Pangkor Laut Resort

Should you come? Yes, if you get a good deal and enjoy the resort atmosphere. Will we return? No. The good: idyllic location, quiet rooms, good food options, many smiling staff The bad: consistently missed service expectations (although management's efforts to correct some of them is noteworthy) The ugly: insincere sustainability efforts - extensive use of disposable napkins, ubiquitous use of plastic bags, significant food waste, clean up only where visible to guests. We expected our stay at the Pangkor Laut Resort to be a memorable, "Small Luxury Hotel" experience - and were disappointed even before we arrived. - Long wait upon arrival: in spite of notification 48h prior to our arrival, a reminder 24h and 4h before our arrival to the Marina Island Jetty to book the boat transfer, we were made to wait 1.5h before being taken to the Resort. The experience was worsened by being repeatedly told by the staff at the jetty that it would only be a "10 min wait". - Delayed departure: we arranged our departure transfer at the time of check-in, confirmed it the night before departure, and yet due to the hotel's disorganization they delayed our departure by 30 minutes - inducing stress for catching our flight. - Wait staff attitude: At dinner, we ordered a bottle of wine which was unfortunately corked. We pointed it out to the waiter upon tasting it, and after trying to insist it was ok (without so much as smelling the tasting pour), snapped at us. - Insufficient sun-beds: You have to 'race' in the morning to secure your lounge chair at the beach, or risk ending up on the sand for the day. - Dangerous driving: There are buggies to move around the resort; unfortunately the drivers pay more attention to the YouTube videos playing on their phones than on the road. - Unresponsive staff: It takes around 12 hours for the spa staff to respond to WhatsApp messages, which is their preferred booking method. - Absent staff: They offer kayak rental at their Ocean Activities Centre; after calling and asking for assistance at the nearby restaurant and waiting for half an hour, the attendant never showed. This happened both times I attempted to book during our stay. - Inattentive room cleaning: from arrival the room cleaning was adequate but not thorough (sand in the bathtub upon check-in, inconsistent amenity/towel replacement, ...) - Privacy... interrupted: while the staff makes a point of saying the Resort only allows staff and registered guests on the island, privacy is constantly interrupted by the regular passage of tourist speedboats gawking at guests - especially those in sea and spa villas. - No in-room dining: they do not offer in-room dining, and have only the main buffet as a breakfast option. Many of the staff have a great attitude, and managers do their best to catch and correct - but there comes a point where apologies, no matter how profuse, do not make up for consistently missed expectations. It is also embarassing as a guest to bring up issues, so after a while we just let everything go and lowered our expectations to enjoy our holiday in this fancy resort.

I have been raving about this resort since my first visit in 2018 so I was really excited to return. By the end of my 5 night stay I remembered why it was so special. Admittedly, this resort is old. It looks tired and the fittings in the older rooms (i believe some have been renovated) are tired. So if you want 5* luxury this isn't it, however everything else makes up for it. Emerald Bay is stunning and just very chilled. Just make sure you get their early (before 10am) as they don't have enough sun loungers for guests so you'll be on a towel. A lazy lunch at Chapman's bar where the burgers are really good. They are missing a trick by not having an evening option here on the sand, we've just been to the Caribbean and they have many casual beach restaurants that would work really well in emerald bay. Uncle Lim's was exceptional and fisherman's cove was good if you want something finer. What really makes you love this place are the staff, they are really lovely and kind people. A particular thank you to Jeff on the concierge desk who helped my partner when he needed some medicine. We stayed in a hill villa and it is like sleeping in a tropical forest with all the bird noises, something really special. Tips: at breakfast go and ask for a coffee from the machine rather than the coffee they pour. Happy hour 6-7.30pm at Chapman's bar but also at the Straits bar which is in front of Uncle Lim's (2 for 1 on drinks) also applies in UL's restaurant and in Feast (buffet dinner). Email the hotel before arriving to reserve restaurants for the first couple of nights, especially if like us you prefer to eat earlier as the restaurants do get booked up. If you are flying from Ipoh airport as you leave, you really don't need to arrive more than 2 hours early as it is a very small airport so don't panic about boat timings. We decided to leave a larger tip at the end rather than to individuals. You'll notice all of the staff and how they keep things running on the island rather than just the guest facing staff. If you don't mind a slightly more rustic hotel (and by that i mean it's just a bit tired in parts) just go, it's a really special place.

