Langkawi Mangrove Tour With Kids: What to Expect
Thompsons vs the World contains affiliate links and is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Affiliates Program. Making a booking via these links will mean that we receive a small fee but this is at absolutely no cost to you. The price you pay will always remain the same. For more information please see our Privacy Policy.
Langkawi was one of our slower stops during our family gap year through Malaysia — a place to chill out a little after busier travel days, but still will plenty to do when we wanted to explore. While it’s easy to spend your time here on the beach or by the pool, we wanted to see a different side of the island, so we booked a Langkawi mangrove tour.
Spending a half-day drifting through quiet waterways, surrounded by mangroves and towering limestone cliffs, turned out to be one of the most unexpectedly enjoyable experiences we had in Langkawi — especially with kids. Our boys were glued to their binoculars, watching sea eagles swoop down to the water, spotting monkeys along the riverbanks, and listening intently as our guide explained how the mangroves protect the island from storms and tsunamis.
This isn’t a heart-racing wildlife adventure, but it is a calm, educational, and genuinely family-friendly way to experience Langkawi’s natural environment. In this post, I’ll share what you actually see on a mangrove tour in Langkawi, which tour we chose, how to pick an ethical operator, costs, timings, and whether it’s worth fitting into a Langkawi family trip.
Table of Contents
- Why take a Mangrove tour in Langkawi
- What do you see on Langkawi mangrove tours?
- Which Langkawi mangrove tour did we take?
- How to choose an ethical Langkawi mangrove tour
- How long does a tour last?
- How much is a mangrove tour in Langkawi?
- Final thoughts
- Planning a family trip to Malaysia with kids?
- Frequently Asked Questions About Langkawi Mangrove Tours
Why take a Mangrove tour in Langkawi
While you could easily spend your whole time in Langkawi chilling by the pool or on the beach (completely understandable), taking a mangrove tour offers you the chance to see a totally different side to the island.
This is where you can see some of Langkawi’s wildlife up-close-and-personal, and get to understand the fascinating mangrove ecosystem. I was completely unaware that the mangroves played a huge role in protecting the island from the 2004 tsunami until we took this tour and our guide talked us through it.
And not only do you get a great education in all things mangrove related, you also get to drift around these beautiful quiet backwaters for the day. Which is a wonderful experience in itself!
If your kids love wildlife, this is a great introduction before heading on to travelling Borneo with kids, where the jungle experiences are even more immersive.
And if you’re currently planning your trip, the mangrove tour is one of the highlights we included in our Langkawi itinerary when visiting with kids.
What do you see on Langkawi mangrove tours?
The main draw for a lot of people is the chance to see the majestic Sea Eagles. There are quite a number that live in and around the mangroves – whilst sightings of wildlife are never guaranteed the numbers mean that it is highly likely that you’ll see these huge birds during a tour.
Whilst we have seen a LOT of wildlife on our travels, seeing the Sea Eagles majestically diving down to the water was an incredible sight. The boys were fighting over the binoculars to get a better look!
There are also large troupes of macaque monkeys along the shoreline in the mangroves. The boats are able to drift quite closely past them, so you get a great front row view. But without being TOO close to these often pesky monkeys.
Our guide was also able to locate a huge snake in the undergrowth, twisted around an overhanging branch on one of the quieter waterways. Again, it was a fab opportunity to view a reptile like this from a safe vantage point.
Most tours also visit the bat cave, where you can drift quietly inside to see hundreds of sleeping bats on the cave ceiling.
And as well as the wildlife, there are some simply stunning views. The huge karst rock formations that tower upwards from the sea are spectacular. Plus you get a wonderful view of the shoreline of Langkawi from out on the ocean.
Which Langkawi mangrove tour did we take?
We opted for a Classic Mangrove Tour with Dev’s Adventure Tours. They offer a variety of tours across Langkawi, including cycling tours, kayaking the mangroves, seeing the mangroves at sunset and island-hopping.
If you haven’t got a hire car in Langkawi then Dev’s tours include hotel pick up and drop off afterwards.
Everything was really well organised from the start at the boat jetty and we were quickly aboard and off on our adventure. In total there were eight of us on the boat, which felt like a good-sized group. Enough people to chat to and enjoy the day with but plenty of space and opportunities to talk to the guides and ask questions.
