Thankfully, my friend Arlyn was on board with my idea of taking a relaxing short trip on my birthday, so the morning of last Friday found us at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to take a ferry to Bintan, Indonesia. We had booked a 2D1N package in Nirwana Resort Hotel through WeekendGoWhere.Sg. The package included roundtrip ferry rides from Singapore to Bintan, ferry transfer to and from the hotel, a hotel room, and breakfast for two for the price of S$162 per pax.
Hotel Room & Surroundings
The ferry ride took an hour. After landing and clearing immigration, we rode the Nirwana Gardens bus for free to the hotel, which had a group of elephant statues in front.
When we arrived, we were greeted by dancers and welcome drinks.
Our deluxe bedroom had two huge single beds, a television set, and a small living room set that sat beside wide glass windows that looked out into the resort. The windows were sealed for safety.
Other amenities included full closet, clothes iron, hair dryer, and toiletries in a bathroom which had a bathtub.
The package came with buffet breakfast which we had in the building behind me in the picture above.
White Beach
I love the beach, so I was so pleased that there was a white beach just a few minutes walk away from our bedroom. It actually rained for most of our stay, but we did manage to take some snapshots when it stopped. We even lounged around on the chairs for a bit.
We didn’t swim in the ocean because it was too cold and if not for that, all the warnings about jellyfish and tar definitely did not entice us.
Swimming Pool
Nirwana Resort had a huge beautiful swimming pool. Of course we had to take a lot of pictures alongside it.
Later in the afternoon, we took a dip in it.
My favourite part was the jacuzzi-like bursts of water at one end. If you sat on top of them, it felt like getting a massage.
My other favourite part was the pool bar, where you could buy drinks and actually drink them in the pool. I asked for a wedge of lemon because I love a twist in my coke and also because it looks pretty in pictures.
Other Views and Activities
After swimming, we took the resort to the Amara to get massages. They were cheaper than Singapore price (around 40 sgd) but the quality was alright, but not the best, to be honest.
There are a lot of other activities that you can do, like bowling and water sports.
We didn’t do any of those but just walked around and found this beautiful colorful spot:
A giant lizard slithered out at one point, scaring Arlyn, but it didn’t try to attack us, so I think it was probably harmless. We walked far from it just to be on the safe side, though.
FoodÂ
There are a lot of restaurants which you can go to using the free shuttle rides. We decided to have lunch at Kelong Seafood. It was a cold, rainy day, so I didn’t take a picture of the outdoors. We ordered two dishes – prawns and squid, with two cups of rice. They were delicious. The bill came to 470,000 IDR (around S$45) which is not cheap, but not ridiculously expensive, either. It’s like eating out in Singapore.
We also took advantage of room service where Arlyn ordered a birthday cheesecake for me. It looked pretty and tasted really good, too!
The next day I also ordered a kiddie chocolate milkshake worth 40,000 IDR.
For our one night there we had buffet dinner at the Poolside restaurant which is just at our hotel, so it’s convenient but also had really good vibes, that’s why we chose it. It cost us 550,000 IDR per pax.
There was a lot of variety and live grilling stations. I love grilled food, so I was just excited to finally eat a lot of crayfish, which I had been eyeing for lunch earlier.
Overall, I would say that this has been an excellent short trip. Arlyn was so impressed because it was her first time to Bintan and she didn’t expect it to look like this. I had been to another Bintan resort nine years ago – Bintan Lagoon Resort – so I had expectations which I have to say were met. I loved it! I really enjoyed my birthday. 😊
Looking for other short vacation ideas from Singapore? Check out Malaysia Short Trip Itineraries and Royal Caribbean Cruise.
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