Guest reviews Pangkor Laut Resort

by ottobahn London, United Kingdom

Idyllic island, great food.

Pangkor Laut is a very idyllic island resort with great food, fantastic staff and a beautiful beach, and ideal place for a relaxing holiday. Upon arrival at the Jetty you were swiftly checked in and the transport to the island was efficiently arranged. The arrival lounge is hardly impressive and feels quite worn out, but it goes not reflect at all the facilities on the island. The rooms are pretty, well equipped but a little dated, and many of them provide great views. We loved out hill villa with a big panoramic view. The huge iron ore jetty is a bit of a blip the horizon that takes away some of the illusion of remoteness, but really is too far away to be an issue. The twice-a-day housekeeping is impeccable. Food is generally excellent; we went full board which we found great value. It gave us the main restaurant Feast Village, Uncle Lim’s, Fisherman’s Cove and the beach bars where we had our lunches. Feast Village felt like a very average hotel restaurant, so we didn’t go for dinner. Breakfast was OK, but not spectacular. The Straits was excluded, and no credit given towards a dinner there, which didn't bother us, but we would have probably gone one night if there would have been even a modest meal credit. People had very different meal plans, so check what’s included in yours. We loved dining at Fisherman’s Cove, food was delicious, and the staff would go out of their way to provide a great experience, in particular Robin and Julius who were absolute stars. Food at Uncle Lim’s is delicious too although the service not quite at the same level as Fisherman’s Cove. Both restaurants are located in pavilions overlooking the sea, providing a lovely romantic ambience. The island is large and quite mountainous, transportation around is provided by minibus, which works well but is maybe a little convivial for a 5-star hotel. However, you’ll get meet the other guests very quickly! Most of the island is covered by beautiful old rainforest, to expect to see a lot of different creatures. The beach is fantastic, a beautiful crescent of sand swimmable at all tides, one of the best I have been to. Barefoot lunch at the beach café was one of the highlights of our day, the banana leaf curry was my favourite treat. Again, the staff would go out of their way to make you happy. The huge Spa Village is truly spectacular in very aspect, a destination of its own. Treatments are well priced, and with the Japanese baths included before your treatment great value. One downside; the Wifi in the rooms was terrible. Rather than having a single Wifi infrastructure for the entire resort, there are countless access points, and it looked that all the access points in the room are competing for channels, resulting in constant loss of connection. Not a huge problem on holiday, until I tried to connect to an important work call. All in all, this is a beautiful place worth the 3-hour journey from KL, maybe not quite the super-stylish boutique hideaway you expect from the website, but an excellent resort with killer beach and great food.

by Ciaran John O Portishead, United Kingdom

Incredible island!

We visited Pangkor Laut in January as a family of 6 - me, my wife, our 2 kids (aged 4 & 7), my wife's dad and his partner. We stayed 7 nights and absolutely loved every minute. The staff were really friendly (Vijie, Komang, Shafiq, Darwin, Kylie to pick out a few) and they were always ready to help. I've read some negative reviews about the food, but to be honest we were very happy. There was a great selection at breakfast, and if you couldn't find something in particular the team were happy to try and get it for you. We ate mostly at The Feast Village with one night at the Fisherman's Cove, and one night at Uncle Lim's. The quality was excellent, and the staff were happy to adjust the levels of spice for us (particularly the kids) depending on our preference. In particular we enjoyed Uncle Lim's on our last night - I would highly recommend it. Regarding the cost of the food - it was reasonably expensive, but to be honest I think considering the location, levels of service and good quality it was about what I expected. In the Feast Village a decent curry, noodle or rice dice for main course was around 70 - 90MYR (£13 - £17), kids meal was around 50MYR (£9.50). Uncle Lim's was similarly priced (maybe a bit more expensive), and Fisherman's Cove more expensive again (but since it's fine dining this is to be expected). Cocktails were around 45MYR (£9) and at happy hours in the Royal Beach Club we could get a round of 4 G&Ts for 70MYR (£13.50) which was great value for money. We split our days between the swimming pool and the beach at Emerald Bay. I would highly recommend Emerald Bay - it is really a little bit of paradise! It was calm & tranquil, lovely white sand, and given the bay is sheltered it meant the sea was very safe for the kids. The shuttle bus from main part of the resort to Emerald Bay only takes a few minutes and runs very frequently. Chapman's Bar at Emerald Bay served a more limited selection for lunch, but it was reasonably priced and good quality. My wife and I had two complimentary massages at the Spa Village included in our rate; I would highly recommend - a really nice experience. I also really enjoyed some of the other little touches - we were offered a complimentary Malaysian cooking experience as part of our package. This was really good fun - chef Kalimama was excellent, she got all the family involved in cooking several dishes and then served them up at the end. Quite a different experience which we all enjoyed. We also done the guided jungle walk one day - the guide was brilliant and very knowledgeable. There is a really nice variety of wildlife on the island; the hornbills and monkeys are particularly visible (which the kids loved). We stayed in a Hill Villa - which was very nice, particularly the sun rise views over the bay in the morning. Our two kids slept in a day bed in our room, which was perhaps a bit too small - if they were much older/bigger then that would not have been feasible. A few points to improve on - we noticed a lot of single use plastics at the resort, particularly the water bottles. Although they have removed the use of plastic straws (good step) there is possibly more they could do. So in summary - we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The fact that the resort has exclusive use of the island meant it felt like a very private, tranquil place to spend a week. It is not cheap, but for a 5* resort on a private island it was in line with what we expecte. Thanks to all the staff at Pangkor Laut for an amazing experience!

