In planning this Malaysian trip, I knew I was pretty keen to see something fairly typical for Malaysia – a resort, on an island, with some nice beaches. The Westin Resort in Langkawi looked like it would fit the bill nicely.
As a Starwood-Marriott property, it was relatively straightforward to burn 4,800 SPG points + $90 per night for a Cash and Points stay, in lieu of standard room rates that were in the AU$250-$300 per night mark.
At the time of writing this review, this property was classified as an SPG Category 5 property, costing 12,000 Starpoints per night for a full points redemption.
Due to the merger of SPG into Marriott Rewards, this is now a Marriott Category 5 property, costing 30,000/35,000/40,000 Marriott Rewards points per night (off-peak/standard/peak).
I got in touch with the reservations team after booking to see what my options were for an upgraded twin, rather than a standard double room.
This was the response –
If you interested to upgrade the room to another Deluxe room category you may contact us and the additional charge as below:
- Deluxe Garden View Room (additional 1500 points per room per night) or ( additional RM 200.00 per room per night)
- Deluxe Partial Ocean view or Deluxe Ocean view Room (additional 3000 point per room per night) or (additional RM300 per room per night)
The points will only be deducted upon check in by the front desk.
Fair enough, plenty of options here beyond a standard redemption – it always pays to ask what may be on offer. I moved us up to a Deluxe Garden view room for an extra $60 a night.
The regular rate was around $260 for this room, so I was borderline with the points redemption or just paying outright – however I had a money-saving goal and the points made this trip possible, so points + pay it was.
We chose to travel on the ferry from Penang to Langkawi – I had hoped for a slightly more interesting experience, but it ended up being 3 hours shut in a boat we couldn’t see out of, which was unfortunate. Next time I’d choose to fly.
Arriving in Langkawi by ferry
The Westin Langkawi is very close to the ferry terminal in Langkawi, so we jumped in a taxi (there were heaps waiting for business) and headed the 5 minutes up the road. I think the cab driver was disappointed about the short fare, but we arrived, were offered a cold drink and then spoke to the front desk about accessing our room a little early. It was around 12pm and the stated check in time wasn’t for another couple of hours.
They had us a room ready within the hour, during which time we had a chance to wander around the resort and get the lay of the land.
The majority of facilities and smaller rooms in the resort are in one main building, with several floors. The top floor is the lobby, leading out to the car park. The lobby had an adjoining bar, as well as a small activities office to arrange car rental, day trips, that kind of thing.
Lobby bar
Worth mentioning is the possibility of renting a Westin Mini Cooper for the day – however this was literally 8 times the price of a standard Toyota sedan, so we passed – more on that in another post.
Also available were BMW 8 series available for transfers to the ferry (you’d be mad to bother unless you could get it included in your booking) and the airport.
The lobby bar is on the top floor, the bar has great views out to the ocean and surrounding islands.
The main pool area, with a large and shallow kids pool as well as vast main pool with swim up bar, is immediately below.
Walking away from the main building towards the beach, you’ll find another pool area, mostly wading and sitting depth, with large fountain and surrounded by greenery.
Looking back to the main resort building
Another 50 metres and you’re at the resort beach, which is really quite private and secluded, with large beach chairs which could fit 2 or 3 people (snugly) in fairly easily. The large villas front directly onto the beach, about 10 metres away across the footpath.
I found the beach appealing – but not appealing enough to spend any real time there, after we found the small, adults only pool another 5 minute walk away just beyond the spa. The spa itself looked nice enough, but was out of my price range for this trip.
The adults only pool though, which is part of the spa complex at the furthest end of the resort, was secluded and quite relaxing, with the odd monkey hovering around threatening to break the peace.
There were about 6 day beds fully stocked with towels available to use, but not much in the way of drinks or food service – the odd person came around at various points to take orders but drinks were slow arriving. As we were on a relative budget this helped keep costs down!
Back up near the main pool is the main restaurant used for evening dining – in our 2 nights here we didn’t really venture in here.
Our Room at The Westin Langkawi
Our Deluxe Garden View twin room was nice enough. We were placed at ground level a building or so away from the main complex – about 3 or 4 minutes walk and a small lift ride. People walking past into the building from the pool were pretty close to our room, but we had no issues, the whole place seemed fairly quiet.
Certainly I had no issues with the room for the points redeemed – I wasn’t expecting a vast amount of space, but the usable balcony and bathroom helped in ensuring it wasn’t too cramped.
Activities at The Westin Langkawi
The main, most obvious activity was to lounge around the pool in the heat, retire to the room for a nap, then lounge some more. However I decided I actually wanted to see some of Langkawi too, so we rented a car for one of the 2 days we were there, which panned out fairly well. My next post from this trip will be a quick one on what we saw.
One morning we also took Kayaks out from the Westin beach activities hut, where they have small dinghies, and possibly even Jet skis to rent too. This was pretty fun, but it was hot out on the water so we, well, retired to the pool for a swim and a cold drink pretty quickly.
As I mentioned before there’s also a Spa centre, and a well equipped gym with squash courts. There’s even a tailor in a small shop on-site, who we met on the ferry on the way up from Penang.
Food around the Westin Langkawi
I didn’t take many pictures of the food here. From memory, I ordered room service for lunch – some kind of Burrito wrap. Breakfast the next day was in the large buffet room – it was an amazing breakfast spread, but with pretty crappy service – no coffee offered for example. So much so that despite asking several times, no bill was ever brought to the table.
One evening we drove down the road to the local sailing club for dinner which had pretty decent food in a bar / restaurant area.
The only other meal we ate in the Westin was a barbeque dinner on our last evening. This was an absolute feast, heaps and heaps of meat and sides, and all very tasty for around $40 AUD from memory, and with astounding sunset views.
Other Westin reviews
- The Westin Miyako Kyoto Deluxe Garden View room
- The Westin Rusutsu Resort
- Westin Grand Berlin
- Westin Melbourne Hotel
The Westin Langkawi – Summing up
This was a nice, two day stay in a standard room. I didn’t feel so bad for spending up a little more than I’d expected on food and activities given we’d used points + cash for the two nights, but I definitely get an absolute bargain in staying here. The facilities and the Westin complex is a stunning setting, and all the buildings, interiors and our room was in generally good condition. We had a relaxing time.
Having said that, I didn’t experience any wow-factor at any point in my stay. I can imagine if we’d had a beach-front villa, or had a bigger budget for food and activities for this trip, we may have had a more impressive time – but then we would spent more money, which wasn’t the objective.
See if you can score yourself a room upgrade, just chill, relax and hang out with your friends or family, and I’m sure you’d have a blast.
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