Originally Posted by
essexnyc
Thank you for this and other thoughts. I should clarify that the diving would just be one two-tank dive for me - unfortunately my wife is not a diver. I would say "luxury beach resort" is our primary criteria for the last few days (though I would appreciate good diving)! The dive places you mentioned sound good to me, but the resort quality wouldn't be to to the level we'd want. I chose the St. Regis Langkawi because we've stayed at (and loved) many other St. Regis properties, plus it's an easy hop to Singapore, where we fly home from. A little afternoon rain doesn't bother us, though obviously three days of solid rain really would - it sounds like the former in Langkawi in late August / Early September, but please let me know if I'm wrong.
I think that we will stay at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge, with a stopover in Kota Kinabalu, but would appreciate any ideas of a fabulous beach resort easily accessible from Kota and to Singapore.
If luxury is your primary criteria, then St. Regis fits your bill (unless the new Marriott is open in Perhentian). August is mainly showers. The real deluge
usually starts around end-September to early-November. But the seas can still be quite choppy (St. Regis Langkawi is shielded from the southwest monsoon tho, but the beach at St. Regis isn't particularly nice). The Datai (and former Andaman Resort, the LC property which was closed due to fire) has the best beaches in Langkawi IMO (you should check out Datai too. I've never heard of any complains there).
There are non-chain resorts near Kota Kinabalu on Gaya Island (Gaya Island Resort and Bungaraya Island Resort). I've only stayed at Bungaraya Island Resort which I think was good but not as luxurious as St. Regis. Staff was outstanding at Bungaraya.
Another option will be Batu-Batu Island resort near Mersing in Johor (not the easiest to get to from Singapore without a car, about 2.5 hours drive from Singapore plus a ferry/speedboat ride). It's doable if you can get a driver (or rent a car, but you'll be parking at the mainland, so it's moot to rent a car) from Singapore to Mersing. There are also One&Only and Anantara resorts in the town of Desaru (one hour drive from Singapore) though I haven't been to any of the Johor resorts so I can't comment on that.