Langkawi · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Duty-free island prices, a cable car, and almost no public transport at all.
Pantai Cenang
The strip behind Cenang beach holds nearly all the dorms and cheap guesthouses, plus the bars, board hire and duty-free shops. Kuah is cheaper but dull.
What a day costs
Dorm RM35–70, food RM15–35, scooter RM35–50 a day. Around RM70–130, roughly 15–29 USD — and duty-free status makes drinking unusually cheap.
Getting around cheap
There is effectively no bus network: hire a scooter or use Grab. Ferries from Kuala Perlis and Kuala Kedah take one to two hours, and seasonal boats run to Koh Lipe.
Free by day
The walk up to the Seven Wells waterfall, sunset on Cenang beach, and the low-tide sandbar at Tanjung Rhu in the north.
Cenang beach bars
The shacks at the northern end of the beach put tables on the sand at sunset — the island's only real place to fall in with other travellers.