Mark Choon

Last week, I had some time off and the wife and I went down south to Bintan island for a short getaway.

We booked a room at Bintan Lagoon Resort for about SGD$130++ a night, for two nights a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately, we missed their room promo price, which was I think about SGD$99++ a night.

Getting there was quite easy, just hop on to a ferry from Tanah Merah ferry terminal. Transfer to the resort shuttle bus at the Bintan ferry terminal straight to the resort. All in all, about 1 hour 20 minutes of travelling, including immigration clearance and all.

Bintan Lagoon Resort is on the eastern end of the island thus the extra 20 minutes of travelling. There are some resorts that are nearer the ferry terminal, if I’m not wrong.

The resort sort of sits on top of a small hill overlooking the sea. And boy was the view amazing!

 Just a view from the resort towards the sea.

The beach was amazing! It is white and stretched for a long long ways ahead. The water was very clear. When I stepped into about slightly above ankle depth of water, I could already see fish swimming around. Some even started pecking on me feet!

The best thing of all was that the beach was empty. I guess this could be because we came on an off peak period and not many tourists, though we encountered some small groups from Korea, Japan and China and some other westerners.

The downside of staying at a resort is that though the room rate is good, they make up for the difference on the food. Price of food range from $16 for a plate of pasta to a $32++ buffet dinner. It wasn’t like when we were in Phuket, we could just walk from the hotel to a nearby food stall to get our meals, as there were no other shops but the resort’s shops and restaurants. Fortunately, the buffet breakfast is free as it was part of the room deal. Phew!

Water sports prices were also quite steep. Jetski for an hour costs a whopping $75! So with activities on the steep side, we just spent most of the time sun bathing, and enjoying the resort’s pool. The only resort activity that we paid for was the all terrain vehicle experience, riding a quad-bike through the jungle along the coast and onto the beach. Cost us $50 a person for an hour.

Oh yeah prices are all in Singapore dollars. So there’s no need to bring Indonesian Rupiah over, if you’re coming from Singapore that is.

Here’s a parting shot of a small lizard sunbathing beside the pool at Bintan Lagoon Resort.