How to Spend Four Days in Langkawi, Malaysia

In this travel guide, we’ll show you some of the best things to do in Langkawi and how to spend three to four relaxed days on this beautiful Malaysian island.

Langkawi is an island and archipelago located on the northwest coast of Malaysia. It is known for its beautiful beaches, natural landscapes, and diverse wildlife. Additionally, Langakawi is a UNESCO Global Geopark.

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What is Included in this Guide?

What Not to Miss in Langkawi?

Langkawi is home to three Geoforest Parks. You cannot miss:

1. Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park
2. Kilim Geoforest Park
3. Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest Park

Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park

Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park is known for its ancient rock formations and stunning landscapes. One of the best things to do is to get on the steepest cable car in the world and take in the panoramic views from the bridge at the top.

Kilim Geoforest Park

Kilim Geoforest Park features mangrove forests, limestone formations, and abundant wildlife like eagles, monkeys, bats, walking fish, and much more. The best way to explore is to go on a boat tour through the mangroves.

Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest Park

Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest Park is famous for its picturesque lake, the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden. It is a freshwater lake inside of an island. You can swim or kayak in the lake.

How Many Days in Langkawi

In total, we spent four relaxed days in Langkawi. You can easily do the suggested itinerary in three days. If you’re lucky with the weather, I think three days are a good amount of time in Langkawi.

If you only have two days, you won’t be able to see all three geoforest parks—you’ll have to choose just two. I highly recommend not missing the cable car experience at Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park.

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Langkawi 4-Day Itinerary

Here’s our suggested 4-day Langkawi Itinerary (we did everything at a very relaxed pace).

Day 1 in Langkawi

We entered Langkawi via ferryboat from Koh Lipe (Thailand). The island has two main ports: Kuah Jetty and Telaga Harbour. It also has its own airport. You can find cheap flights from Kuala Lumpur or nearby cities to Langkawi.

Jet Ski and Water Sports at the Pantai Cenang Beach

After our arrival, we went to check out Pantai Cenang, one of Langkawi’s most popular beaches. This beach is well-known for watersports, and you can easily rent a jetski for less than €15 for half an hour (or less, depending on your negotiation skills), which is quite cheap compared to my country.

Unfortunately, the weather was bad, so we decided to skip this activity. Maybe it was due to the weather, but I found the beach to be nothing special and didn’t like its vibe. It wasn’t the paradise-like beach many people mention online.

If you’re looking to relax on the beach and catch some sun, this might not be the best place. I recommend the Tanjung Rhu beach instead.

Duty-Free Shopping

Langkawi is a duty-free island, so you’ll find many stores similar to those in the duty-free areas of airports. One thing that stands out is the abundance of stores selling international chocolate brands. However, I found the chocolates to be more expensive there than in Europe, in general.

Spend Some Time at the Beach (Tanjung Rhu Beach)

Unfortunately, most of our day was ruined by heavy rain, so we didn’t have the chance to visit other beaches. One of the best beaches, recommended by several locals, is Tanjung Rhu Beach. Most luxury resorts and hotels are located nearby.

Day 2 in Langkawi

For your second day in Langkawi, if the sky is clear, I recommend taking the Sky Cab (cable car) to the top of Machinchang to see the panoramic views. Do this activity once you have a day with a clear sky in Langkawi because you might not have that opportunity in the following days.

Sky Cab

The Sky Cab is a cable car that will take you to the top of Machinchang for amazing panoramic views of the whole archipelago. The cable car stops at a middle station, 650 meters above the sea. There are several viewing platforms, but what stands out is the Eagle’s Nest Sky Walk, a free-standing glass platform resembling an eagle’s head.

There are several monkeys at this station and they are not afraid of people. Be careful around them. Make sure you don’t eat in front of them and keep all your valuables secured.

From the middle station, you can get on another cable car to the top. The whole journey on both cable cars takes around 15 minutes.

This cable car was the steepest that I’ve ridden on. I don’t have a fear of heights, but I must confess that this one is definitely a bit scary.

Sky Bridge

Once you’re at the top station, you can go on the Sky Glide or do a little walk (around 15 minutes) to the Sky Bridge. This is among the world’s longest curve suspension bridges—it’s something you should not miss.

