Only 10 minutes from Langkawi International Airport, The Ritz-Carlton Langkawi’s entrance is tiny and misleading. You can’t see much of the resort from the road but once you pass the gate, the resort opens up.
The first thing that comes to mind is that it’s a resort within a rainforest. I simply loved being enveloped in the greenery.
Beachfront villas and butlers
We were introduced to our very own kundang (butler) at check-in. We had the option of having him arrange all our reservations or for whatever we needed. However, I found it more convenient to call dining or concierge to make my own arrangements as it would take our kundang a while to respond. Though it must be said that the resort was pretty full when we were there and there’s no doubt that he had other guests on his list too.
The beachfront villa we booked was simply gorgeous. To bring the rainforest feel into the villa, there was a glass air well built within the villa. The glass allowed us to look into our very own tiny forest, and we spotted frogs and more. Frogs from behind a glass partition is just the way I like it.
The beach however was not what we were expecting. It’s a short strip and is only open to resort guests. The location of The Ritz-Carlton Langkawi however makes snorkeling unavailable at this stretch as the waters are choppy, murky and there are not many corals.
Likewise, if you’re a beginner, you should do paddle-boarding and kayaking in the morning. As by afternoon apparently, the waters will not be as calm. Hearing this, I was pretty nervous to let the kid go kayaking on his own. Plus, there wasn’t a lifeguard on duty – yes, I asked. However, things turned out alright as the chap manning the water activities station, noticing how nervous I was, looked out for the almost teen and went about shouting instructions and pulling him in or pushing him out. I was really grateful for this.
There’s a kids activity centre at Ritz, but the almost teen was a tad too old for it. He went for the Eco-Rangers programme at the newly opened Eco-Discovery Centre though. The thought that it was slightly below his age range did occur to me, but he liked it well enough. And hey, I then had two hours for myself!
Food options at The Ritz-Carlton
Food options were limited, for us at least. It was either Langkawi Kitchen or The Beach Grill. Langkawi Kitchen serves up Malay and Thai cuisine, whilst The Beach Grill serves western. As the both of us can’t take spicy food, we had our lunches at The Beach Grill.
If you’re booked in for four days, you get tired of the same food, even if you’re on a holiday. For breakfast, it was an international spread at Langkawi Kitchen and it was fab, as any place that serves martinis and bellinis for breakfast is bound to be!
* The Chinese restaurant was not open whilst we were there. It only opens Thursdays to Sundays. Shame.
To change up our food situation, I arranged a private in villa barbeque. It did not bode well when they were late for set-up by a whole hour. This was irksome, as we had been waiting in the villa at the scheduled time. Perhaps they thought that I needed to catch up on work?! That said, they sent a whole team in when I checked on the status and we did eat at our reserved time.
I hadn’t realized that the chef and butler for the dinner would be the one and same guy. Hats off to Faiz as he cooked our seafood and meats to our choice of doneness perfectly, on that teeny tiny portable BBQ grill with only two portable camping bulbs to see with! In between cooking, he poured the wine, served the meal and cleared the plates. The BBQ is for two pax, but there was way too much food for just the almost teen and I. The portions would have been ideal if my husband had been dining with us.
The adults-only lounge
While I didn’t hit the spa during our stay, I did get round to Horizon, their adults-only lounge. Sitting on the veranda, sipping my G&T while watching the sun set more than made up for me giving the spa a miss. Nothing beats my own company!
On our last night, we had dinner at The Beach Grill (they have different lunch and dinner menus). For dinner, there’s a tiny ‘seafood market’ where you pick what you want, they weigh and price it up and you decide how you’d like it grilled. The seafood was fresh and with that hint of smokiness from being grilled – yums. The bartender on duty served us complimentary mocktails, as it was our last night there. Such a nice leaving present!
Even though there isn’t really much for teens at The Ritz-Carlton Langkawi (it’s got more for younger ones), it was a fab mother-and-son getaway. Service, as expected of all Ritz-Carltons, was top notch. We felt really taken care of by everyone there.
Would you like to explore more hotels on Langkawi? have a look at our review for Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa here and Four Seasons Resort Langkawi here.
