The Banyan Tree Bintan Island is one of the better all-round experiences we’ve encountered. The reviews on TripAdvisor are mostly favourable but a lot of people complained about the price of the food and that the resort is in need of an upgrade. I found neither to be true. For this trip it was just me, Toucan and Grobbler.
First up, getting to the Banyan Tree Bintan Island is a bit of a mission from Hong Kong, more on that in the general info on Bintan Island. The check in is a bit long, for those of you who have read any of my posts on other resorts, you’ll know that I don’t like to F around and have welcome drinks and all the welcome experience. I want to get there, give them my credit card, passport and get to the room. It wasn’t painstakingly long but after a 4 hour flight, taxi to the ferry terminal, one and a half hour weight for the ferry, 1 hour ferry, then short taxi to get to Banyan Tree Bintan Island, you don’t want to sit at reception for 15 minutes. Okay, maybe it was 10 minutes, not too bad and the staff are friendly, more on that later.
The room we stayed in at Banyan Tree Bintan Island was a Seaview Villa on the Rocks, not cheap, but not outrageously expensive. Nice balcony, nice room, nice bathroom with shower that has windows that open and allow you a seaview while you’re taking a shower 0 nice! sure, it’s not the newest room or hotel on the planet, but it’s nothing to complain about. Speaking of which, perhaps the only thing to complain about was the so called plunge pool. This is more like a knee height massive bath that looked a bit yellow (which we later discovered wasn’t our imagination, as we saw a money taking a slash in it!). Even if we hadn’t of seen that, it didn’t look inviting and was basically pointless having the thing.
Being on the rocks, this is quite far from the beach and main pool area. You can walk, it’s a little bit uphill then downhill, about 10-15 minutes. There is however, another restaurant and pool about 5 minutes walk and much closer. The pool is perhaps not as good as the one by the beach, but there tends to be less people there. We spent most of our time at the main pool and on the beach, which is superb. There’s a nice rock area (see photos) that has a walkway over them and you can also walk amongst the boulders and hunt for fish, crabs and other sea creatures.
The actual beach I thought was ok, bit rocky right out in front of the Banyan Tree Bintan Island, but walk 100m to the next door neighbouring Angsana Resort, and you’re good. There’s not that many people swimming in the sea, the sun is blazing hot, but it’s definitely suitable for swimming. I’d give the beach an 8/10. Kids will love hunting for sea creatures. There’s signs that say sand flies and the resort gives you free mosquito repellent, but neither of us got bit in the 3 days we were there. There’s also a JellyFish warning but we didn’t see any of those.
Food. I thought the food at Banyan Tree Bintan Island was excellent and not any more expensive than any other 5 star resort of similar price. The restaurant by the main pool and beach has a wicked view. I had a steak which admittedly wasn’t the best I’ve had but ok. The breakfast was also pretty good, not outstanding but more than adequate with quite a large selection. Just don’t expect any bacon or pork sausages, remember, you’re in Indonesia. The same restaurant serves up some really nice Indonesian food, kind of wish we had eaten here the first night.
The staff are excellent, everyone there, from the reception staff to the restaurant staff to the maintenance staff and pool guys, were absolutely great. Probably some of the best service at hotel I’ve stayed at and probably one of the best things about the Banyan Tree Bintan Island. Activities: You can see more about the activities for kids in Toucan’s Tips, there’s enough to do for 3 days. Don’t think I’d want to stay more than a week here but that’s not really because of the resort, more to do with Bintan Island itself.
There’s squirrels, geckos, apparently a few snakes and one morning we saw a bunch of monkeys hanging out on the rocks right in front of us. One of them came up to the villa pool and took a leak in it to show his love. Overall, I’d definitely recommend staying here if you’re planning on going to Bintan Island. Probably don’t bother with the on the rocks villa, it’s more expensive and you get better views in other “normal” villas. As an overall stay, this was excellent and I’d definitely have no problems staying again. Great for kids and if you’re a couple you can do the romantic thing and have a good shag in privacy.
See more information about Bintan Island in our Bintan Travel Guide for Kids.
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