Hy I know still some time to go - but we are already planing our next trip to Asia next year.

We are planing on going from Austria to Dubai - to stay a couple of days - fly in to KL and then from there start a trip - Cameron Highlands and the National Park - about 5 days.

Next on would be then a 10 day beach holiday - but where? East or west coast. We have been to Borneo already.

We would like to go to Langkawi - but what is the weather like.

Thx for any advice

Weather is OK in March for Langkawi, see weatherbase.com and http://www.worldweather.org. You will have rain in April (also in Cameron Highlands, and Taman Negara but it rains in both of those places fairly often anyway). However, for a beach at that time, I personally would go to the Maldives. An easy trip from KL, and then you can get back to Austria (generally via Dubai). Much, much, much more beautiful than Langkawi, you can’t even compare the two. The west coast of Malaysia, which is very beautiful, and might make a better comparison in some respects to the Maldives (esp for snorkeling and diving), is also going to have some rain issues, toward mid-April is better than March. Maldives is in great weather at that time. You have 10 days, you could split time between north and south Maldives (Gan Atoll is remote and quite untouristed) and get some great snorkeling and diving, neither of which are really that good in Langkawi, especially the diving. Maldives is one of the premier diving locations in the world. Lovely people too.

I also would personally skip Dubai in favour of a place like Jordan where you can see something like Petra, as opposed to Dubai which is just shopping malls, tall buildings, a ton of constriction and traffic (you can do the odd jeep ride into the desert, but again does not compare to the vast deserts and wadis of Jordan, IMO). I call Dubai the ersatz Middle East.

Have to REALLY correct my own post (I have officially lost my mind). In March in Malaysia, if you want good diving, you have to go to Sipidan (probably one of the 5 best places in the world). You say you have been to Borneo, not sure if that meant Sipidan, which is off of the main island. Anyway, if it is great diving and some snorkeling that you want, that is where I would go. Perfect time of year. With ten days, this works well, because getting there involves several flights and a short boat trip, so you need time on both ends (plus you can’t fly for 12-18 hours after diving so need to actually have enough days before that to dive to take that into account).

Otherwise, I would still recco the Maldives.

I was in Penang couple weeks ago, it was hot with a little rain.
I heard from the tourist guide that bring people to Langkawi, the weather is quiet nice there around this time.

hy,
@Cicerone - thx a lot for your input.. Maldives would be great - but I think out of our price range )

As we are 4 people going - but only acutally 3 are divers we'll have to decide also on a very nice beach. I'm very much into dive but want also have a nice affordable beach hotel.

Thx

I have travelled throughout Asia and was not at all impressed with any of the beaches in Malaysia, my advice would be to look at another venue.

I think some of the beaches on the east coast of Malaysia are gorgeous. And the beaches in Sabah (a part of Malaysian Borneo) are really stunning.

we recently spent a few days on the east coast at kuantan at the hyatt....the hyatt is ok in the regular rooms but quite nice in the regency club where everything has been redone...

kuantan is ok but not fantastic...not much to do there...

I went to Redang island in April, we stayed at the Laguna resort and part of the package is that they take you out twice a day snorkel, either open water of to a marine place. You can alos arrange scuba diving, which cost was $50 for the day and that included the equipment rental. Also the package at the resort was three meals a day, and there are beautiful beaches.

There are lots of affordable places in the Maldives, including many all-inclusive in the 3 star range. The Maldives was for a long time the package/budget vacation place for Europeans, esp. Italians, and still is to a large extent. You are just hearing about the luxury hotels because they are making the recent splash in the market, but there are only about 10-12 of those out of about 90 hotels total (admittedly more are being built these days too). You have many options in the Maldives that would not be US$1500 a night.

Two somewhat less expensive hotels in the Maldives I would recco would be Veligandu Island Resort http://www.veliganduisland.com/ and Herathera Resort http://www.herathera.com/ (latter is pronounced like “herra terra”). Rates for Herathera Resort run from US$300 and at Veligandu Island Resort run from US$500. Both <i>include</i> full or half board (a nice plus and I’ll be that is not your deal in Langkawi). These are brand-new resorts, and so even though they only 3/4 stars, because they are so new the rooms are nice and modern and all the public facilities are new too. In 5 years I may not think these places are so great, and in 10 years unless they are completely refurbed, I would not go to them (that’s the problem with the lower-end resorts, redos are few and far between). Service may not be of the same levels as the 5 stars, but that may not be an issue for you. I have not snorkeled off the beaches at either, so can’t comment, in general I think that the lagoon at Veligandu Island Resort would offer better snorkeling. Both would have good snorkeling and diving by short trip trips, and I believe that the southern atolls like Gan are far less developed and would have even more pristine snorkeling and dive sites (not that the northern atolls don’t offer some great stuff, they do). The Veligandu Island Resort is a 15 minute sea-plane flight from Male. The Herathera Resort is in Gan Atoll, the southernmost atoll in the Maldives, which means you have to fly from Male to Gan, and then take a little boat for like 20 minutes. This may make the southern atolls less attractive to you. (The Gan airport is international, however it is brand new for international flights and I think they only take charter flights currently.) However, Gan is actually a very charming little place, it’s a string of islands put together and it actually would be “worth” and afternoon visit, there is a little village with lots of the traditional coral-walled buildings still left, some shops and a few restaurants along the beach roads. It is much much much more charming than Male, which is really just a very crowded place that is not worth spending any time in.

I agree that in Malaysia you have to pick you beaches carefully, the west coast is not nearly as nice as the east, and on the east Kuantan is not nearly as good as offshore islands, and of the offshore islands, Tioman is not nearly as good as the Redang area, IMO. <i>But</i>, when you find the right one, they are really gorgeous.