The Datai Langkawi

The Datai Langkawi is a 121-room rainforest resort of villas and suites leading down to a private beach on Malaysia's Langkawi island. A rainforest reckoned to be around 10 million years old surrounds the resort, perched on a ridge 40 metres above Datai Bay. Stilted rainforest villas sit along a forest stream, some with their own plunge pool, and beach villas come with individual walled gardens, private pool and butler service. Here you may be lucky enough to spot dusky langurs moving through the trees, or tokay geckos and Sunda colugos on a night walk with the resort's naturalists.

Kayak or paddleboard out from the beach, or take a guided walk to the resort's own waterfall. Three restaurants serve everything from Thai cooking at The Pavilion to Malay classics at Gulai House, while The Spa sits along its own forest stream, its five open-air villas built for Ramuan treatments drawn from Malay healing traditions and made with rainforest herbs. The resort's long-running sustainability programme, The Datai Pledge, covers everything from in-house water bottling to wildlife monitoring and environmental education for the surrounding community.