It’s a travel writing cliche to say that a hotel or a resort was so wonderful that you didn’t want to leave to see anything else. “I just didn’t want to leave!” I’ve written it myself, though I suspect half the time this is travel writer hyperbole and that the writer really did want to check out the non-hotel sights to see, but also genuinely did enjoy the place they were staying. But enjoy a hotel sooooo much you literally didn’t want to set foot outside of the property? Can that really be true?

Well, irrespective of a person’s individual curiosity quotient, “yes” is the short answer and the Andaman hotel in Langkawi, Malaysia is an easy case in point! One of just two hotels on an idyllic crescent of sand that National Geographic once ranked as among the top 10 beaches in the world, the Andaman is so far above being just another very nice resort that it really has to be seen to be believed (travel cliche #2).

So yes indeed, the beach is postcard perfect (cliche #3), but the primeval, mountainous jungle setting (and all the attendant Malaysian wildlife) is almost as big a drawcard. Then if the salt of the sea is not your preference you have a gorgeous, sweeping, multi-dimensional pool to cool you. And if sharing a pool with the masses is too much for you there are lap pools directly attached to some rooms and private plunge pools adjoined to others.

All of this and more is explained in my article in the April/May issue of New Zealand’s number one travel magazine, Let’s Travel, including the Andaman’s commitment to the rich but fragile environment it occupies. Here are a couple of a paragraphs from my piece detailing just that:

Underwater there’s something remarkable going on too. While Malaysia was almost entirely spared by the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, parts of Penang and Langkawi were not. The Andaman was one of the places hit, but things could have been so much worse if not for the coral reef in front of the resort that bore the brunt of the devastating waves. In short, the coral died and human lives were spared.

As part of the conservation-minded ethos that the Andaman embraces, the resort has created an underwater nursery where marine biologists are cultivating and growing coral to be replanted back in the bay. Dead coral is recycled to provide bases for the young coral and guests can not only see how it’s all being done, they can help too. With it being our honeymoon, we were presented with a heart-shaped chunk of dead coral which we then glued small, healthy pieces of coral to. One day we’ll be able to revisit the Andaman, put on a snorkel and mask and try and find our coral. It’s a great idea and one that’s regenerating life on the reef.

My article also tries to give a sense of the luxury and the level of service you can expect at the Andaman. Subscribe to Let’s Travel for the full digital or print issue of the magazine and click here to link to the hotel’s website. But before any of that, have a scroll below of my favourite photos from this extraordinary resort and see if you can resist adjusting your bucket list as a result.