Travel ❤ Bintan Lagoon Resort, Indonesia

 
Bintan and Batam are two islands in Indonesia. They are popular for a short trip from Singapore as it only takes an hour ferry ride to there. It is great to spend a couple of nights in a resort here just to relax.

We travel to Bintan for our ‘small honeymoon’ trip since we just got married in Singapore. Initially I wanted to write a post about Bintan, but the truth is we have only stayed at the resort and never seen the real Bintan. 😣 We are not advised to go outside the resort as it may not be safe.

 
Since we visit Bintan in the monsoon season, there is no direct ferry to Bintan Lagoon Resort so we have to take the public ferry. Our resort arranges the shuttle transport to pick people up from the ferry terminal.

 

Our Forest Room @ Bintan Lagoon Resort

We booked a slightly better room – Forest Suite with Balcony – because it is our honeymoon! I fell in love with the room immediately once I walked in because I like the swans on the bed and also the huge private spa. 😊

However, Ben thinks the room is just so-so… he is so demanding and difficult! Whilst the room is quite old and a bit leaking I am still satisfied with the room as it turns out better than my expectation.

 

The beach in Bintan

It would be disappointing if we come to Bintan for the beach. Although we heard that the beach in Bintan is more beautiful than Batam, it is still a very ordinary beach without anything special. The water is not clear and a bit dirty. So we rather spend more time wandering in the resort than in the beach.

 

Explore the resort

Since we visit Bintan on the weekdays and just after the New Year, the resort is quite empty and quiet. It looks like we come at the right time as it is almost like a private resort for us!

We were very lazy during our holiday in Bintan… keep lying down and eating and dreaming. 😎

There are many different types of restaurants e.g. Western, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese…. all inside the resort! We believe that all the food is prepared from the same kitchen but there are different restaurant and café and pub to let you feel the atmosphere.

The price of the food here is similar to New Zealand – about NZ$10 to $20 for a meal (though it is considered very expensive in Indonesia). The food is not bad, especially the beef burger that we had at The Terrace Sports Bar is very yummy. 😋

By the way, Bintan does not accept Singapore Dollars anymore as this is a new government policy starting from 2014 that requires all transactions must be made in Indonesian Rupiah. We were not aware of that and did not bring any Rupiah – how brave of us entering a country without any cash! Luckily all shops in the resort accept credit card so we manage to survive…

 

Activities in the resort

Before we booked our trip, Ben kept saying that we need to book a resort with many activities to do because we most likely will get bored after doing nothing for a while (since he travelled to here many years ago). He is right.

Massage – We did a one-hour Indonesian Javanese massage and it was great for me. But Ben hurt his back and was painful for a few days.

Swimming pool – The swimming pool is huge and we especially like that we can play basketball and football in the pool (more like ‘handball’ because we can only use hands)… that was super fun.

Sports and games – we only played pool billiards but there are many different games such as snooker, board games, tennis and many of them are free of charge.

There are also other activities to do here, such as snorkelling, jet ski, golf, karaoke, nightclubbing and much more. We wanted to do the jet ski but unfortunately the weather was quite bad during our stay. There is also a Powerhouse gym that Ben said will go exercise but he breaks his promise. 😡

 

Overall a great and short and relaxing getaway from Singapore

We probably will not visit Bintan if we are not in Singapore. In fact, many hotels and resorts in Bintan are mainly targeted at Singaporean tourists. We think a 2-night stay is perfect as we will most likely get bored if we stay longer than that, since we did not go outside the resort throughout the entire trip.

It is important to come with a right expectation – do not expect a nice beach. If you want to see a more beautiful beach in Indonesia, probably Bali is a better choice as it is more famous (but also more crowded and expensive). Well, it depends on what you want on your holiday. We prefer a relaxing trip so Bintan is great for us and we really enjoyed our holiday here. 🙂