Apart from 2 longer vacations per year, Mark and I like to incorporate shorter, 3 to 4-day breaks into our annual planning. We find this an effective way to avoid corporate burnout by giving us a near-term exit to look forward to.
On our latest weekender, we chose Langkawi. This is my third time back, and I love the laidback island energy and proximity to nature — all under 2 hours from Singapore. My past trips were more active, where we swam in waterfalls, went kayaking through the mangroves, and scooted around to secret beaches scattered around the island. This time, our sole objective was to relax and reset.
Jump to:
- What we did: The 3D2N reset in Langkawi | TLDR: Itinerary at a glance
- Where we stayed: Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa Langkawi review
- Getting there: AirAsia
- Making the most of 50 hours: Tips & tricks
What we did: The 3D2N reset in Langkawi
Day one
We flew in to Langkawi on a 10:45am flight, arrived at 12:15pm, and drove 15 minutes to our home for the next two days — Pelangi Resort & Spa. Check-in was at 3pm but hotel facilities were availed to us, so we changed into our swimsuits and grabbed drinks by the Horizon pool, which was just by the resort entrance.
Our room was ready at 2pm, but we ended up checking in much later. After checking out the room, we went to Horizon cafe for a late lunch and coffee, where we got the club sandwich (MYR 38) and grilled chicken burger (MYR 52). The food was passable but nothing to write home about. We lounged about in the room before going down to the beach to catch the sunset.
Against the setting sun, we walked down Jalan Pantai Cenang, which felt underwhelming on Hari Raya, with tired souvenirs and many shuttered shops. We chanced upon Honeybee LGK Cenang that was still open and got some baked goods to go.
Massages are a must on a reset trip. I wanted to check out Alun-Alun spa, which seemed like a more upscale outfit, but the recent reviews seemed lacklustre, so we booked one at swasdi thai massage which had great reviews and 4.5* on Google. The initial impression felt slightly dodgy (the Thai lady boss / masseuse met us by the street corner, and brought us to the actual parlour which was inside a restaurant…). The massages from both masseuses were so good though, that Mark insisted we go back again the next day. Note the shop was small, with just two beds, slightly noisy and not super clean, so it is not for the faint of heart.
By the time we got back, it was close to 11pm. We ordered room service for a late dinner, and opted for a mee goreng and beef pepperoni pizza (MYR 48). As expected, the local fare was more authentic than the pizza, but we were glad for the variety.
Day two
When we woke, the ocean had far receded from the shore. Like kids, we walked excitedly down the shoreline, picking up shells and sticks, gingerly scooping starfish with bits of iridescent shell and carefully tossing them back into the sea, and watching sea snails busying in the wet sand, leaving a discreet path in their wake.
We went back for breakfast at the Spice Cafe, where we dined against daylight flooding in through large, white french windows and a view of the explosive vibrant pink bougainvilleas just outside. Food was generally delicious, and I particularly enjoyed the noodle soup live station.
After breakfast, we headed over to the Cascade Pool to soak in the sun and read for the next hours. The swim-up bar opened at 12pm, and we spent the next few hours chatting and drinking under the bar awning, dipping in and out of the water to escape the heat.
We had many a drink at the resort over our stay, and I would advise away from the cocktails (I had a mai tai that was almost medicinal in taste, which was confusing but we just laughed about it), but the draft beers were refreshing, and the sparkling wine was welcome in the relentless heat. When we finally recovered from breakfast, we shared a beef wrap (MYR 40), which was the best thing we tried at Horizon cafe over the 2 days, and dove back into the Horizon Pool.
In the evening, Mark surprised me with dinner at Lancava, a beachfront Mediterranean-inspired restaurant located at Park Royal Langkawi Resort. The dining experience at Lancava was positive, with attentive service and thoughtful, well-executed dishes. The server recommended the gambas al ajillo (MYR 88), Pepper-crusted beef carpaccio (MYR 96), lobster ravioli (MYR 188), and the Lava stone rib eye (MYR 418).
We ended up with the beef carpaccio, lobster ravioli and the Pantai risotto (MYR 108). The Pantai risotto ended up being my favourite dish of the night, with an arborio rice richly infused in a seafood bisque, topped with tiger prawns, scallops, fish, caviar and fish skin.