Telaga Tujuh

During the cable car journey, you can see the Telaga Tujuh, the Seven Wells Waterfall. You can get close to the waterfalls via a hiking trail, but we didn’t go prepared for that. However, it seems a great place to go for a swim.

You can explore the waterfall and nearby forest by ATV, available from several vendors at the base station for a reasonable price. We wanted to take the tour, but it was too late when we returned from the cable car.

Oriental Village

At the base of the Sky Cab is the Oriental Village, a beautifully decorated place with several stores selling food, souvenirs, clothes, and more. The decoration of this “little village” is quite picturesque.

We spent most of our day soaking up the views at the top and most stores were already closed when we went down.

Sky Dome and 3D Art Museum

Our Sky Cab ticket also included entrance to the Sky Dome and the 3D Art Museum. The Sky Dome was a dome that exhibited a 360º 3D short movie. I didn’t think it was worth it, but kids may like it.

The 3D Art Museum has several interactive paintings and murals with optical illusions. You can take a picture with most of the paintings to look like you are part of the picture. This is not much my style, but I had fun. I think this is more interesting for families with kids.

Day 3 in Langkawi

On the third day, we suggest touring the mangroves in Kilim Geoforest Park and exploring popular architectural landmarks.

Kilim Geoforest Park

The Kilim Geoforest Park features mangrove forests, limestone formations, and abundant wildlife. The best way to explore is to go on a boat tour. We bought ours next to the Pantai Cenang beach and it was super affordable (around 6€ per person).

Both tours in Langkawi were the cheapest we did during our two-month Southeast Asia trip. Alternatively, you can buy your tour in advance using the GetYourGuide app.

The tour started and finished at the Tanjung Rhu Mangrove Jetty and took us all morning. The first stop was to feed the eagles. All boats stop at the same place and feed the eagles with chicken skin.

There was also a quick stop to feed the swimming monkeys. I’m unsure about feeding wild animals, but they looked healthy and no harm was done to them.

We also went through mangrove forests, a cave, and beautiful karst landscapes that reminded me of Halong Bay in Vietnam. There was also a stop in a cave where we saw thousands of bats.

Related article: Halong Bay Cruise – What to Expect and How to Choose One

The last stop was at a floating fish farm and restaurant where we had lunch. The food was nothing special, but the place was located in a beautiful setting.

Langkawi Eagle Square

The Langkawi Eagle Square features a beautiful eagle statue. There’s not much to do here besides taking a picture with the eagle, but that’s definitely an epic place since the eagle is Langkawi’s main symbol. Additionally, you’ll also get a nice view of the Maha Tower.

Legenda Park

Next to Langkawi Eagle Square, you’ll find the Legenda Park. This is a nice park with sculptures and themed gardens elusive to the island’s folklore stories. It’s a great place to relax or to go for a walk.

What impressed me most about this place was the abundance of wildlife. We saw multiple bird species, including hornbills, as well as squirrels, dusky leaf monkeys, monitor lizards, otters, and many other animals I don’t even know the name.

Maha Tower

From Legenda Park, you’re relatively close to the Maha Tower. It seems a bit like the Eiffell tower, but smaller and built with different materials.

At the base of the tower, there are several cafes and shops where you can buy a ticket to reach the top. You can buy your ticket in advance at the Maha Tower official website. We decided not to go up because the price seemed excessive for non-residents, especially since we were on a two-month trip. Additionally, we doubted the views would be that spectacular, considering we had taken the cable car the day before.

Day 4 in Langkawi

Langkawi is an archipelago with over a hundred islands, so you cannot miss an island hopping tour. Our tour was very affordable, the places were beautiful and we spent a great afternoon. I absolutely recommend not missing the island hopping tour.

If you like going to the beach and you have to choose between the mangrove or the island hopping tour, I would recommend going on this one.

Island Hopping Tour

This tour started at the Jeti Teluk Baru and it took us all afternoon. There’s also the option to do this tour in the morning if you prefer.