A beautiful island resort. Transfer from KLIA was on time in a beautiful clean air conditioned comfortable car. Check in and boat transfer was efficient. Staff greeting and explanation of resort was just fabulous, with humour and the genuine willingness to help. Seegar was amazing and attentive. Room was available early which was a huge bonus, after a long flight and transfer. We had a hillside villa, which was perfectly adequate. We had a problem with the fridge, it was leaking but was replaced a few hours later. Beds were very comfortable with crisp clean linen and you could get a linen /towel change every day if you wished. Loved the thoughtful and complementary mosquito spray and after bite balm which was replenished when requested. Air conditioning worked well. Great wardrobe space and large double sink bathroom and powerful shower. The room and dressing area/ bathroom felt very spacious. Food, buffet breakfast was excellent good choice of European and Malaysian food, husband very happy with chilli noodles each morning! We stayed over New Year and have to say the New Year’s Eve buffet was something very special, so much choice, oysters, lobster, prawns, beef I could go on but the standard was amazing. No cheese but I asked and 5 minutes later a large cheese plate arrived with chilled grapes, delicious. We also ate at Chapmans beach bar, great views, attentive service and excellent food all served with beautiful smiles. We also dined at Fisherman Cove and Uncle Lim’s. Again food was amazing and the price in all restaurants was reasonable and not as expensive as we were anticipating for a five star private island. Wine was on the expensive side but great choice. Happy hour was great! Pool staff were very attentive and special thanks to Mizan at Spa Villas for looking after us so well. My only slightly negative observation was that the rooms were looking a little tired and could do with a little investment. We also stayed at peak time during New Year and quite a few families with young children. This by no means affected our stay. The incredible helpful and smiling staff are a credit to the resort, they made our stay one we will never forget.

Incredible holiday on a proper paradise island. Staff were all so helpful but special mention to Michael in Royal Palm and Jeff as Concierge. We had a Sea Villa (no. 119) and the deck over the sea was super relaxing. The beach is the other side of the island but the buggy ride there is easy and frequent. The food in the restaurants was excellent with Fisherman's Cove being our favourite. Loads of wildlife to see - Water Monitor Lizards the most impressive but the Flying Foxes were pretty impressive too. It's a quiet, relaxing resort that was impressive in so many ways. if i had one issue it was that i would have loved to be able to get in the sea from our sun deck but the beaches on the main side of the island were not open to swimming due to sea urchins

