Just struck me that we don't have much on here about the island of Langkawi, so if anyone has got something to say, squeak up on this thread.

It's up on the north-west side of peninsula Malaysia close to the Thai border. Despite being a mostly Malay island, it's also a duty-free island so plenty of cheap booze, and plenty of bars and hotels. The beaches are fab (much nicer than Penang) and the scenery quite spectacular too.

Compared with Penang, it is dead quiet and chill-out. For me personally, lovely for a short holiday, but I think I would be bored living there. Having said that, a lot of folks do choose to live there.

There's quite a few marinas on the island. Of course I am sure that the visiting yachties do not take advantage of the island's duty free status

I've only visited once and that was some 6 years ago. A couple of pics below.

We haven't travelled a lot in Asia as most of our holidays have been spent either going home to the UK or visiting my brother in Oz - but Langkawi has been our favourite holiday so far.

We went in September 2010 when the kids were 5 and 3. We stayed at the Meritus Pelangi Resort which had been recommended to us for child friendliness and their kids club. Unfortunately the kids club was non-existent when we were there but we had such a lovely time it didn't matter.

Such a laid back vibe on the island. We hired a car and drove around - gave us our first real taste of what Malaysia was like (away from the tourist spots).

I believe the hotel has recently been refurbished so if we go back we might go back there again - but there are lots of nice hotels.

The sea life centre was fantastic too.

Hi Bakedbean,
my folks have an apartment in Langkawi, we are off there for 4/6 weeks en route to Laos, I will certainly take some pictures together with a few posts.

I have mixed feelings about Langkawi, so far - I visited in August for a low-key long weekend. My sister had visited in 2004 and came back raving about how beautiful it was. She spent one night at the 4-star Casa del Mar on Cenang beach (west coast).

Good things:

Dev's Adventure Tours - we used this company to go on a trip up to the Mangroves. They try to educate you about the eco system as they take you round, unlike other unscrupulous tour companies which, for example, throw chicken fat into the waters to attract eagles for the tourists to photograph. No joke! And then people wonder why the snake population is on the increase....

Lake of the Pregnant Maiden - we took a speed boat tour here to have a quick dip in the lake (heavingly busy but worth a little trip if you're not one for the beach).

Cenang/Tengah -

Red Tomato cafe - lovely service and one of the nicer cafe/bar/restaurants to stop at on the main drag that runs all the way down the road that runs parallel to Cenang beach.

Yellow Cafe - great beach bar on Cenang beach at the southerly end.

Nam restaurant at the BonTon hotel. Wow, what a feast. Posh and lovely - a little bit out of town (north of Cenang) set in lush gardens. Don't go if you hate cats, though, the owner kind of collects them...!

Casa del Mar - happy hour cocktails, watching the sun plop into the sea at sunset - a really gorgeous bar and restaurant with tables that spill on to bustling Cenang beach.

Sunset Beach Resort - we stayed there. Good value, lovely staff, and decently clean, fruit served at breakfast along with a decent selection of other things. On the beach (right at the top of Tengah, which is the quieter of the two beaches, so just a little bit more chilled out than places on Cenang).

Not so amazing:

The littering. Sad to say it but I would never rate the West coast of Langkawi as a "high end" destination, which I've seen written so much on their tourism info. The main drag is the same as all the others you'd get in touristy parts of Thailand etc - it even reminded me a bit of the south of Spain.

The super lux resorts are way up in the North of the island, near the mangroves, and in the hills - and logically it rains more up there, so if you're set on some sunshine then there's only really the Casa del Mar to choose from I think???? Or one of the less swanky hotels/B&Bs of course!!

Cenang beach is a kind of strollers' environment - not one where it's simply sand, sea and loungers. It's very flat with packed-down sand, so seems to attract lots of people to play games, walk along, etc so there's lots of hustle and bustle. I wouldn't sunbathe there. Lots of water sports activities there too so not tranquil swimming! Tengah beach is way quieter, but there isn't much useful development along the sea front there, so the back of the beach was covered in litter when we went there, and the speed boats raced past with people doing parasailing etc. But the sand was lovely and the sea much nicer to swim in along this section.

To be honest, although the duty free status was very helpful in keeping costs down and so allowing us to do slightly swankier things, I wouldn't rush back to Cenang area if I was looking for an "island paradise". I went to Tioman Island (east coast, also duty free) which I had heard is now very developed... and was met with a shack for an airport, a kiosk for a duty free shop at the airport, and little chalets lining a 2-metre wide "road" parallel to the beach, which was pretty close to the airport yet you'd never know it. Very few flights, no cars could access our bay - you needed a speed boat or ferry to the beach then motorbike with sidecar to take you along the "road" to the chalet you had booked. We went luxury and opted for a place with hot water and air con! Even Tioman didn't blow me away BUT it was a thousand times better value than Cenang, in my view. I keep hearing that Redang is the place to go for a stunning beach holiday but I've yet to check it out...

Hopefully I'll get a chance to go back to Langkawi and see more of the East of the island - I get the impression that's a lot less developed and perhaps would be more fun for exploring and accessing that "getting away from it all" feel... Would love to hear some tips from anyone who has been over that way!

Pics - Cenang beach at sunset; Tengah beach late morning; fish farms and sailing boats up in the mangroves

Tioman and Langkawi were fine for me/us when I was working, not great but ok.
Since retirement I find both islands are not sufficiently interesting and don't have enough to do for me/us to return.
Penang on the other hand has plenty to do and plenty of good food to make us want to return time and again.

Never been to Langkawi and have little interest in going. I lived in Malaysia as it was being established. It sounds a bit of a lazy place. Tourist dependent in a low key sort of way. But i'm only going on felings ..as I say haven't ben there.
Tioman I would rate only as a 6 ......reasonable...but would I return? Maybe but probably not.There are too many other places to see.

Would like to check out The Perhentians at some stage though......

I agree re there being too much else to see to warrant going back to places... although I'd be sorely tempted to go back to the Perhentians! Was there in '08 (stayed on the west coast of Pulau Besar) - it was just gorgeous. Another very quiet one, though, with wildlife-spotting/diving being the main draw, I think...