6 Best Family Resorts in Langkawi

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Book the room before you book the resort. Plenty of Langkawi’s big beach resorts only sell rooms for three, so a family of four ends up paying for two. Look for a suite, chalet or villa that takes two adults and two children in one booking. And pack a small bottle of vinegar for the beach: box jellyfish turn up off Pantai Cenang, and vinegar is the first aid for a sting. Here’s where I’d book with kids.

Langkawi Family Resorts

Which Side of Langkawi Suits Families

Langkawi’s main beach areas sit at different corners of the island, and each suits a different kind of family day.

• Pantai Cenang and Pantai Tengah: This is the island’s busiest beach strip, with restaurants and duty-free shops along Jalan Pantai Cenang. Stay on this side if you want to walk to dinner with tired kids.
• Oriental Village and Pantai Kok: Gunung Machinchang rises over the north-west corner, with Oriental Village at its foot. Food courts and souvenir shops there make it the easy lunch stop on that side of the island.
• Tanjung Rhu on the North Coast: Tanjung Rhu faces the Andaman Sea at the top of the island, close to the jetties for the Kilim mangrove boats. It’s the far end of the island from the Cenang restaurants, so plan on eating most meals at your resort.

When to Go With Kids

Langkawi’s year splits into a dry season and a wet one, and the busiest weeks follow Malaysian school holidays.

• Dry Months, November to March: The dry season brings the least rain and calmer seas, the best weeks for boat trips and beach days. December is the island’s busiest month, and the Langkawi Development Authority calls it super peak season.
• School Holidays and Christmas: Malaysian school holidays and Christmas fill the beachfront resorts through December and into January, when hotel occupancy on the island has topped 90 per cent. Book family rooms for those weeks months ahead.
• Rainy Months From August to October: August to October bring the heaviest rain of the year and rougher water. Families with young swimmers spend those weeks in the resort pool.

Booking a Room That Sleeps Four

A family of four is an awkward size at Langkawi’s beach resorts. Check the room before you fall for the pool.

• Rooms Capped at Three: At several of the island’s best-known beach resorts, every standard room and suite tops out at three guests, or two adults and one child. Search with both children’s ages entered and those rooms drop out of the results.
• Second Bedrooms and Connected Rooms: Two-bedroom suites and connected rooms sold as one unit give the kids their own space and a door to close at bedtime. Compare their price with two separate rooms at the same resort before you book.

Getting Around Without a Car

Langkawi has no public transport for visitors. Plan your rides before you land.

• App-Based Taxis: App-based taxis are easy to find around Pantai Cenang and pick up at the airport. A hop along Pantai Cenang costs little, and a ride across the island costs several times that.
• Hire Car From the Airport or Jetty: Car rental desks sit at the airport and at the ferry jetty in Kuah. A car pays off when you plan several cross-island days with small children and their bags.

Box Jellyfish and Beach Safety With Kids

Box jellyfish turn up off Langkawi, and they have killed swimmers here, including a toddler paddling in the shallows at Pantai Cenang.

• Cover Up in the Water: Kedah’s Fisheries Department advises full-body swimwear for anyone swimming in Langkawi’s sea. A long-sleeved rash suit and leggings cut down the skin a jellyfish can reach.
• Vinegar for Stings: Get a stung child out of the water and call an ambulance, then rinse the sting with household vinegar for at least 30 seconds to stop more venom firing. Beach rescue teams have used it at Pantai Cenang, and your own bottle gets to the sting quicker.
• Warning Flags and Signs: Stay out when warning flags or signs are up, or when jellyfish wash up on the sand. Stings are reported most along Pantai Cenang and Pantai Tengah, the two busiest swimming beaches.

Family Days Out Near the Resorts

SkyCab sits on the west coast at Oriental Village, while the Kilim mangrove boats leave from the north-east.

• SkyCab and the SkyBridge: The cable car rides from Oriental Village up Gunung Machinchang to the SkyBridge walkway at the top. Each gondola holds up to six people, so a family of four rides together, and a few gondolas have glass floors.
• Underwater World on Pantai Cenang: Underwater World is a big aquarium on the Cenang main road, with a 15-metre walk-through tunnel and penguins. Save it for the day rain or midday heat clears the beach.
• Kilim Mangrove Boats: Boat trips into Kilim Geoforest Park wind through mangroves and limestone cliffs, past the Bat Cave and eagles swooping in at feeding time. Shared boats keep the cost down, and private boats leave when you’re ready and come back when the kids have had enough.

FAQs

1. How do you get to Langkawi from Kuala Lumpur?

Flying is the quickest way, at about an hour and a quarter in the air from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi International Airport. Overland, families take a bus to Kuala Perlis or Kuala Kedah, or a train to Arau or Alor Setar and a taxi to the jetty, then the ferry across to Kuah. The Kuala Perlis crossing is the shorter one, and it’s the only port with a car ferry.

2. Can you fly direct to Langkawi from Singapore?

Nonstop flights from Changi reach Langkawi International Airport in about an hour and a half. That makes Langkawi a short hop for families combining it with a Singapore stay. From the airport, the beach resorts on the west coast are a short taxi ride, and the north coast takes longer.

3. Is Langkawi duty free?

The whole island has had duty-free status for decades, so chocolate, snacks, kitchenware and luggage sell below mainland prices. Kuah, the main town by the ferry jetty, has the island’s biggest spread of duty-free shops. Not every shop on the island sells at duty-free prices, so compare before you stock up on treats for the flight home.

4. Do monkeys come into resort rooms on Langkawi?

They do at rainforest resorts, where long-tailed macaques have learned to open doors and raid minibars. Dusky leaf monkeys come onto balconies too at the rainforest chalets on Burau Bay. Lock the balcony door when you go out, and keep food and plastic bags inside, because macaques link bags with food.

5. Is Langkawi good for toddlers?

Pick a resort with a separate kids’ pool for daily swims, since toddlers are safer there than in the sea. Plan outdoor trips like the cable car for the cooler morning hours, and keep Underwater World, the indoor aquarium, for the midday heat. Langkawi sits about six degrees north of the equator, so pack hats and sun cream for every outing.

6. How many nights do you need in Langkawi with kids?

Four or five nights fits the big family trips with pool days in between. A Kilim mangrove boat tour takes three to five hours, Underwater World takes around two, and the cable car fills a morning. Add a rest day after each outing, because the heat tires small children quickly, and five nights still feel relaxed.

7. Where is Langkawi?

Kedah, the state on Malaysia’s north-west coast near the Thai border, is where you’ll find Langkawi, a short way offshore. It’s the main island in a group of 99 in the Andaman Sea, and the area is a UNESCO Global Geopark. The airport sits on the west side of the island, near Pantai Cenang.