Berjaya Hotel

myself and my family stayed at the berjaya during the month of october.Having been to koh samui and loving it there we were apprehensive about how good langkawi would be.The hotel is spread over a vast area of land but do not be put of by this as the shuttle service is fantastic with staff not being able to do enough for you. the rooms are adequate without being luxurious we stayed in a deluxe room and it was clean and the cleaners always did a great job. pool was great with again freindly staff working at the pool bar. we ate only a few times at the hotel due to the fact that there were some fantastic seafood restaurants on the island and the taxi rides being very inexpensive. points for the hotel hotel staff excellent facilties such as spa excellent very clean resort. points against could be more staff, more so at breakfast activities could be better advertised such as windsurfing . ps do the nature walk with Dev the nature guide it was great

We absolutely loved the berjaya. we stayed there for part of our honeymoon - paid for 5 nights, stayed 10. We also stayed at much more luxurious places, but we definately loved the berjaya the best. we were upgraded to a delux chalet, which was about 20 meters from the ocean and only a two minute walk from the pool. If we were placed anywhere else and had to rely on the bus shuttle, it wouldnt have been as good i guess. the pool was excellent, truly great and never too crowded, always able to find sunchairs. the staff was just so friendly and made the stay even more comfortable. we loved the food, unlike other reviews, i must say that the pricing was good, its cheaper then in australia. and its completely normal, for anywhere in the world, that hotel food is a bit more expensive then outside food. a whole plate of fries as room service was about $2.50. and the roomservice is so quick.. usually took around 10 minutes. a large dish of delicious pasta with a vegetable sauce and paremesane cheese was $6.50. This is ROOM SERVICE. so as you can see, it wasnt expensive to eat in the hotel. the breakfast was also delicious, it was included in our package, so i'm not sure how much that was. but it was definately great. the chalet itself was clean, the bathrooms would need renovations i guess, but for the price per night, you cant expect complete luxury. we had monkey's come on our balcony. they were so cute and a lot of fun to share some bananas with. but you're not really supposed to feed them, as i guess they could be a nuisance. we took quite a few tourist adventures, but i'll write about langkawi itself in the forums. i highly recommend this hotel, i'd love to come back. by the way we had a look at quite a few other hotels on the island, including sheraton perdana resort. we found that berjaya was above the others, especially for honeymoooners and it's got a great reputation around the island, whenever we mentioned we were staying at berjaya, the locals were impressed and regarded it as a five start place. i know you will enjoy your stay at berjaya :) ps i will try add photos later, as they're not on the computer yet!!

The only problems with the Berjaya, Langkawi was the COCKROACHES in our room ... there must have been about 10 of them. When we complained they said that they cannot guarantee us a room without cockroaches. We upgraded to a newer modern suite which we had no problem with. Apparently, cockroaches are quite common in the wooden chalets. Another couple had the same problem. Apart from that, the resort is lovely, but the food in the hotel restaurants is terrible and very expensive compared to outside the resort. Just 5 minutes walk away is Oriental Village where the food is lovely and cheap !!

good cheap holiday, dont be affraid to complain if the room is not up to scratch. as we were put in a new sea facing room, when we complained!

Just come back from this great resort. we stayed there for a week to relax and this was the best place to go. staff, facilities, rooms, shuttle service and food were all great. i will definatly be sending more people over there and returning myself. the Russian restaurant down in the harbour is fantastic (went there 2 nights in a row!!) There were always sunlounges available on the beach and pool area anytime of the day, I can recommend the 2hrs happy hour at the pool bar each day too.. Even with lots of people in the resort is never felt crowded. I would recommend anyone going over to stay here.

... ignore any bad reviews. I was a little worried before I went on holiday as I was told there were construction works going on by my travel agent. Don't let this put you off as when we got there we didn't hear or see anything of the sort... if there are construction works going on then they are very well hidden! The hotel itself is great, with lots of restaurants (I would recommend the Pantai which overlooks the sea - it had a mouthwatering menu!) The staff were all very friendly and helpful. We had a minor incident with some little ants in our room on the 3rd night in, and the assist. mngr. immediately offered us an alternative. There are shuttles to any chalets that are further away from the main facilities that run 24 hrs, all you have to do is call the concierge and asked to be picked up. The beach is beautiful, as are all the other beaches around the island. Be sure to check out all the waterfalls... the Berjaya is a short walk from the Oriental village (which I would suggest buying your water from as it is much cheaper) and the Seven Wells waterfall. The waterfall is the prettiest part of the Seven Wells, so unless you are rather fit or adore rock pools, you'd probably not want to trek to the top as it got quite tiring. I would heartily recommend the Mangrove Boat Safari which incorporates lunch at the Barn Thai, and a Sunset Dinner Cruise around some of the smaller islands. Underwater world was good, but I would probably give the Crocodile Farm a miss. Langkawi is a beautiful island with very friendly locals and beautiful scenery - think "Jurassic Park" without the dinosaurs.... after looking at other hotels on the island I was glad that I had chosen the Berjaya for location, chalets and quality of our stay.