The guides were both brilliant – incredibly knowledgeable about the ecosystem and where to find animals we could see.
As with most of the Langkawi mangrove tours, ours did include a stop at the floating restaurant for lunch. The food was better than I expected – curries and soups, and some tasty fried rice (non-spicy) that the boys both enjoyed.
How to choose an ethical Langkawi mangrove tour
You’ll see mangrove tours advertised across Langkawi. But making sure you’re booking on to an ethical tour can be tricky in the face of the huge number of options available here.
The number one red flag for the unethical tours is if they engage in feeding the wildlife, in particular the Sea Eagles. Many, many of the tours here will feed the eagles from the boat to encourage them to dive down for the tourists. This kind of interaction changes the natural behaviour of the eagles and can make them dependent on the boats for feeding, rather than hunting for themselves.
Ask the question before you book and make sure you are confident that the tour you’ve chosen doesn’t engage in this.
We booked on to Dev’s Adventure Tours for EXACTLY this reason – we’d done our research and knew that the tour guides didn’t get involved with feeding. Yes, it DID cost us a bit more than some of the other advertised prices we’d seen for Langkawi mangrove tours. But knowing we weren’t contributing to bad practice made it worth the extra.
Unfortunately, even taking a tour with an ethical company doesn’t mean you’ll avoid the practice altogether. Whilst our guides didn’t feed the sea eagles, the vast majority of the other boats we saw during our tour were doing this.
How long does a tour last?
The standard mangrove tour lasts for around four hours, with most leaving from the docks in the morning around 9-10am.
This includes around 3-hours out on the boat and just under an hour for lunch at the floating restaurant.
How much is a mangrove tour in Langkawi?
Our classic mangrove tour with Dev’s Adventure Tours came in at:
- RM205/£38/US$52 for adults
- RM145/£27/US$37 for kids (3-10years old)
This includes lunch at the floating restaurant, all bottled water and hotel transfers. You can get cheaper prices at the stalls around Tanjung Rhu beach or at the tour agencies around Cenang Beach if you really need to scrimp, but if you want a great, professional experience that is also highly ethical then I would highly recommend booking with Dev’s.
Final thoughts
Whilst we really enjoyed our half-day mangrove tour in Langkawi, I’ll be totally honest – this isn’t a mind-blowing wildlife adventure. If you want complete, knock-your-socks-off wildlife then Malaysian Borneo or a trip over to Komodo National Park are two of your big hitters in this part of the world.
The Sea Eagles ARE majestic and weren’t something we’d ever seen anywhere else – watching them dive and soar in the sky was wonderful.
If you approach a mangrove tour as a way to see another side of Langkawi, learn about a unique ecosystem, drift on peaceful backwaters AND see some wildlife along the way then you won’t be disappointed.
Many families combine this with a longer trip, and we followed it up with our two week Borneo itinerary for a mix of beaches and wildlife.
Planning a family trip to Malaysia with kids?
Check out some of our other Malaysia posts for more inspiration, reviews and mapped out itineraries.
- Taking a Kinabatangan River Safari with Kids
- Shangri-La Rasa Ria Review – is this the best family hotel in Borneo?
- The best place in Borneo to see orangutans
- Rainforest Discovery Centre Sepilok with Kids
Frequently Asked Questions About Langkawi Mangrove Tours
Yes — Langkawi mangrove tours are very family-friendly. The experience is calm, boat-based, and doesn’t involve hiking, making it suitable for kids who enjoy wildlife and learning about nature.
Common sightings include sea eagles, macaque monkeys, snakes, bats (in the bat cave), and various birds. Wildlife sightings are never guaranteed, but sea eagles are frequently seen on Langkawi mangrove tours.
Most standard mangrove tours in Langkawi last around four hours, including time on the boat and a lunch stop at a floating restaurant.
A mangrove tour in Langkawi is worth it if you’re looking for a peaceful, educational nature experience rather than a high-adrenaline wildlife safari. It’s a great way to see a different side of the island.
Mangrove tours work best for kids who can sit on a boat for a few hours and enjoy spotting wildlife. School-age children tend to get the most out of the experience.
