Driving in Langkawi

Langkawi is an island where driving is necessary since there's no public transport. Let me correct that. Driving may not be necessary but you could sign up for some sort of pick up from hotel for some activities. 

Renting a car or motorbike

As soon as you of walked out of the arrival area, there are plenty of car rental representatives offering their products. We talked to one of the representatives who quoted us price for the model of car we were looking for. She told us that they could deliver the car to our hotel as well as long as we communicated the intention a day prior.

We stayed in Cenang Beach and we rented a car from a rental located in front of Bella Restaurant. They had four to five cars available for us to choose from. In the end we rented a new Toyota Yaris for RM 150 (USD 33.82). The cost of that rental include the following :

- Rental fee for 24 hours.

- Does not include insurance.

- Does not include gas.

As usual, make sure to check the car or motorbike prior to sign any agreement. We took photos of any blemishes/scratches the car had on. We saw others taking video of the vehicle.

Gasoline or Petrol

Unlike US where the gas has higher octane define by the number eg. 87,88 or 89. There is only one type of gasoline in Langkawi. The other would be diesel.

At the gas station, the pump was separated as well. The pump for gasoline is just for gasoline. While the diesel pump is separated and marked as diesel.

When we picked up the rental car, the petrol indicator showed three bars (it's a digital indicator). We ended up pumping gas twice to maintain the bar at the same level before returning it. Total petrol cost for a trip around the island RM 30 (USD 6.76). Not sure what would happen if we couldn't find gas station to refill before returning. 😎

Parking

We noticed some shops had signs about selling parking coupons. I didn't quite understand that until we rented a car and went to Kuah town and some other tourist spots and noticed that parking coupons were needed.

The parking coupons booklet that we bought only cost RM 4 (USD 1). Each coupon only allowed 20 minutes parking. If you need to park a longer time, you need to buy higher value coupon. I didn't realize that until we tried to use it. Each of our coupons only has 20 minutes value.  We would need three coupons to park for one hour.

Make sure to scratch the parking coupon to reveal the correct date and time of parking. Also don't forget to leave it on the car dashboard where it's easy to spot.