We ended up booking our stay at Pangkor Laut Resort as a last minute change from our original booked holiday to Zanzibar due to the civil unrest there in November so we have the people of Zanzibar to thank for helping us find an amazing destination where we fully relaxed and unwound for our 13 night stay. If you are looking for a relaxing time with high class cuisine and exceptionally friendly & helpful staff then visit Pangkor Laut Resort (PLR)! The travel from London, UK was a little daunting as we flew into Kuala Lumpur and it's then about a 4 hour road trip followed by a short speedboat transfer. We opted to stay overnight in KL so that our road transfer started the next morning at 9am. We were apprehensive about such a long transfer but the amazing vehicle laid on by PLR made it a 'business class' experience. The resort has recently updated their fleet to fully electric Denza D9 MPV and the seats have every imaginable comfort including massage and cooling functions! When we arrived at the PKL speed boat 'terminal' we were efficiently checked in and our luggage was labelled with our room information; the next time we saw it was at a room on the Island. We had a short wait for the boat, about 30~40 minutes, and then had a 15 minute speedboat journey around Pangkor main island to the jetty at Pangkor Laut Resort Island (the resort is an independent island from Pangkor Island). The only minor 'discomfort' here was the requirement to wear quite bulky life jackets but it's a short trip and safety comes first! We were led to reception and provided with ice lollies and then met the concierge Jeff who took us through all the information about the resort. Jeff even provided us with his WhatsApp contact which we utilised a few times during our stay. Jeff explained that there are essentially 3 main dining locations however they are not always open and the days each one close varies each week. The main dining area, called Feast Village, is where breakfast is served, along with a lunchtime option and it is open in the evening except when it 'switches' to a street food market where there are various stalls to try Malaysian dishes. The other 2 evening venues are "Uncle Lim's" which offers a Chinese themed menu as well as "Fishermans Cove" which is the resorts fine dining experience (There is a dress code for this restaurant). Jeff helped to book us into the evening restaurants for the first few days and suggested we then return to decide on the next weeks plan (which we did). During our stay we also booked an evening Teppanyaki meal experience which can be with up to 6 people although we were lucky enough to be the only couple on that evening so it was essentially private dining and the food was great (not that the other food wasn't) Our allocated room was one of the "Spa Villa's"; These are over-water bungalows (as you'd find in the Maldives or French Polynesia) at the furthest end of the resort. There is an electric buggy service to get you from the lobby to the Spa village. We did have one issue with this as the Spa villa's are at the other end of the Spa Village and the walk through the Spa village involves some stairs, stepping stones and garden pathways. Most times the buggy drivers would take us all the way to the villas, but occasionally they said we must get out at the spa village. (We subsequently spoke to the resort management about this and it should no longer be an issue as the guest relations manager, Sagar, explained the historic reason was excessive noise from the buggy engines in the SPA area during treatments however the resorts conversion to electric buggies resolves that and in future the buggies will service the villas at all times - good news!) The Villa had a small deck with sun loungers and ours had sun on it until around 4pm each day. We opted for a “full board” package which meant we enjoyed not only the extensive food selection at Feast Village, Uncle Lim’s & Fishermans cove in the evenings, but also the lunch options at Royal Bay Beach Club, Chapmans Bar as well as Feast Village. Our days were spent either relaxing on the deck of our villa (and visiting restaurants) or taking a walk through the Spa Village to the Spa Pool where there were plenty of sun loungers and we could be so lazy that we could order drinks direct from our loungers. It needs mentioning that all along this part of the resort there is limited access to the beech and that swimming in the sea is not really an option due to the coral and sea urchins. For those seeking some time in the sea or on the beech, then there is a shuttle buggy that crosses the island to “Emerald Bay” where there is also another restaurant called “Chapmans Bar”. We only ventured there on one occasion and it was very nice however we found that all the loungers we’re essentially under the shade of tree’s so whilst the ability to walk into the sea was lovely, we preferred the main part of the resort to “sun bake”. So far, only the concierge Jeff has had a ‘name call’, but there were many other staff members that made this an unforgettable experience. We met Michael at the Royal Bay Beach Club. He knew our ‘regular’ table, had our cold water poured out before we even reached the table, knew our drinks choice without asking (as did a few others!) and was always ready to replenish what seemed to be a bottomless choice of BBQ Prawns, Squid, Chicken, Steak, Lamb and mixed vegetable skewers. At Feast Village, where we had breakfast, a few lunches and some evening meals both Sakil & Israfil looked after us with coffee choices at breakfast, and our ‘usual’ beer & wine at lunch as well as sourcing tables with fans close by to cool us down. Last, but far from least we met Mizan. initially at the Ramu Bar in the Spa Village, when we paused on to sit down on a walk back to the villa from a Feast Village lunch. I’m pretty sure the bar wasn’t actually open at that time but Mizan appeared from nowhere (like magic) to check what we needed and provide us with some cold water. On the days that we spent on the loungers by the Spa pool (rather than our villa deck) he was there to top up our water, provide fresh towels as well as the inevitable afternoon beers. Mizan also looked after us extremely well as our waiter when we visited Fishermans Cove on a number of evenings. We also met Ivy, the Resort General Manager, on our first night when she came to our table during dinner to introduce herself. She gave us her card and said to let her know if there was anything we needed during our stay. We met Ivy a number of times across our stay and found her to be really approachable and helpful and she always made time to have a chat. Finally, and something that we have to mention, is the astonishing sight of the ‘Fruit Bat Tree’, which was literally a tree full of flying fox bats! A truly amazing and fascinating sight. PLR is an amazing place, filled with 5 star staff and cuisine to match. We fully recommend this place if you want to be spoilt, pampered and treated like old friends, we will be back.