The lobster ravioli was well-executed, served with half a lobster (which I understand to be fresh and caught daily) and homemade ravioli stuffed with ricotta, topped with sage and caviar. We only wished there were more than four ravioli being served (?!), which seems to be our eternal struggle with ravioli – that there never is enough.
The beef carpaccio was a skip for us. When served, we were confused because it presented like a salad (the carpaccio was below a bed of mizuna et al.) and I felt the dish did not highlight the carpaccio enough. The carpaccio tasted fine, but the parmesan tuille was probably the best part of the dish. We were surprised the server recommended this, seeing as there were better dishes on menu.
After dinner, we took a slow stroll to the Cenang strip, only to find ourselves at HoneyBee cafe again. We got a slice of cookies & cream cheesecake while we waited, and bought 2 sausage rolls for our flight home the next day. I would not recommend the cheesecake, which tasted very sweet and light on the cookies and the cheese, but we did enjoy the sausage rolls on our flight the next day.
Day three
On our final morning, we had breakfast at 8am, and spent our final hours by the Horizon pool before getting ready to leave for the airport at 11:15am. Our flight was at 12:30pm, and we arrived at the airport around 11:30am, and were at the gate by 12pm. Our flight took off on time and we were back in Singapore by 2:30pm!
Where we stayed: Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa Langkawi review
Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa Langkawi is a 5-star beachfront property in Langkawi, located on Pantai Cenang and just 15 minutes drive from the airport. Since we were not planning on leaving the premises much, we picked the property for its accessibility, facilities, and general aesthetic.
Overall, we would stay at Pelangi Beach Resort and Spa again. While we booked our stay on Booking.com, consider booking directly from their website for deals like MYR50 daily resort credit for F&B or spa, daily ice cream treats, a welcome cocktail and a birthday treat when you stay during your birthday (subject to change, please refer to the hotel website).
Choosing your room
We didn’t think much about the room type when booking and chose the Garden Terrace (SGD 323 per night), which cost us SGD 646 for two nights on Booking.com. At check-in, we were upgraded to the Seaview King room, which we enjoyed.
Most of the hotel ‘blocks’ have 2 storeys, with 2 rooms on each floor. We had a room on the upper storey, which we preferred, with a nice sloped ceiling, and an elevated view of the beach. With a ground floor unit though, you can step directly off your porch and on to the beach.
Garden Terrace
The Garden Terraces face the inner buggy/human path that goes around the resort, so your porch faces internally toward other Garden Terraces. They are not too close together, but you will have less privacy on your porch than the other rooms. The setting is tranquil, and if having a view of water is not important to you, this is a good choice.
Lakefront
M liked the look of the Lakefront rooms, which have porches or balconies facing one of two calm, jade-coloured lakes. One of the lakes had a water feature in the middle, which created a misty atmosphere, reminiscent of cottages in Canada nearing fall (but with equator heat). Facing the lake gives you more privacy and buffer from someone looking into your room.
Pool Terrace
Pool Terraces are great for families or extroverts (lol) who love being super close to the pool and bar, and don’t mind the chaos up till when the pool closes around 9pm. I personally don’t prefer this but I can understand why some might, especially if you want to read from your balcony while watching over your kids in the pool, or value hyperconvenience.
Most of the Pool Terrace units would be around the Cascade Pool, which is at the further end of the resort.
Island View & Seaview
The Island view and Seaview rooms are similar, outward facing units that face the sea. As the landscape varies around the resort, the Island view rooms seem to face the sea but do not necessarily have a strip of beach in front of it. The Island view rooms are located at the farther end away from the city, while the Seaview rooms are closer to the town (Pantai Cenang), which means you are subject to noise from the city. We bore the brunt of this as it was Hari Raya and locals were celebrating with fireworks till 1am, but we didn’t mind it much since it was a festive day and we relished in the wonderful energy of the island.
We enjoyed our Seaview King room, with a balcony facing the beach where I could read in peace, but also put us within 5 seconds from the beach.
Other features: Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa
Complimentary buggy service
As the resort premises are quite sprawled out, there are hotel buggies that can take you to and fro where you’d like to go. In theory, great. In practice, we barely used this as we found the buggy wait time to be too long (definitely island time).
