More about Bintan Lagoon Resort
Bintan
by imstress
Bintan is an island getway with many beach resorts. It does not have an airport so you will probably arrive here by ferries from Singapore.
Bintan Resort Ferries has 5-7 departures daily from Singapore's Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to Bandar Bentan Telani at the western tip of the Resorts.
You can obtain an Indonesian visa on arrival here. The trip takes 45 minutes and costs between S$25.10 - S$47.20. It is often cheaper to buy a package tour with accommodation and ferry fare inclusive.
We went to Bintan on two occassions. We stayed in Nirawana Gardens for our first vist with two other good friends. Our next visit was to Bintan Lagoon Resort where we stayed in Chempaka Villa.
Bintan Lagoon Resort is accessible via high-speed catamarans from Singapore's Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. The journey takes about an hour.
We stayed at the Chempaka Villa. The ladies cooked a simple dinner at the fully equipped kitchen with appliances, kitchen utensils, cutlery and crockery. We only brought the ingridents and seasonings along.
Bintan has some pretty decent...
by Adrian_Loh
Bintan has some pretty decent accommodation. For budget travellers, the Mana Mana Beach Club (best for its seasports facilities) would be the best best at around US$30-40 per night. Otherwise, the Nirwana Resort Hotel or the Mayang Sari goes for like US$120-150 per night, do check out their internet rates as its cheaper.
Bintan Lagoon is also pretty ideal if you have a larger group, its the largest hotel on the island with 416 rooms and villas. Room rates start from around US$140-$200 per night.
Angsana Resort & Banyan Tree are like the high end hotels, costing around US$200-300 per night.
But if you guys want to save a tonne of dosh, its really much cheaper if you book the tours (eg. 3D2N Bintan) in SIngapore. for instance, the Angsana is going for like US$90 (INCLUDING FERRY!!!) per night. so you dig what i mean?
Average price per night, would set you back by about US$150 (incl ferry and food)if you book the packages in SIN, if you get it from elsewhere, its bound to be more expensive.
Overpriced and underwhelming
by TripAdvisor Member Yank-In-Sing
Stayed at the Bintan Lagoon Resort for 3 nights as part of a work-related trip. The rooms were reasonably priced; however, everything else in the hotel was grossly overpriced, as seems to be the standard in the Bintan Resorts area. Prices are in Singapore dollars, not Indonesian rupiah, and run 5-10x what you would pay elsewhere in Indonesia.
The rooms at Bintan Lagoon Resort are OK, but my bathroom was disgusting, complete with grungy mildewed shower curtain. The food was generally godawful, although the buffet breakfast wasn't bad. Tried a much-hyped liquor popsicle at the newly-opened club Silk, which cost $11 SGD and was little more than ice on a stick.
I like to swim laps and due to work commitments would not get back to the resort until after 6pm. Even though information in your room says the pool closes at 9pm, I went down to the pool at 7pm and it was pitch dark, all the lights were off. When I asked the staff if they could turn on the pool lights, they said "no, we're changing the chairs." They added I would have to exit the pool by 8pm as that's when they put in the chemicals. Also no towels available at that time. With nothing much else to do on Bintan, why would you effectively shut down the pool (or at least make it unswimmable) so early? Noticed the next evening the pool lights were off as well.
The only nice thing about the resort was the beach, although I did get bitten by sand fleas. When I mentioned this to a staff member she said "oh, yeah, they're the worst between 3 and 5pm, and the bites are really bad." Would have been nice to know this information beforehand!
I saw a lot of Europeans in Bintan and I can't figure out why. If you're a weekender from Singapore it's understandable; otherwise, if you want an Indonesian beach vacation, go to Bali. The only contact with the "real" Indonesia you have in Bintan is the underpaid staff members.
Nice, but watch works in progress
by TripAdvisor Member ehberlin
Stayed at Bintan Lagoon Resort for 5 days in late April and had a really good time, would certainly not call it a dump.
It made an excellent add-on to our Singapore trip.