Our holiday was booked before we knew about this site and some might say we were only asking for trouble by reading the reviews - and some gave us cause for concern, to the point where I was on the phone to the travel agents finding out how easy it would be to get moved if it was as terrible as suggested. We needn't have worried. Make no mistake, this is not a 5 star luxury resort but then it doesn't actually sell itself as such - and it is certainly not priced as such. If that is what you are after then make a different choice! Nothing in life is perfect and if you expect that you are bound to be disappointed, no matter where you go. We found the staff to be extremely friendly and helpful - anything that needed attended to was. We ate in just about every restaurant in the hotel and found nothing to complain about. Our room was excellent and spotlessly clean, we did have one bug incident but given that it is rainforest we weren't too bothered about that. We were very close to the main buildings so could walk anywhere but there could be a bit of vehicle noise at times so even though you are further away on the fringes of the resort you could balance that off against the additional peace and quiet. As far as we could see the shuttle service looked excellent. For getting out and about from the resort we used taxi's and then hired a car from the chap in the hotel and got an excellent deal from him, we would definately recommend car hire because it gets you out and about under your own steam. We found the restaurants in the surrounding area very good so when you take into account the hotel, the Oriental Village and the Quay area there are plenty to choose from. The overall atmosphere is relaxed and welcoming, more upmarket resorts can be a bit intimidating sometimes. We got exactly what we wanted from Berjaya and that was a chance to unwind. We would certainly go back.

