duty free shopping right next door. Another good duty free shopping place is in Kuah with shops there that sell lots of souveniers. There are lots of beach/sea activities in Langkawi with jet skiing, paragliding etc.<br><br>There are lots of restaurants to visit I would recommend The Lighthouse and The Beach Garden Resort where you can either have your dinner sitting out on the beach or inside. another good place is The Matahari. They all do a great choice of Asian and Western food but the Lighthouse is my very favourite place. There is also a good choice of local food stalls which are cheaper but they also have excellent food. A great place to drink and stay out until the early hours is Champor Champor. The Coco Jam Nightclub is another lively place which is at Langkawi Village Resort. It doesn''t really get going though until after 1am!! Langkawi is also a fantastic place to just switch off, relax and do nothing at all but soak up the sun, laze on the beach and have a dip in the sea. Its fantastic!!
Must rent a car on arrival. They don''t check any documents, only want the full rent upfront. Rented a aircon Proton Wira for RM 40 per day. Fuel is only about RM 1.5 per litre. The roads are good, wide and have hardly any traffic. Well lighted, sign posted so driving is not a problem. The island hopping/coral island tours are cheaper at the Awana Porto Malai. Reach there by 9AM if you want a tour the same day. Bargaining works, especially with the non-hotel ferry owners. (We got the island hopping tour for RM 25 per head).
Rented a car for a week very cheap. Best chinese restaurant in Cenang was Yang Dynasty, the only Restaurant in Langkawi that has a waterfall!!!
We didn´t do any special trips around the island, we stayed at the resort. But we could recommend two restaurants att Pantai Cenang, they were very good and they are called: Rasa and Beach Garden!
Langkawi is quite a quiet island, very beautiful in parts (but not in others!). Definitely worth a tour around the island - we found a taxi driver with good English and a willingness to tell us ''what was what''. We paid by the hour and had a great trip. Cable car very good (but pretty steep!). Crocodile farm very lacklustre - would have been better with some more information around. Scenery splendid. Rubber plantations fascinating. Shopping OK - depends what you are after.<br> <br> Without a car we tended to eat in the hotel at night - so no restaurant recommendations. There is a very interesting park along the front (20 mins from hotel) which is called legends of Langkawi - a bit more explanation would have been good, but we enjoyed the park very much. Not forgetting the park further in to town which commemorates a meeting of world leaders a few years ago - they all planted a different tree...and nearby the plaque which commemorates the site of the coconut tree climbing competition in 1992! Also did a little island hopping which was fun, but a little cramped.<br> <br> This was our first visit to Malaysia, and we arrived in Langkawi after 4 days in KL, so it was nice to chill out. We had also just been to Borneo (Kota Kinnabalu – Shangri-La (Rasa Ria) which we thoroughly enjoyed. Depends on you and what you want, but a week in Langkawi was sufficient. Combine it with another centre and some city experience if it is your first time in Malaysia.
T Jays Italian restaurant opposite Underwater World (about 1km from the resort) serves great pizzas. Langkawi has beautiful unspoilt beaches but jellyfish can be a problem for swimming.
Langkawi is a beautiful place and easy to get around. Taxis are cheap and will take you to restaurants all over the island. Our favourites included Bon Ton, Barn Thai (set in the mangrove) and a cheaper but cheerful place called Little India. We would recommend that you head to Pantai Cenang for sunset - we had a drink at the Oasis bar which is set right on the beach, which is also said to serve good Indian food. Note that we did not see many clubs, but we weren''t really looking for them either. You can also hire cars if you want to explore the island or else a taxi will give you a cheap tour.<br><br> Points of interest that are definitely worth seeing are the Cable Car (with lovely Oriental shoping village) and the Tanjung Rhu Beach, which for us was the most beautiful on the island. We avoided the man made attractions, but that’s a matter of taste. One note of caution when visiting the Seven Wells waterfall - on the whole the monkeys on the island keep to themselves and we never heard of any problems, in fact people enjoy watching their antics - however, when we got out of the car at Seven Wells, a monkey jumped at me to get my can of coke, which was an unpleasant experience at the time. He then proceeded to drink my coke!! So, I would advise visitors to keep food and drink out of sight. There are lots of tours such as eagle feeding and island hopping, it all depends on how much time and energy you have! I would highly recommend Langkawi.
Enjoyed cable car and area; Underwater World - very good aquarium etc..average snorkeling facilities. Pantai Cenang and Pantai Tengah are good walking beached. Best restaurant on Pantai Cenang: Beach Garden Hotel and Resort (best value for money); Casa del Mar is great but more expensive. Several smaller places on Pantai Cenang for happy hour, shopping for souvenirs etc.. I live in KL and visit Langkawi on average every three months.
The Mangrove tour is highly recommended. Good value as quite a few things were packed into the itinerary. We managed to secure a boat all to ourselves (3 of us) so we could stay longer or skip certain places. We were also lucky enough to see dolphins. Rent a car and tour Langkawi on your own as there are other interesting shops to see which tours don''t cover. Check out the stalls at Beras Terbakar where you can get cheaper T-shirts (RM4 each) and the cable car ride is fascinating. Quite a challenge for those with vertigo (like myself!) as the ride gets quite steep.