We hired a car to drive around the island. However, because we are not into touristy stuff our journey was over in hours. My reason for posting is that we hired a car for 24 hours and we later found we could have hired it for 12... at half the price... the car stayed in the hotels car park for most of the time.
Although Langkawi is supposed to a duty free island... we personally didn't feel (at that time and it could have changed since) that the prices were that cheap. Our own duty free in Australia was much cheaper so you need to know your prices of your home country before leaving. I personally enjoyed our 2 week stay in Langkawi but some feel there is nothing to do. Well! I don't mind doing nothing in the sun because I'm on me holidays
PS... Malaysian Airlines upgraded us to business class on our way home. To this day we have no idea why as we weren't particularly dressed well... still in our holiday gear and we hadn't asked for an upgrade. They simply called our name and said "Mr & Mrs B... this is your lucky day"

Langkawi's not that big an island (about 124 sq miles) so it's easy to see a lot if you hire a car for a few days and get a map of all the main attractions from the Tourist Office.

We enjoyed visiting the various waterfalls and driving up the mountain but particularly loved our daytrip snorkelling on Pulau Payar. Try and visit the night market in Kuah town for bargains, souvenirs and some great hawker food.

Have a great time.

Elaine

Langkawi's pretty quiet...when I got there I thought how am I going to survive this, but I kind of chilled into it. We hired a car for four days and would drive round the island (excellent roads), ended up in little kampongs, and found beaches which we had totally to ourselves. There's quite a bit of wildlife on the island...birds, monkeys, monitor lizards etc.

One evening poked around a local night market in a kampong...we were the only Western visitors.

To be honest I don't think there's anything must see or must buy about the place, just get about unwind appreciate a beautiful island and a slower pace of life. It does have a feel of an older Malaysia, with ox and goats wandering across the road. Kuah has a few pleasnat parks to wander about a few shops to hit...the Malaysians visiting on holiday all seemed to be buying cooking utensils for some reason...never figured that out.

Have you thought of a twin centre? You could combine it with livelier Penang or even KL.

Hi
A few years ago, we holidayed in Penang and did a trip to Langkawi, catching the boat early in the morning, staying overnight and coming back around 5pm.

Maybe you could do the reverse.

Penang is also fairly small and you could do an island tour in a day.

Regards

Polly

hiya goan luv your duin exackly what im doing im haveing a break from goa and going to kl, penang langkawi and malaka, at xmas and new yearwhen are you going? im flying out 9th dec coming back 5th january, doing 5 nights kl then down to malaka the to langkawi for about 3 days the penang and back to kl to fly home, maggieomx

Have you decided on a hotel in Langkawi?

hiya rickt no i havent decided yet, have you any ideas for me??
booked the radius hotel kl it seemed to be central sort of??!! and was cheap!! we got a premier suite,
have you been to malaka? any advice?? thanks maggieomx

Only spent an afternoon in Malacca so have not got much local info.

In Langkawi stayed at The Andaman and really enjoyed it (built into the rain forest, and had a near deserted beach and looked out upon the Andaman sea). The Casa Del Mar also seems to get very good reviews on trip advisor and was my second choice in the end.

Have been to KL quite a few times but had not heard of the Radius.

spent a couple of days in Malacca. First day we went all round town in a trishaw, visiting most of the sights including having a cup of tea in a local gents house while he told us his life story. Quite an interesting town worth a day or two.

A trishaw trip though touristy is quite good fun. and a leisurly way of seeing the town.

Lyn
do you have any hotels in mind?

Hi Lyn
We spent 6 days on Langkawi last September and we loved it. We stayed at the Casa Del Mar hotel and I definitely recommend it.

One think you should not miss is the Oriental Village with Cable Car. My husband is very scared of hights and even he went on it. The views are fantastic and you can have a massage on top of the mountain
In Kuah (the main city on Langkawi) is Legenda Park - very nicely kept with statues of different legend. The taxi from CDM hotel to Kuah was 20 Ringgitts which is very good value and it lasted around 20 minutes.

After the first few days we hired a car and we drove around the whole island.

One day it was raining so we went to the Underwater world. The entry was 38 RM.

We really enjoyed this holiday. There is plenty of things to do on Langkawi, the people were really friendly and the food was good.

We stayed at the Berjaya, right in the North and 5mins walk from the cable car and Oriental Village.
Great hotel, lots of wildlife and these timber cabin "cabanas" to sleep in.

As for Langkawi....it wasn't as great as we'd expected. Nothing wrong with it, just not inspiring really. The nature walks are great, and a car trip up the mountain in the middle were the highlights.
Otherwise i'd think that Phuket has far more going for it, and that's accessible now from KL or Penang on a budget flight.

Penang I did enjoy, very interesting colonial history, hawker markets for food, great shopping, very mixed Indo-Chinese culture.

When we went to Langkawi we really enjoyed it but we only went for 3 nights and did feel to stay much longer would have been too long (I think it is great as part of a holiday but probably not as a lone holiday destinantion unless you like a lot of relaxation around the beach/pool)

Sheesh...we stayed for nearly two weeks after doing KL and Malacca...I enjoyed Langkawi even though when I first got there I thought I might have problems given its quietness.

We too are having a break from Goa this winter and have booked 2 weeks in Langkawi. Not much to do............sounds like heaven to me, I am very lazy on my holidays!! Anyone help with regards to adapter needed for hairdryer? My husband thinks our plugs will fit fine but I want to be sure, cant live without my hairdryer!!

Rach

Don't worry, Malaysia uses the same plugs as the UK, no need for any adaptors

Elaine

ty xenosuk , i will take your word for it.......... being a female i believe you!!!

it seems goas going to be pretty empty this year, as theres 3 of us just on this page that are giveing it a miss this year?? and going to malaysia