by daydreamingdory Biddulph, United Kingdom

Wow

This resort deserves top score. We stayed here for 3 nights as part of our tour around Malaysia. We stayed in a hill villa, the walking to and fro was not an issue for us and hopefully helped to burn off some of the calories we were indulging in. The room was amazing, spacious , clean and attention to small details. Balcony was big and well equipped with seating, view was great. Bus service around the resort was quick, we never seemed to wait long. Water is available around resort free of charge. We ate in 3 restaurants, village feast, fisherman’s cove and uncle Lims, food and service was excellent in them all. We went to emerald beach rather than use the pool and no issue with getting a sun bed. It is hard to single out particular staff members because every staff member we either came in contact with or passed by were polite and courteous. Don’t know what plans the hotel have but would like to see a reduction in the use of plastic on resort, ie water bottles, drink stirrers etc. Would definitely stay here again.

by H8838TYsams

Beautiful island - some scope for improvement

We stayed in a Hill Villa for two nights and a Spa Villa for four nights in January 2020. We had a lovely peaceful time on the Island. Staff: The staff are incredibly friendly and helpful. For example, we experienced an issue with a loud infant staying in the room next to us, disrupting our sleep. After raising the issue with the front desk, we were swiftly moved to a room in the Spa Village. This was a pleasant surprise and much appreciated. Hill Villa: These villas are set on top of a hill and have a beautiful view over the island. They are well sized. Our villa was adjoined to another Villa, which raised two issues. The first was the thin walls, which can cause noise disturbance from those next to you. However, as noted above, the noise that we experienced from the infant was remedied by moving us to a different room. The second issue was a lack of privacy on the balcony. A privacy screen would resolve this. Spa Villa: The Spa Villa was beautiful. It is slightly smaller than the Hill Villa, but has a gorgeous outlook over the water. However, there are a few points that you should be aware of if staying in the Spa Village (all the Spa Villas are in the Spa Village). The first is that there is no bus directly to the Spa Villas. You take the shuttle bus to the Spa Village and then walk 5-7 minutes to the Spa Villas. The route from the Spa Village to the Spa Villas is not clear, and not well lit at night. The path to the Spa Villas should be improved. The second is that the Spa Village is set quite away from the breakfast area. You should leave enough time to get to breakfast, as the busses are quite infrequent. Third, even though it is priced as a more luxurious room, our Spa Villa had a combined shower/bathtub. This may be a result of the smaller room size in the Spa Villas. Shuttle Bus: perhaps the most difficult thing about Pankor Laut was getting around the island. The busses are infrequent and it is often easier to just walk (with the exception of Emerald Bay, to which you will need to take the bus). A suggestion would be to have a dedicated Buggy that takes Spa Villa residents to and from the lobby, particularly at breakfast time. Emerald Bay: This is a beautiful beach and the highlight of our stay. The water was generally very clear with an abundance of sea life, none of which are dangerous. The beach does have some sea lice (a species of plankton) which bite, leaving small red marks. Whilst the beach was generally clean, a lot of plastic straws and other plastics would get washed ashore. A few guests, including myself, spent half an hour picking up handfuls of plastic straws. This is not necessarily the hotel’s fault; it likely reflects the amount of plastic waste in the Malaysian waters. Restaurants: There are a few restaurant options on the island, which were generally good. There were essentially only three options for dinner. We only went to two of these, the third being very expensive (150 ringgit for a main dish). We felt a bit limited for dinner options. We would like to thank the lovely staff that the saw each morning at breakfast, in particular, the lovely woman who made us delicious fresh roti each morning. She was a lovely woman who was always up for a conversation. We were unimpressed with the Spa village food facilities. We went to go to the spa village salad restaurant for lunch and found there was no menu and 4 pre-prepared cold salads in a fridge. We would recommend that this be changed to freshly prepared salads with a menu, such as in the other restaurants. Single use Plastic: There is a lot of single-use plastic used on the island. This results in a lot of waste, some of which appeared to end up in the waters around the island. This could be reduced by employing re-using plastic cups on the beach, and glass bottles in the rooms. We noted other reviews commenting on the excessive amount of plastic water bottles used and were disappointed this had not been remedied. Overall we had a wonderful and relaxing stay with a few things that could be polished.

by fonh2018

First class spa resort

Seventh visit. Birthday special. Ancient rainforest. Luxurious spa. Modern facilities. Warm hospitality. Great people: Darwin, Mizan, Tohid, Amran, Danny, Serena, Devi, Komang, Kylie, World class standard. Seamless service. Reinvigorated and ready to welcome 2020.