Needing an urgent unwind away from work, my wife and I booked 14 nights at the Berjaya on Langkawi - direct flights on Malaysia Airlines from Heathrow (via KL on return leg), upgrade from Superior to a Deluxe Seafacing Chalet, breakfast and transfers...all for around £730 (GBP) each. Bargain. Flight was great and Langkawi looked lovely on approach. Despite it being rainy season, over the entire 2 weeks we only had rain for one hour on two days and one other day when we were on another island snorkelling (so it didn't matter); the rest of the time it was sunny blue skies, a constant 28-33 C temp and just perfect. Only (literally) negative comment about the Berjaya is the road network around the site. Before the holiday I wrote to their manager asking for a single chalet (as opposed to a semi-detached one) as previous comments on this site mentioned issues with noise from neighbours due to thin walls - I also asked for a good seaview in a quiet location. Mr Hashim kindly honoured all my requests, unfortunately we were right on one of the roads on-site...which meant sitting on your balcony in the evening you had people looking up at you, people passing by and frequent buses passing underneath. Worst thing was trying to sleep with the frequent noise of passing traffic (just site buses)...I live in a city and when I go on holiday I just want to hear nature. We were gutted to hear pretty much the same thing as we hear from our bedroom at home, when we thought we'd be in a rainforest. However, Reception were able to move us to another chalet the next day and this one was PERFECT. The road stopped around 50 yards away from this chalet and there was no path or road below, no neighbours (too close) and it was true seclusion...just us, the rainforest, the sea below, a metre long iguana in the tree in front that we called Eddie and another colourful lizard on our verandha every night that ate moths whilst I drank Tiger beers. If anyone is going to stay in a Deluxe chalet at Berjaya, I suggest you ask in advance for the ones at the end of Jalam 2. All (and I mean all) other chalets are on or directly above/behind through-roads carrying the guest buses which was a poor design when the place was built. Ours was the only non-through-road (Jalam 2) and therefore away from noisy traffic. A word of caution too...anyone staying at any of the chalets (including the really luxurious ones) on or near Jalam 1 whilst the building works on the overwater bungalows goes on (just for the rest of 2005 I think), will be subjected to construction traffic passing by as well as the buses (cement mixers, cranes, staff pickups). It's a pity because the buses aren't really needed...the distances involved only a max of 5 mins walk to any chalet in lovely surroundings. Too many lazy guests! They should stop the buses after a certain time too...but they run all night on request instead. This is common to many Langkawi hotels though I believe due to the landscape. Aside from the buses and road network on site, everything else was perfect. Great pool, lovely beach, THE most (genuinely) friendly staff and locals I've met anywhere in the world (including Thailand, the infamous land of smiles), excellent breakfast (whilst my wife stuck to waffles, pancakes and omlettes, I had fab North Indian/Malay curries, Japanese soups, Indonesian rice and egg and just about anything above the Western norm...the yellow dhal curry is wonderful). The rooms are fine...they maybe a little basic for those used to 5* luxury, but for 3* they are great. We had bathrobes, the bathroom was fine, very comfortable kingsized bed (pre-requested again), minibar (that I stocked up from the local supermarket instead), safe, TV (that we didn't watch at all), aircon, ceiling fan...everything you need. As long as you keep the windows and doors shut, you won't have any mozzie or insect problems. People on this site moaning about ants, cockroaches, etc. seem to be forgetting that the chalets are IN A RAINFOREST...not a Disney copy of a rainforest, a REAL ONE. I came across one roach one night that had crawled through the telephone wires hole in the wall...but my shoe soon sorted out that problem (as did sealing up the hole with tissues). I didn't get bitten once the entire stay - we put on Deet at night, but probably didn't need to. And the hotel also provide anti-mozzie electric things - not sure if they do anything or not, but as I say, no bites. Oh, and there's a library near Reception where you can swap those holiday books you brought and finished. The food on site was okay...had room service (on the verandha) twice and ate at the main restaurant on the first night due to jetlag - it's okay, not expensive, but would recommend going out instead (see below). Incidentally, we visited a few other hotels on our stay including the well rated Datai and Sheraton...and I can honestly say that I preferred the location and vibe of the Berjaya more. Sitting next the pool reading a book you just have lush green hills in front, the beach behind and a few eagles gliding overhead (and the odd flying squirrel and monkey too). And my wife ways that the Berjaya Spa is also fab - there's a lovely lady there from the Philippeans who gives great treatments, the setting is nice and the price is okay too. Hints and tips: for car hire by all means use the company on-site, BUT only pay the rates they offer at their counter at the airport (desk nearest the luggage carousel). If they refuse, just call-up the one at the airport instead (free delivery)...I think they are called Mohamas but I may be wrong. I paid just 50 ringitt a day all inclusive for the entire stay to avoid having to get taxis (Proton Wira auto with aircon). Petrol is sooooo cheap too....just bang in 10 (£2) ringitt's worth at a time and that will last days. If you want to go snorkelling to Pulau Payar Marin Park (halfway between Langkawi and Penang....80 mins by boat), I recommend Coral Island over Langkawi Coral and East Marine (despite other people's recommendations to the contrary)...we paid just 90 ringitt each - to get this, THE cheapest rate, go down to the Jetty in Kuah and Gemilang Holidays is one of the first 3 or 4 booths you see. Speak to Azman and he'll sell tickets at 90 ringitt or call him on his mobile. Even the owners of Coral Island itself refused to go below 95 ringitt and most operators sell at around 145-180 ringitt each. Their boat is the biggest and best appointed (it's a fast chartered ferry that even has business class and first class cabins) plus sun loungers on deck. Calm enough even for pregnant passengers! The lunch is basic (chicken leg, rice, water, etc.) but absolutely fine, the crew are great and you're based on the best beach there, with 2 metre barracuda, reef sharks, 1 metre grouper...all sorts and you can swim with all of them without any hassle or danger. The Langkawi Coral version on their own floating jetty looked a bit grim to me. The Langkawi Cable Car is the only 'must see' I'd recommend....absolutely breathtaking (journey and view) - listen to the screams as people go over the edge on the way down...and the gorgeous curved suspension bridge at the top is worth the ride alone. All only 2 years old and a world leader in my opinion. Oriental Village at the bottom