Langkawi

[beano2274]

Morning one and all.

Am thinking of having a break in Langkawi, have read a few of the websites like TripAdvisor and so on, but wanted to know if anyone has any recommendations about:

Hotels

Best way to get there from BKK

Places of interest

Good Restaurants.

Gonna be taking her indoors with me, and would be looking at going around the middle of October.

Tks in advance for any info

[Tropicalevo]

I took 'the boss' there last year on her visa trip.

Hotels

Best way to get there from BKK

Places of interest

Good Restaurants.

Most reasonably priced hotels are good, but a bit dated. I flew from Samui via Firefly - very good and cheap. Places of interest ummm....... never found any.

Beaches - after Samui, forget it. They were not up to much.

On the positive - everyone spoke English and the food courts are to die for. Huge places everywhere. Great food, cheap drinks and loads of people-watching and shopping. Meet lots of interesting locals. I cannot remember the name of the place that we went to - it was in a quiet area in the north. Never ate in the hotel - always ate out. Sorry that I cannot be more helpful. It was good for a visit, but we won't be going back.

[roamer]

I took 'the boss' there last year on her visa trip.

Hotels

Best way to get there from BKK

Places of interest

Good Restaurants.

Most reasonably priced hotels are good, but a bit dated. I flew from Samui via Firefly - very good and cheap. Places of interest ummm....... never found any.

On the positive - everyone spoke English and the food courts are to die for. Huge places everywhere. Great food, cheap drinks and loads of people-watching and shopping. Meet lots of interesting locals. I cannot remember the name of the place that we went to - it was in a quiet area in the north. Never ate in the hotel - always ate out. Sorry that I cannot be more helpful. It was good for a visit, but we won't be going back.

Rarely have I seen a post that has confused me more, and that's saying something on TV. And I'm sure other regulars to Langkawi will back me up on this. On almost every point your wrong, not a matter of opinion, matter of fact. Firefly ? to Samui ? Only if you want to go via KL....and then wait a day for the connection. Places of interest ? The largest Asian and most spectacular cable car ride over the rain forest and Langkawi, one of the great engineering marvels in SE Asia with incredible views not interesting enough for you ?

" Beaches - after Samui, forget it. They were not up to much." Check out the photos.

"On the positive - everyone spoke English and the food courts are to die for. Huge places everywhere." Well the speaking of English is debatable so I'll leave that aside "Huge food courts everywhere ?" This is the one that gets me, I've been going to Langkawi for almost 25 years, somewhere I missed these "huge food courts", I mean not just one of them, but all of them, I must have been stumbling around in the dark all this time. There are some wonderful places to eat in Langkawi, some great food but nothing anywhere that would pass for a food court, they must be very well concealed.

"I cannot remember the name of the place that we went to - it was in a quiet area in the north. Never ate in the hotel - always ate out."

"Most reasonably priced hotels are good, but a bit dated."

Interesting. I have stayed in one of those "reasonably priced - but dated hotels" glad I wasn't paying for it. I guess Tony Blair and others felt the same when they stayed there for the Commonweath Prime Ministers Conference a few years back.

There are only 2 hotels in the north of the island.

The Datai and The Andaman. You obviously have money, I mean the Andaman comes in about 8000 THB a night inc tax, Datai, well depends on the time of year but closer to 12,000 THB. (Add a considerable amount to these prices during busy periods) Then again you ate out, must have saved some money there. A couple of weeks ago I had the enjoyment of meeting an old friend for dinner there, glad he paid !! Not only because of the cost but also because it would have been around about 45 minutes drive before I would have found another place to eat...the north has a lot of things going for it, beauty, peace, but I would have been pressed to find a foodstall, let alone a restaurant or one of these fabled foodcourts to dine at.

All of this begs the question, are you sure it was Langkawi you went to ? I'll leave it to others to decide if they recognise your description of the island or mine.

To the OP. Sorry about the spat !! time is running out but will be back to post a few suggestions.

Ps. Photos taken August 2010.

[cardholder]

I am also not sure if I went to the same island as Tropicalevo !

If a spectacular cable journey (from the Oriental Village) is not something of interest then I am not sure what is. Makam Mahsuri is an interesting legend with a Thai connection - good visitor centre. Underwater world is OK.

roamer's pictures confirm that the beaches are perfectly acceptable - maybe Samui has better but the OP is not going to Samui. DOH !

I flew BKK to KL and finished up (due to my booking cock-up with Air Asia) with a night in KL. Very enjoyable.

The northern hotels mentioned were out of my budget but we stayed at a pleasant enough hotel - Federal Villa £40 a night and there were beautiful sunsets.

