My Lazy Family Trip to Langkawi Island

Parents don’t really go on vacation, they just take care of their kids in a different city

How true.

With a 8 months and a 3 years old to take care ... how far I can go? It’s mid 2018 already and I really, really, really need to get some vitamin sea. As much as I wanted to bring my kids to see a different country, I thought that my kids are still too young to appreciate travelling abroad.

Planning

Alright, so my sister Kate and myself were discussing on where to go. We shall go somewhere local as long as there’s beach, nice food and easy to commute with kids. As a Malaysian, we are lucky to have considerably a number of beautiful beaches and islands, of or among the best in the world.

At the beginning, I was contemplating between Penang and Langkawi. In the end, we have chosen Langkawi Island simply because...

The beaches. The seaside. The sea breeze. The sunset. The perfect playground for my kids too.
There was lesser crowds during the month of Ramadan. This was one of the best strategy we took. Lesser crowds = Easy to moveabout.
Duty Free Outlets. Not only I need vitamin sea, I also need some energy and mood booster. Langkawi is the chocolate and alcohol heaven!
Compared to Penang Island, Langkawi is less commercialised and has more greens and serene.
Plenty of charming hotels to stay in.
Going around Langkawi is best by hiring a car. This is also the easiest to bring my little kids around.

Thanks to Malaysia Airlines, it was also around this time they were promoting their tickets to Langkawi with a much cheaper price when we started hunting for flight tickets. The tickets sold here were the cheapest. Nice!

Credit also goes to my sister Kate who was the one who arranged literally everything, EVERYTHING!! for us, from flight tickets to accommodation to vehicle rentals. My sister really ROCKS!

It’s not hard to hire a car in Langkawi- there are plenty of car rental websites that allow you to browse and pre-book a car prior to arrival at the island. We hired a car with 2 toddler car seats. I was quite happy with Argus Car Hire found in Skyscannerwebsite. We rented a Nissan Almera with them and they equipped us with 2 clean and sturdy car seats.

Arrival

Upon our arrival at the Langkawi airport, we were greeted by Argus's staff who immediately brought us to our rented car. After making sure that the car was in the condition as described, we when to our accommodation to check in. Our flight was scheduled to arrive at 2pm so that we can immediately check in when arrived.

So off we go to our accommodation and drum roll….this was place we were going to stay...

La Pari-Pari

From their homepage, I was already impressed by their settings. With so many good review, how bad can they be? The question is, how good are they? What I really like about this place:

Each room has its own private courtyard
Clean, spacious - including the washroom
Friendly and smiley customer service staffs. It was great that they provided a baby cot for my little monkey too.
Their very own fatCupid is one of the most recommended restaurants in Langkawi. Even their continental breakfast was served in style.
Quiet, surrounded by trees and birds chirping and the only noise we heard was the delighting Bossa music from the cafe.

There, there, for my little monkey

Pantai Cenang

It is just 2 minutes drive from La Pari Pari. Every morning, we went to the beach by 9.30am and just let our hair down before the hot sun come burning our skins.

Digging for treasures

Relaxing time

Langkawi Cable Car ride

We went to the Cable Car ride in the afternoon around 2pm. It was cooling and breezy, which also means it was not a good day to go to the mountaintop. When we reached the peak of Mt. Machinchang, all we saw was….err...clouds. Total blank white fog blocking our views.

We tried our luck by waiting for an hour, but the clouds just loved to hang around. Therefore, we missed the Skybridge too. Sob*

My little girl did enjoyed herself very much...because she managed to ‘catch the clouds’.

Oriental Village Langkawi

Oriental Village Langkawi is where the Langkawi Cable Car and Skybridge stationed. Though our main destination was the Cable Car; since we were there, we took the time to stroll around the shopping complex. The museums and galleries are cool, but I would not purposely spend my money on the tickets if they are not packaged along.

Glorious Seafood

One restaurant that I would recommend is the Wonderland Food Store. It was a halal restaurant therefore you can see Malaysia Truly Asians filling the seats, including foreigners. Due to it's popularity, I suggest you go much earlier to get yourself a comfortable table and seats. The food were superb and the price was considerably cheap. No air-con, though.

The Langkawi Airport

When we were there the Langkawi airport was under maintenance upgrade. One thing I would really hope that they will be upgrading is having a private room for babies diaper change and breastfeeding.

Sunset view at the Nest Rooftop Cafe

For a feast to the eyes and tummies, I would really recommend to dine in at the Nest Rooftop Cafe for dinner. Bird’s-eye view of the Cenang town and beach, somehow watching brave souls parasailing was fun too. The ambience was perfect with the DJ playing an upbeat yet relaxing music as the sun was setting. For more sunset view photos at this place, feel free to visit their Facebook page

Up on the roof, baby!

Yup, these were very much what we did in a 3-days trip to Langkawi. SLOW~AND~LAZY. Not much activities but we were satisfied. It was a trip that we really enjoyed Langkawi for what she is. Perhaps the next time we come back again, we will go for snorkeling and nature walk. And of course, to Mt. Machinchang again!