Langkawi · Nightlife

The island's only real strip — a couple of kilometres of beach bars and restaurants with fire shows, cheap towers of beer and sound systems pointed at the sand. It winds down around midnight most nights and considerably earlier out of season.

A restaurant and bar built on the rocks at the northern end of Pantai Cenang, with two terraces — Waves and D'Reef — facing the Andaman Sea. The obvious sunset drink on the island, so book at weekends and in high season.

A beach bar on the resort's sand at Tanjung Rhu on the north coast, serving cocktails and snacks 15:00–23:00, with a small tasting room for wines and spirits. Non-guests can go, but it is a long drive from Cenang and priced like a resort.

Langkawi is a duty-free island, so beer and spirits cost a fraction of mainland Malaysian prices and every convenience store stocks them. Buying at a shop and drinking on your own balcony is what most people actually do — but there are limits on what you may carry off the island, so do not stock up for the mainland.

The island's main town on the east coast, and where the non-tourist evening happens: kedai kopi, a handful of bars near the jetty, and the marina at the yacht club. Quiet by about 11pm, and roughly half an hour's drive from Cenang.