Langkawi, The Datai Review

Overall Rating

If you're going to Langkawi I would urge you, if at all possible, do everything you can to stay at the Datai even if only for a couple of days of your stay.

We had our honeymoon here, and it is expensive but this is definitely a case of you get what you pay for. It's not the luxury (although don't get me wrong, the Datai has all the five star bells and whistles one could want), it's the all round experience - the location, the jungle villas and the staff.

We started off in one of the standard jungle villas which had recently been renovated, and you could see it. Contemporary decor using traditional materials, whilst still keeping a cosy homely feel. Halfway through the week, as it was our honeymoon, the staff very kindly upgraded us to a villa with plunge pool which was lovely of them, however if booking again I would still go for the standard villa over the one with the pool as the extra space you get from not having a pool gives you an amazing bathroom that is double the size.

The food was of a very high quality, we especially enjoyed the Thai restaurant.

The only negative point of the stay was when we hired a driver to take us into town to a restaurant to watch the sunset, he didn't know where he was going but wouldn't admit the fact so we ended up driving round aimlessly for over two hours and missing the sunset. Hungry and disappointed I ended up throwing a hissy fit and jumping out of the car to hail a taxi to take us back. The hotel obviously didn't charge us for this misadventure though so no harm done.

Oh, and I crashed our hire scooter in the car park. But on the plus side my new wife wasn't on the back at that point and I didn't injure myself (apart from my pride) so looking back this just makes an amusing anecdote for the wife to tell her girlfriends.

Did a few of the activities too which we enjoyed. The nature walks were interesting (although we'd just come from a jungle safari down the Kinabatangan River in Borneo so we were perhaps a little spoilt for wildlife before we got there) and the guide was quite a character, very entertaining. Also went on the organised sea kayaking trip which I absolutely loved. Do bear in mind though that it is SEA kayaking so the first leg of your journey is from a beach out to sea and around a spit of land to get into the river - it can be choppy so if you're not comfortable in the surf best pick another activity.

We would both wholeheartedly recommend the Datai, Datai Bay is a gorgeous location, the service is second to none and the accommodation is fantastic. Truly a trip and a honeymoon to remember.