I don't recall any food courts although we did not cover all the island - maybe a few at where the ferries come in at Kuah.

I am sure you will enjoy, but if 'her indoors' has not been abroad before she will feel unsettled being in a non-Thai speaking country. Find a Thai restaurant - that will settle her down.

[jackr]

Is that guy Chang'd-up?

If you do the mountain - easy to get to from Cenang, Tengah beaches - you could also walk it and take in the falls:

Also has attractions like the Crocodile park and Underwaterworld, or Kedah House for culture. Oriental Village all a bit contrived but good for getting the cable car if you don't want to walk the mountain. Kuah Town (in the south, and east of the main beaches) for shopping. There's dozens of islands in the Langkawi chain and you can do boat tours from Kuah if you fancy getting away from the masses... the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden on Dayang Island is particularly nice:

Weather generally crap in October as it's the end of the wet season. You may get lucky though, and it's always warm.

[KunMatt]

Love Langkawi, haven't found anywhere in Thailand to match it yet. Still looking though, tried Phuket, Samui, Chang, Pattaya, Samet, and they all suck compared to LangKawi. One thing missing in Landkawi is scuba diving though.

I took a holiday to Pantai Cenang two times in 6 months while I was living in Thailand, in a fairly cheap hotel for 90 Ringgit on the beautiful beach and spent all week sat at the reggae bar, drinking cocktails, hanging out with awesome, friendly locals, watching stunning sunsets and listening to live music following the band as they went from bar to bar throughout the late evening. Day times just rent a bike or car and go exploring, there's plenty to do.

Also, there is a great Thai restaurant at this beach where, as well as good Thai food, they make fantastic SomTam so the missus was happy too with her 30 chili bowl of fire salad.

Some resorts sounded quite expensive, I met some people staying in dirt cheap hostels too. If they were available I would stay in the treehouses they have on the beach, but they are always booked up.

You can only fly in from KL. You can get a boat from Penang or Koh Lipe which is within Thailand (so if you depart Malaysia this route and need an entry stamp this will only give you 15 days).

Definitely check it out, I plan to go back there again soon.

[roamer]

Good to know others recognise the same island as me !

A couple of years back Air Asia used to fly BKK- Langkawi, no longer. I find the best way to go is to fly to Haad Yai then get the bus to Saturn(@ 2 hours) then catch the boat over. Many people think they have to spend the boat journey downstairs peering out the porthole. Actually if you walk to the back and slide open the door you can get up top, nice way of doing it and great views as you pass through the island chain. If your going to go this way and get the early flight down you can usually be on the island by after lunch. Get the minibus from the airport to the bus station (which has now moved out a bit from its old location by the train station). Be aware that if you take a taxi he will try to drop you at a travel agents by the old bus station where they will try to sell you a combined bus & boat ticket and bustle you on to the minibus "just about to leave". That way you don't check that the tickets you have been sold are for Koh Lipe and not Langkawi.....tickets he can't sell. On arrival in Langkawi get a minibus taxi from the official booth opposite the entrance, cheap.

As others have said Chenang is a pretty good place to stay, great for evening footie matches on the beach with the locals, its one of the things I like about the island that it ain't all about tourism. Good night market by the conference centre. I stay at the AB Motel on the beach @120 Malaysian high season, nice enough rooms, great location, cheaper rooms further back. The Tree house (pic)always seems to be booked out as another poster has said. If you have a bike or car drive around the airport perimeter road in late afternoon and you'll see the "Power Laksa" van serving great laksa (sour fish soup with noodles) in a nice spot, a lot of Thai's love this. Have a great time.

[NanLaew]

Happy Air do the Phuket - Langkawi hop a couple of days/week.

[KunMatt]

As others have said Chenang is a pretty good place to stay, great for evening footie matches on the beach with the locals, its one of the things I like about the island that it ain't all about tourism. Good night market by the conference centre. I stay at the AB Motel on the beach @120 Malaysian high season, nice enough rooms, great location, cheaper rooms further back. The Tree house (pic)always seems to be booked out as another poster has said. If you have a bike or car drive around the airport perimeter road in late afternoon and you'll see the "Power Laksa" van serving great laksa (sour fish soup with noodles) in a nice spot, a lot of Thai's love this. Have a great time.

Yeah, I also stayed at AB Motel a couple of times. Rooms are quite basic but very clean, easy and cheap. The beachfront rooms were 120 Ringgit and the ones set a bit further back were 90, I believe. There's also more of the hotel on the other side of the road which are even cheaper.

I would love to stay in one of those treehouses but you must have to book well in advance.