Langkawi 4th best in Asia 2026

Readers of Condé Nast Traveler put Langkawi fourth in Asia, ahead of Phuket and Bali. Telaga Tujuh also took Malaysia's best waterfall title.

By Langkawi NewsTuesday, 27 October 2026

White beach loungers under coconut palms on the sand at Pantai Tengah, with calm sea beyond the trees — Photo: Langkawi Channel — Loungers under the palms at Pantai Tengah.

Langkawi has been voted the fourth best island in Asia for 2026 in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards.

Only Phu Quoc in Vietnam, and Boracay and Palawan in the Philippines finished above Langkawi. Koh Samui, Bali and Phuket came in behind it, with Phuket last of the seven.

Rank	Island
1	Phu Quoc, Vietnam
2	Boracay, Philippines
3	Palawan, Philippines
4	Langkawi, Malaysia
5	Koh Samui, Thailand
6	Bali, Indonesia
7	Phuket, Thailand

The Asia top seven, Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards 2026. The awards are a readers' vote, not an inspection.

That ordering is the story. Phuket and Bali have been the default island holidays in this part of the world for decades, with the resort strips, the airport capacity and the marketing budgets to match. This year the readers put a Vietnamese island, two Philippine islands and Langkawi above both of them.

Sports cars parked under a glass canopy outside a modern hotel entrance, with staff on the driveway — Photo: Langkawi Channel — Sports cars outside a hotel entrance on the island.

The islands that came out ahead share a shape: beaches and scenery as the main event, reached by direct flights, with a smaller built-up core than the older resort islands. Langkawi fits that pattern better than its reputation suggests, with an airport that now takes international arrivals straight onto the island and most of the visitor pressure concentrated along one stretch of the west coast.

Aerial view of the Langkawi Sky Bridge curving between forested peaks, with the sea and islands beyond — Photo: Langkawi Channel — The Sky Bridge above the rainforest on Mat Cincang.

The same awards brought two Malaysia titles here. The Kedah state government's own news channel reported on Friday, 23 October that Langkawi had been named the best island in Malaysia for 2026, and that Telaga Tujuh, the Seven Wells waterfall in the north-west of the island, had been named the best waterfall in Malaysia.

Where those readers actually spend their time has moved too. Over the last 15 years the centre of gravity on Langkawi has shifted from Kuah to Pantai Cenang, as more visitors arrive by air rather than by road and ferry through Kuah, and as new direct routes from foreign cities and transit hubs bring in more travellers from further afield. Duty-free shops that once anchored Kuah have opened branches in the Cenang area, and some have shrunk or closed their Kuah operations altogether.

A long aisle of wine and spirits shelves in a duty-free store, with wooden cases of Champagne stacked on the opposite side — Photo: Langkawi Channel — Wine and spirits on the shelf in a duty-free store on the island.

Aerial view of Pantai Tengah at sunset, the sun setting between offshore islands, with hotels and palms along the beach — Photo: Langkawi Channel — Pantai Tengah at sunset.

Aerial view of the marina at Kuah at dusk, yachts and ferries moored in rows, the lit Eagle Square statue and the town waterfront behind, with mountains across the bay — Photo: Langkawi Channel — Kuah at dusk, with the marina in the foreground and Eagle Square lit across the waterfront.

A white motor yacht under way on calm green water, with guests on the foredeck and the island's hills and Eagle Square tower behind — Photo: Langkawi Channel — A Langkawi way to enjoy our bays and a private sunset at sea.

A fourth place is not a survey of the island's roads, its waste or its ferry queues. It is a measure of how fondly people remember a trip. On that measure, Langkawi is now ahead of the two islands it has been compared with for 30 years.

A woman in swimwear sitting in the water on a curved white pool lounger with a pink drink, parasols and palms behind her — Photo: Langkawi Channel — An afternoon in the pool at a resort.

Two people toasting glasses of white wine over a table of food on the sand, with the sun low over the sea behind them — Photo: Langkawi Channel — Dinner on the sand as the sun goes down.

Performers in red trousers and bare tops drumming and spinning fire on the sand at night, sparks spraying up behind them and diners watching from the edge of the beach — Photo: Langkawi Channel — A fire and drum performance on the beach after dark.

If you have been visiting since the Kuah years, or you came for the first time this season, tell us where you would put Langkawi and why.

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