The Langkawi Mangrove Tour in the Kilim Karst Geoforest Park is actually amazing. We’ve done quite a few tours in our 1-year around the world trip, including mangrove tours. They often aren’t worth it – looking at you, coconut basket boats in Hoi An, Vietnam. The Langkawi mangrove tour in Malaysia is so good, it made the top 10 of our all-time favorite activities.
There is such an abundance of wildlife diversity on the jungle island of Langkawi and the mangroves exemplify that. We were lucky enough to see a giant Monitor Lizard swimming next to our boat, along with hand feeding monkeys and sting rays, and exploring caves full of bats, you will also get close up to Langkawi Red Eagles diving for food. There were also a few snakes in the trees, crabs on the rocks and you will also visit a fish farm and seafood restaurant for lunch.
We were told you can see dolphins and sea turtles on occasion, however, we didn’t. In one of the bat caves, there’s a ladder leading up to a higher cave. Next to the ladder there is a sign that says ‘DANGER, do not enter – Cobra’s’, with a picture of a King Cobra snake! No, one entered!
The tour itself is very reasonably priced, we had a private boat for our family of 6 and we found the Langkawi mangrove tour an absolute highlight. It will take around 2 -3 hours. We couldn’t recommend it enough! Check out our Reel on Instagram.
If you’re looking for other great activities on Langkawi Island, read our review for the Langkawi Skybridge, which we highly recommend. If you’re looking for a quiet place to stay on Langkawi Island, see our recommendation here.
Our Tips for the Langkawi Mangrove Tour
- Getting there. We stayed in Tanjung Rhu and had a rental car (highly recommended for Langkawi Island). It was a 10-minute drive for us. If you’re staying in Kuah or Pantai Cenang Beach you will need either a rental car or a pickup with your tour. Grab’s are few and far between on the far side of the Island. It’s around 40 minute drive if you’re on the other side of the island.
- Don’t book online. We went to Tanjung Rhu beach – there are 3-4 vendors set up there and you can easily negotiate a great price with a private boat. We paid $50USD for our family of 6. The vendors all seem to know each other as you would expect, but still compete for business. One had a bigger, fancier boat so couldn’t go lower in price than the vendor we ended up with. Honestly, the boat doesn’t make any difference – it’s calm waters all the way, even when you get to the ocean. They all take pretty much the same route.
- Make sure you buy a few bags of peanuts in their shells to feed the monkeys. It’s one of the few times we’ve encountered where it feels safe and appropriate to do so. It is a lot of fun – a few jumped onto our boat and they grab the peanuts from your hand! These are available from the tour operators.