The hotel provides shuttle services between the ferry terminal and the resort, you will be met off the ferry and taken back in time for your departure.
If you plan to go soon, please note that the West wing and parts of the lobby are being renovated. The same goes for parts of the East wing, we asked for a room that was away from the noise.
The resort was well kept and all staff were friendly. The seaview room was slightly dated but clean and had a very cosy Indonesian-style seating area next to the window. You will encounter some small geckos and the occasional tropical bug.
Maybe the beach could get crowded in high season, now it was very calm and enjoyable.
This resort has several restaurants, there should be something for everyone. The shop in Bintan Lagoon Resort is very small, you might want to bring sun lotion, magazines etc from Singapore.
Don't bother exchanging money for Rupiah, everything in the resorts is in S$ you will only need Rupia if you go to the northern part which is more Indonesian and very different to the separate Lagoi area.
If you do not want to stay put doing watersports or playing golf all the time, rent a car and driver to see some of the 'real' Bin Tan outside of the Lagoi area.
7 out of 10
by TripAdvisor Member Bellyb
We just returned from 8 nights at Bintan Lagoon (followed by 7 nights at Angsana down the road) and spent the same amount of time there 3 years ago. The room (deluxe seaview, booked online at their lowest internet rate) was at the very far end of the west wing and looked over the 11th green and the 12th par 3 of the Jack Nicklaus Golf Course, as well as the beach, sea etc. Beautiful. Sitting on the deck watching the evening sun go down, we could forget how shabby the room was!. A couple of holes in the walls, broken floor tiles, shower that turned the bathroom into a paddling pool every time! - generally in need of a big overhaul, but it was liveable, and pretty clean. I guess it reflects the lower room rate we paid via the internet. The service generally was good overall. Oh, and new outdoor furniture for every deck was being rolled out just as we were leaving. It is a very big resort and as such, I think it does pretty well considering.
Nice Beachfront & Room
by TripAdvisor Member falcon_sg
We booked this short getaway from wotif.com as there's a special promotion for UOB Card members. The trip there is no frills and easy.... book your ferry ticket from www.brf.com.sg and upon arrival, just look for the BINTAN LAGOON guy/gal holding up their hotel sign.... I think it's free transfer for anybody regardless if the booking site specify free transfer or not!....
The resort is set primarily in a gold course ambience and with nice sandy beachfront..... soft sand and clean waters....better than the beachfronts of Angsana and Banyan Tree and Nirwana......! The waters is defintiely appetizing enuff to entice us to book a kayak to have some workout after all the sleep and food....
The room, a delux room, is not bad... the interior is furnished nicely though i would not say luxuriously... but nice feature is a platform area laid with foam mat ...(something like a tatami area..) for you to relax, rest and read a book... this opens to a balcony... (we were given ground floor unit though... and it's like a PES area that opens to the main garden...)..
Overall the accomodation is nice and what i would expect of a S$150~200 a night accomodation....
The not so good is the food.... we ordered takeaway chix wings... which we waited for 45 mins... and they don't even have proper takeaway containers or packaging.... and the chix wings...hmmm... way below average...
The buffet dinner is also no good... some BBQ dinner but it's held indoors... and with only 1 BBQ counter.... not wat I would expect of a BBQ buffet with only a miserable selection of cheap fish, no prawns.... and some sotong....! Defintely not worth paying S$30~40 per pax for it!.... go for ala carte!
The hotel is also not able to coup with the massive number of guests around...! not enough service staff at hand... and for morning breakfast,..,abv avg food... but as usual not enough staff and space (we had to have ours in their jap restaurant with makeshift buffet counter)....
Overall:
Accomodation: GOOD!...
Dinning Experience: BAD.....!
rooms only average
by TripAdvisor Member clumpsmum
The hotel grounds / facilities were great , but the rooms were just average. The beach is awesome as is the huge outdoor pool area.
I do think the food/restaurants are over-priced .
