G’day folks. Welcome to another patented ‘Accommodation Review’ here on the blog. Today I’m reviewing for you perusing the Pelangi Beach Resort, which I stayed in in early December last year for a full week. This five-star Malaysian resort cost us $268AUD or around $181USD (at the time of writing this review) and is located a short distance from the airport on Langkawi island, and is even closer to the main town of Pentai Cenang too.

I booked through Agoda, which gave me the cheapest price I could find. I am not really one for resorts or spending quite that much money but was determined to find a place to stay and relax for a week, and this seemed to represent good value for money. Pelangi is a beach front resort and the beach continues on in one direction to Pentai Cenang (well, at least it looked like it did). The location is great, and you can get a pretty close view of the airplanes coming into land too if you like. Which I did!

There was a large welcome hall with a bar on one side. Malaysia is a Muslim country and this resort caters for all, so there is alcohol available for those who want it. The welcome was a bit subdued I guess with a bit of paper work to fill in, and then we were taken to our room via a golf buggy. The buggy is available at request from reception to take you around the resort, as the grounds are big. We didn’t need it as we were relatively close to the reception, the pool and the restaurants. There were actually two pools at the resort, but one was being renovated when we were there – possibly a third restaurant under renovation too.

The resort has a gym, two pools as mentioned, and a spa. The spa looked really nice but was priced appropriately for the resort so we opted to go to a place in town for a relaxing massage. The pool is a great size and I jumped in for a swim every single day I was there. For those with children, this is definitely a child-friendly resort and there was a kids’ pool there too with colourful slides and so forth for the kids to enjoy. You could get drinks and ice creams and possibly food delivered to your reclining chair around the pool.

We ate regularly at both restaurants. The Pelangi Grill is a restaurant that has a European tilt with a decent selection on the menu. It also is beach front and you can sit outside looking at the ocean. They have regular musical performances of an evening too. We had breakfast included in our tariff and we could use either of the two restaurants for breakfast, in fact we could use both on the same day if we wanted. We did not!

The Spice Market was a restaurant with an Asian Menu attached to the grand hall of reception. There was a bar in the hall too called the Pelangi Lounge but we didn’t use it. The food here at the Spice Market was really nice but I had to be careful of peanuts and there was a limited number of items on the menu I could eat. But both restaurants were really nice.

The room was very comfortable and well air conditioned. It was humid but not super hot at all whilst we were there, and with a little deck outside we had a couple of seats to sit in and relax. The room was extra spacious, two big comfy queen-sized beds, various lights too as the mood takes you, a TV, table and chairs. Really nice room.

Bathroom was super spacious, room in there for our bags as well as a safe. There was a good shower, but sadly no bathtub which would be my only real disappointment in the room itself.

Service was solid without being outstanding, and I think that’s a Malaysian standard. In the Philippines I stayed at places where the staff couldn’t pass you without asking if everything was all right and saying hello, it’s less so in Malaysia, and there’s nothing bad about that. Sometimes the service is a bit too full on for me in places, I feel like it was at just the right level at Pelangi.

The resort sees people from all over the world, from Europe and Australia, to the Middle East and India. Which is a really interesting mix, but don’t expect this is sort of place to come and get regularly plastered at. Malaysia is not Bali and it is not Thailand. There were more families at the resort than other places I stayed on this trip, and although I expect it was not peak season, guests were pretty well behaved. If you’re looking for a nice break with the kids, or a quietish holiday without late night drinking, then Langkawi and Pelangi might just be for you.

The Five-Star rating is one for me that’s hard to judge, I can only think of one other place I stayed that was rated five-stars on my travels (Porto, Portugal if you’re interested), so can I be 100% sure the rating is warranted? I don’t know. It’s certainly better than a four star stay, but I also imagine it could be more glamorous and shiny and exclusive too. Five Stars without the attitude? That’s a plus in my book!

Andy’s Ratings:

Value for Money : 4/5

Location : 4/5

Cleanliness : 4/5

Service : 4/5

Noise : 4/5

Total : 20/25 [80/100]

Thanks for popping by! May the Journey Never End!