of the cable car is worth visiting for the duty free shop (I got Absolut vodka for £4, Tiger beers for 15p each...and strock you minibar here with beers, chocs, snacks, etc to save on your hotel bill). There are 3 restaurants i'd like to recommend here...the first is El Jojos which is in the food market there - very basic, but the friendliest owner (Jojo himself), great freshly prepared food and juices - lunch comes in at just 15 ringitt for two (£1.50ish) for something like Tom Yam soup, green chicken curry and freshly squeezed juice. The Thai restaurant there is also nice - not 100% authentic (none of the Malay 'Thai' food is to be honest) but good and cheap. And the Japanese restaurant there (owned by the Berjaya so you can charge to your room) is fab - authentic 'floor seating' and the set meals are good value. The best restaurant on the island (and to many global food critics, the best in the world) is the excellent Bon Ton near the airport. Fab sunsets, lovely cats everywhere (the place is also an animal sanctuary), true peace and quiet, fab authentic Malay 100+ year-old houses to stay in if you fancy a break from the Berjaya for a night and the food is....ohmygosh, wonderful! They have a fab tapas menu before 7pm so you can taste loads of their specialities...and the choc brownie and gingerbread icecream dessert is quite simply beyond words. Two other favourites for us were Champor Champor in Pantai Chelang (on main street) - go for the house special Chicken Curry (her Mum's recipe), the best curry I've ever had anywhere and you can sit oustide in a funky courtyard (shame they have to battle with the music from next door's Irish bar though) and Oasis Beach Bar & Restaurant for fab cocktails, cheap and tasty eastern or western menus and wonderful sunsets with cool breakers on the beach (good body surfing) - look out for the interesting photos from when the Tsunami struck (wasn't that devastating luckily, more of a high tide). We checked out the Lighthouse, but weren't taken by their menu...and although many people recommended the Seashell Cafe at the Mutiara resort (a walk along the beahc from the Berjaya), unless you love ribs and pizza with caberet music surrounded by other tourists, and don't fancy anything SE Asian, I'd steer well clear - we sat down and felt like we were on the Costa del Sol and promptly left. I don't usually slag places off, but I am required to complain about one place here for any prospective travellers....there is a new Marina development about 5 mins from the Berjaya - it's a bit weird and maybe in a few years it will be worth visiting, until then you have a weird mix of Russian, Brazlian and Thai 'styled' eateries - and the Thai, called 'the Floating Market' is absolutely appalling (not appealing). The food was ruined, the owners are rude (typically the only rude people we met in Malaysia were these two; and they are European not Malay). I ordered softshell crab and was presented with half a pound of overfried greasy batter and the only bits of the crab left for identification were the gills (dead mans fingers) which I'm sure you're not meant to eat...the owner's response was that was how it was suposed to come and he's never eaten crab before. The Thai Tom Yam Gung I ordered arraived with coconut milk, which is Tom Kha Gung...he denied this (rudely). Even that tasted off. When I complained (nicely - I'm on a chilled holiday afterall) he refused to accept fault or apologise...I got a bit firmer and he flippantly deleted the starter cost from the bill - he eventually said that I didn't have to pay anything if that was how I felt, at which point I did exactly that, I left without paying. Soooooo rude and without a clue about food neither. Avoid! Anyway, back to the nice stuff. The night market is worth tracking down for true local food at about 10p a go. It's in a different village every night although I'd recommend Padang Matsirat as the best one (close too). And take your car around the whole island checking out all the central island roads too. For shopping, the so called craft complexes are rubbish really - and very naff. The best place we found was De'Zone just along from the Sheraton Hotel - great stuff for the house (carvings, clothing, ornaments, jewellery, etc.) from Malaysia and all over SE Asia at excellent prices - they'll offer you 20% discount just for asking and if you buy a lot, that will go up to around 35% off. Finally don't bother taking cash or traveller's cheques with you to Malaysia - there are ATM machines all over and they'll give you a better rate. There's one at the complex on the marina next to the petrol station if you stay at the Berjaya. I didn't fancy the mangrove tour (don't approve with feeding wildlife and they chuck chicken at the eagles that have managed to survive with it for centuries...besides, you can see eagles all over the island, even whilst lying on your back in the Berjaya pool), the Rice Field is just a patch of grass so avoided that too. And I don't recommend feeding the monkeys - it will just turn them into aggressive scavengers...as it stands today they seem very friendly and it's great having whole troops of them swinging past your chalet at night. That's it - Langkawi may not have the 'action' of somewhere like Koh Samui, but when you just want to chill that's a good thing. It's still pretty undeveloped with minimal tourist attractions, so that's another great reason to go now before the likes of Starbucks move in (okay there are McDonalds and KFC in Kuah, but that's it). And for a truly relaxing stay in beautiful surroundings in a great location, then for value for money the Berjaya can't be beaten. Just follow my room recommendations and you will have a great stay. And the people of Langkawi are just soooo friendly, you'll feel at home in no time. Have fun!

I would like to put your mind at ease with regards to the mosquito's and bug's that we were warned about, we took all the spray & other precautions with and never used it. The Berjaya is an AWESOME beach & holiday resort for both young and old, the facilities cater for everybody's needs and the staff is always eager to please & go about their duties with an ever present smile on their faces. We stayed in the forest with the waves crashing on the rocks below us. The 500m walk through the forrest to the lobby in the morning before breakfast was just enough to wet your appetite for the scrumptious menu, those who go hungry have only themselves to blame. Langkawi Coral was the highlight of our trip and we spent our anniversary snorkling above the crystal clear water, relaxing on the beach, lunch on the platform & having the fish eat out of our hands, spectacular !! I will recommend this resort to those who would like to relax & unwind but not feel totally isolated, there are loads of very nice restaurants within walking distance from the resort as well as ample within the resort itself. The time we spent there was over all too soon and we will definitely be back to explore more of the "Islands in the sun" Thank you Berjaya for making our stay a very comfortable and enjoyable one.

The food in the hotel was sub par. And the bus system is a bit of a pain if your room is far from the hotel as most of them are. Otherwise it was ok-ish.