Fab time was had by all!
by TripAdvisor Member Kenleys
We booked a week in Bintan before spending 1 week on Pangkil Island with other members of our family. We had a wonderful villa right on the beachfront in which the 4 of us rattled around in quite happily! It was spotlessly clean and well maintained. Probably the one downside of it was that the villa next door was rented out ona nightly basis to large grouyps for entertaining and BBQ's but at least it was quiet during the day.
The children (aged 5 and 7) enjoyed going to the mini club although there were only ever 2 or 3 other children there at the time so not many others to play with. Also, they did dpend quite a bit of time indoors and I would rather they were outside.
The food was excellent. The buffet catered for all needs and tastes, even fussy little boys!
we would consider going back to Bintan but the one drawback for us is that it is a long way from London with small children. Having said that, the total transfer tiem from Pangkil to london was 24 hours and 7 modes of transport so a simple plane flight and hop on a ferry is nothing!
Nice place
by TripAdvisor Member ElYeti
After reading some of the previous reviews, i was a bit skeptical. We booked a last minute 2D/1N Sat Sun trip from Singapore after having recently moved to Singapore from California.
We arrived to the hotel at 10 AM and we were checked into our room early(check in is noon) as it seemed most guests were.The persons checking in before us though were told they would have to wait a few hours for ONE of their 2 adjoining rooms.
We booked the garden terrace rooms in the hotel which are ground level. A little more expensive than basic rooms but it has a bigger balcony with lounge pool type chairs instead of the white plastic chairs in the seaview rooms above us but nice view overall since the hotel is on a hill. there are 2 wings to the hotel. The other wing seemed to have overall better views(east??).
The rooms were clean, a bit of mildew in the shower but not bad. We were only there 1 nite and the weather was great so werent planning on spending much time in the room. The furniture/TV seemed about 15 years old and could use remodeling. Our room had a keyed entry from the balcony which didnt work as we were disppointed we couldnt enter from the courtyard. We didnt bother to ask if this could be repaired.
The beach was excellent. Not too crowded, we always found a lounge chair and a covered shaded area. very mellow.the weather was perfect. very breezy.
the lobby area is very large and also has a very nice view and is very breezy as well.
the buffets were tasty and prob. overpriced if you are expecting to pay indonesian prices. I would say its a good value if you are used to paying singapore prices but for the view, atmosphere, at a nice resort etc.. its a good value. Beer$5-7SGD, cocktails$8-10SGD(1 for 1 happy hour everyday from 5-7pm), lunch buffet $24SGD, seafood dinner buffet $32SGD. We didnt try the restaurants as we got up and left the Nayarit as it was too pricey for our budget. We instead went to the seafood buffet above (BBQ seafood (fish, calamari,stingray )+ other seafood dishes).
Overall, for a 1-3 night stay, i think its a good value and there were enough activities that you wouldnt get too bored. We didnt try and leave the resort but we would have had we stayed longer. One thing to keep in mind is that you are charged 20% GST(10% service charge and 10% tax) on everything. We ended up spending about $50SGD person/day.
Since we booked a later ferry, we asked for a later checkout and were given until 2PM for free and charged $22/hr thereafter. On checkout, we paid our bill in cash and the x-change rate shown was better than the online rate but I guess it doesnt matter what the charges are in rupiah since everything is charged in SGD.
one recommendation for arrival back at singapore ferry terminal. Call ahead for a taxi while you are on the ferry because we waited over 1hr in the taxi queue b/c they were infrequent. there are limos charging $35 ready for immediate hire as well.