The first stop was on the Pregnant Maiden Island. The island gets its name from the limestone cliff shapes resembling a pregnant woman.

On this island, there’s a freshwater lake, the Lake of Pregnant Maiden, where you can go for a swim or rent a kayak. I had a great time swimming in the lake and the landscape is beautiful.

After a great time at the lake, there was a quick stop next to a different island to feed the eagles. It seems this is a common practice in all tours in Langkawi.

The boat went through beautiful limestone karsts landscapes and small islets and our final stop was at the Pulau Beras Bash island. This island has a beautiful paradise-like beach where we spent a great time in the water watching some fish (unfortunately, most of the corals accessible from the beach were dead.)

If you have a drone, please take it on this tour. One couple that went with us on the tour took such beautiful photos of the archipelago from above.

How to Get To Langkawi

Langkawi is served by the Langkawi International Airport—you can easily find cheap flights from nearby cities or countries.

Langkawi also has two main ferry ports: Kuah Jetty and Telaga Harbour. We entered Langkawi from Koh Lipe (Thailand) via the Telaga Harbour.

How to Get Around Langkawi

The best way to get around Langkawi is to rent a car or a motorbike or use the Grab app to ask for a ride (similar to Uber).

Grab in Langkawi is super affordable, one of the cheapest places in Southeast Asia to ask for a Grab. You can easily get to all points of interest in Langkawi using the Grab app—that’s what we did.

If you want more freedom and you’re spending a considerable amount of time on the island, renting a car might be a good solution.

To cover short distances, renting a motorbike might also be a good option—however, motorbikes on the road in Langkawi are not as common as in Thailand or Vietnam.

Where to Stay in Langkawi

One of the most popular places to stay in Langkawi is next to the Pantai Cenang beach. However, I didn’t find anything special or authentic about this particular area. Later, I found there are better hotels in Kuah and next to the Tanjung Rhu Beach.

Here are some suggestions:

• Tanjung Rhu Resort (5-star, Luxury)
• Tanjung Rhu Pool Villa @ TRV (Medium Range)
• Alamanda Villas Langkawi (Medium Range)
• VILLA PADDY (Budget)
• Red Coral Cottage (Budget)

Most places of interest are scattered around the island, so there isn’t a particular place that is closer to attractions than others.

If it were today, maybe I would spend a few more days on the island just to stay in a nice hotel next to Tanjung Rhu Beach.

How to Get Internet in Langkawi?

One of the most convenient options is to buy an eSim card before entering the country. This guarantees that you’ll have mobile data once you get there.

eSIM Card for Multiple Countries

In our case, we got an eSIM card from Maya that covered several countries in Southeast Asia. This was very convenient because we were visiting multiple countries in two months and we didn’t need to bother buying a card in each country.

This was probably a bit more expensive than buying physical SIM cards in each country, but the convenience of not having to worry about searching for Internet every time we moved countries is worth it.

Maya offers great packages when you’re traveling to multiple countries in a short time. We also used it in Europe during a road trip. Learn more about Maya packages here.

eSIM Card for Individual Countries

If you’re just going to Malaysia, the Airalo app usually offers better options. We used airalo multiple times in different countries without any issues.

If you use my referral code on Airalo, you’ll get a 3$ credit. Use the referral code below on your first purchase:

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Where to Go From Langkawi

Langkawi is served by the Langkawi International airport— you can easily get to nearby cities or countries for a very reasonable price. In our case, we flew to Kuala Lumpur.

Related article: How to Spend Four Days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

If you have time in your itinerary, I strongly recommend visiting Koh Lipe in Thailand and spending at least a couple of days there. It’s only one and a half hours away from Langkawi and was our favorite place in our Southeast Asia itinerary.

Related article: Koh Lipe: Best Things to Do and Tips for First-Timers

If you’re planning a trip to Southeast Asia, consider taking a look at our travel guides:

• Two Months Traveling in Southeast Asia: Our Itinerary
• »Free Thailand Travel Guides«
• »Free Vietnam Travel Guides«

Finally, you can use our links to book your accommodation, and activities and find cheap flights. You won’t pay more for it and you’ll be supporting our work.

Thanks for reading.