Pools
The resort has two pools, the Horizon Pool and Cascade Pool. The Horizon Pool is just by the hotel entrance, and is the more family-friendly of the two, with a 45-meter lap pool and kids’ water play area featuring slides and fountains.
The Cascade Pool is an Olympic-sized pool with a swim-up bar, at the farther end of the resort. We spent most of our second day at the Cascade Pool, getting almost burnt to a crisp while enjoying drinks from the swim-up bar.
Fitness
The resort has a gymnasium (which we did not visit), pickleball and tennis courts that you can book, and yoga sessions. While there are complimentary beachfront yoga sessions available, they only take place on Tuesday and Friday from 8am – 9am, which realistically are not applicable for most long weekend trips. Alternatively, you can book private 60-min yoga sessions (for 2 pax) for MYR 250.
Customer and room service
In general, hospitality could be improved at Pelangi. Staff were friendly but not particularly helpful. We found the room service a hit or miss — the staff took awhile to pick up each time, but we did manage to order room service, order a buggy, and ask for more water throughout our stay. However, they did not pick up our in-room dining trays despite us asking for them to be picked up from outside our room, so we woke up the next morning to our dinner trays still outside our room. We noticed this for other rooms as well.
Getting there: AirAsia
Since Langkawi is only 90 mins away from Singapore, we flew AirAsia. Round trip tickets cost about SGD 420 for 2 people (SGD 210 per person), which was pretty reasonable. I booked the flights about 3 months before takeoff.
My experience with AirAsia was no-frills but seamless. Both flights took off on time and both arrived earlier than expected (the same cannot be said for my recent Scoot flights, which have taken a nosedive as of late).
Making the most of 50 hours: What we learnt
50 hours, or 3D2N, is not a long time. To reset in under that time, here are some tips and tricks to ensure an actually restful reset.
1. Plan around the long weekends (in advance)
Why use more leave when few leave do trick? We try to plan these shorter getaways around the long weekends, and use no leave days at all. If you are looking to schedule your next short break, here are the remaining long weekends in Singapore, based on public holidays for the rest of 2026 and 2027 to aid your planning.
To avoid stressing closer to date, book your flights and accommodation at least 3 months in advance.
2. Choose nearby destinations for a short commute
Keep your enemies close and your destinations closer (for these short getaways). Since time is of the essence, shorten all sorts of travel times
- between Singapore and destination
- between destination airport and accommodation
- between accommodation and key sights (if you plan to leave the hotel)
3. Travel light to move fast
I have found that if you choose destinations with small airports servicing few flights, immigration and security tends to be a lot quicker. In addition, avoid checking any luggage in (and honestly for under 50 hours, you don’t need it).
TLDR: Itinerary at a glance
Day one
- 10:45am – 12:15pm (1.5 hours): Flew in to Langkawi
- 12:15pm – 12:30pm (15 mins): Grab from airport to hotel
- 12:30pm – 3:30pm(3 hours): Swam and basked in the sun
- 3:30pm – 5pm (1.5 hours): Check-in, late lunch and coffee
- 5pm – 6:30pm (1.5 hours): Lounged in room
- 6:30pm – 8pm (1.5 hours): Read on the beach at sunset
- 8pm – 9:30pm (1.5 hours): Sunset beach and Cenang town walk
- 9:30pm – 10:30pm (1 hour): Massage
- 11:00pm -: Late night room service
Day two
- 7am: Read on the balcony
- 7:30am – 8:45am (1.25 hours): Beach walk at low tide
- 8:30am – 10am (1.5 hours): Breakfast
- 10am – 4pm (6 hours): Sunbathe and read
- 4 – 5pm (1 hour): Late snack and coffee
- 5 – 6:30pm (1.5 hours): Lounged in room
- 6:30pm – 8pm (1.5 hours: Dinner at Lancava
- 8pm – 8:45pm (45 mins): Night stroll
- 8:45pm – 9:30pm (45 mins): Dessert break
- 9:30pm – 10:30pm (1 hour): Massage
Day three
- 8am – 9am (1 hour): Breakfast
- 9am – 11am (2 hours): Sunbathe and read
- 11am – 12pm (1 hour): Shower and head to airport
- 12:30pm – 2:30pm (2 hours): Flight from Langkawi to Singapore)
Happy travels and till next time, x
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