Needs a facelift and a good clean
by TripAdvisor Member travelfam_sing
Just needed a relaxing gettaway after moving to Singapore, so decided to book the BLR. After pre-paying through an agent I read the reviews, but decided to go anyway. This place is by no means a 5-star resort...I would give it 3 at best. If I was paying Asian 3-star price, that wouldn't be a problem, but you pay for a 5-star resort and definitely don't get that. The rooms photograph FAR better than they are in person. We really didn't want to sleep on the sheets or bedcover at night- in fact I used a sarong as my sheet. I have stayed in cheap accomodation in Asia that was far cleaner than this room. The bathroom was disgusting- the tub surface was pocked and marred in several places exposing the cast iron tub- we made our 2 yr old stand up and shower- didn't want her to actually sit in the tub. Again, for the price, this is ridiculous- refinish your tubs and clean your bathrooms!!!! There were dead spiders and old webs in the bathroom- basically looked like it was not cleaned before we checked in. The balcony had cheap plastic furniture- again, not what you would expect for "5-star". If you are bringing a toddler still in a cot/crib I would bring your own if you can. The cots they have are set for newborn level and the pillow they put in the crib had blood/bodily stains on it. This was after the cot took 3+ hours to arrive in the room AFTER checking in which interupted the whole schedule.
Other than the room, I have to say that the staff we encountered were quite friendly, just on a completely different timeschedule to those with kids- ordered a hot dog by the pool and it took over an hour to arrive- not much help to a starving,screaming toddler.
The beach was actually ok for what we used it for- some quick playtime/ break from the pool. If you like to lounge all day at the beach on a sunchair don't think this is the place for you.
Pool was ok- needed some work but the kids did seem to enjoy it and never a problem getting chairs when we went. Breakfast was marginal, if you want multiple cups of coffee I would sit right next to a beverage station where you can help yourself- they didn't quite get the concept of empty cups there. The Med. restaurant was decent, but pricey. The pool and beach restaurants were very pricey for marginal food with horrid service. Our last night there we discovered the lobby lounge which had snack food different from other menus on the resort and 1-for-1 beers so it ended up being our tastiest and cheapest meal there! All-in-all I was expecting more for the money. Had I paid about 1/3 of what I did I would have been happier with my trip.
Photos
Bintan Lagoon Resort
Bintan Lagoon Resort
Bintan Lagoon Resort - Villas
Bintan Lagoon Resort
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Comments (1)
I had a very bad experience at Bintan Lagoon, the following are what I observed for all viewers as consideration:
1) Fast Track Counter
Upon reaching the ferry terminal, we encounter "fast track counter", which I understand from the staff that this fast-track counter required SGD5 per person. In addition, the custom personnel at the "normal" queue took their own sweet time to check on each tourist (I had my passport in the latest version which has all my 10 fingerprints in the electronic page of my passport, never was I asked to scan my fingerprints at the Batam or Tanjung Pinang's ferry terminal, this is obviously delaying waiting time) which indirectly pushes a lot of the tourist to the "fast-track counter". I interpret this as "Bribery counter" instead. This was again encounter during department. The custom refuse to work until 30 mins before the ferry depart. At the speed of their work, they cannot possibly finish clearing all 100 passengers in 30 mins, so what do they do? Offer the “fast-track counter” to the those at the back of the queue. What a “great” way to earn money!!
2) KOPI-O
Upon reaching the resort, my family and I was very hungry. We immediately went nearest restaurant, Kopi-O. After making our order, we waited for near to 1 hour, and no food was served. We asked to cancel the order, immediately food was served, luke warm, the food could long be ready.
2) RICE restaurant
I had my dinner reservation at this restaurant at 7pm. I was the first on the reservation list. I reached the restaurant at 6.50pm, finish ordering at 7.15pm. I waited till 8.30pm, no food was served again. I asked to canceled my order, then food was served immediately within 5 minutes, however, the food was cold. I asked the waiter who served the food if the food was already ready, he replied "YES!". Is this kind of services acceptable at all? And it seems to be uniform in all restaurants in this resort. After 2 bad experience, I decided that the chef here needs an hour to prepare a dish each time.
3) Food cost unreasonable
I ordered a minestrone soup to be sent to my room. It cost me SGD14 for a 200ml soup where else the main course of a mee goreng cost about SGD16. What is the standard in setting the food price list? Or is there NO standard at all? Bad food retail management.