I booked Mayang Sari because I had already been to Bintan Lagoon Resort and Nirwana Gardens resort and was tired of being surrounded by crowds all the time. Mayang Sari gave me the holiday that I was looking for, laid back and carefree. The beach is one of the best things about the resort. The waters are clear and shallow and you can simply sit in the water with the waves lapping up to your shoulders and kick back to relax. I didn't have to snorkel to see fishes either. If you are looking for sea sports, there is a small sea sports centre that offers jet skis, banana boat rides, wind surfing, body boogie boards, kayaking and more.

Rentals are expensive though. The cost is perhaps the greatest drawback of this place. For the price of the room (which included breakfast), I would rate this as expensive. The entire hotel is in need of upgrading and a fresh coat of paint. While the room is very spacious, the pillows were lumpy and gave me a serious back ache and the bath tub had a large crack at the bottom. The breakfast buffet is nothing to shout about although the both times I had lunch at the Spice Restaurant, the food was great and service warm and friendly. The food is generally not cheap because of the high service charge plus taxes so if you want to drink alcohol, it's better to bring your own. We took a shuttle bus to the nearby Kelong Seafood Restaurant one night and enjoyed a wonderful dinner of crab and squid, albeit at rather steep prices after taxes.

Service was uneven at Mayang Sari. I went to the front desk to ask for extra pillows and told them to deliver them 'later'. When I returned to the room much later, the pillows were still not delivered. But when we called, they arrived promptly within minutes. The towel station is often unmanned and they do not open at the stipulated time. On the first day we were asked to sign out for our towels, but on all subsequent ocassions, that was done away with. Deck chairs were few and really hard to come by. We had to drag our own chairs when we found them, to our preferred spots and even when staff saw us (two girls) dragging them, no one offered to help. There are no beach umbrellas and really minimal shade at the beach and when the sun is out, it can be scorching.

All these were to me, just little hiccups. They did not ruin my holiday and I intend to return to Mayang Sari, just for the beach. Hopefully when I do return, the hotel would have been refurbished!

Basically for the price of a four star hotel you get a shack on the beach. The beach is beautiful and the food is ok, but the rooms are very old and tired. I felt like a kid at summer camp. Do yourself a favor and avoid this hotel.

Take a wonderful setting and a nice idea and you have the cake everybody will dream of for a romantic or family getaway...
Now add jellyfish in the sea and petrol wastes on the beach!
It's a nightmare!
Really too bad... Everything is spoiled...

This hotel ruined my 2 night getaway to Bintan. Please do yourself a big favor and avoid this hotel. You can stay at the cheaper Nirwana Resort and visit this beach or better still stay at Angsana (which is right next door), where they really care about the guests and the service is impeccable. Here is a list of things that went wrong and tips for your stay:

1. Do not accept the Sea Horse chalets. They claim that this is a sea facing chalet and charge you the extra, but these Chalets are actually further from the beach that most of the garden chalets, which are cheaper. Also these chalets were particularly run down - cockroaches in the bathroom, door wouldn't lock. My wife was terrified because of the cockroaches which seem to roam freely in and out of the room and it ruined her stay.

2. No towels! The #1 amenity that should be provided in a beach resort are towels. When we checked in at 1pm (yes they were nice enough to let us check-in at 1pm) there were no towels in the room. So I called reception. They said all the towels were in the laundry and they would send us towels in an hour. So we waited, went to the beach, came back, took a nap and at 7pm, there were still no towels. So I called reception again. They said they would bring towels in 10 mins. No towels for 30 mins. When I called again, the receptionist said that the Housekeeping staff were having dinner and I should wait till they finish! I had to go personally to the reception to get the towels, after refusing to leave without the towels.

3. The food at the Spice restaurant was the saving grace. It was so obvious that the F&B staff were much better trained than the other staff. The Indian and Western a la carte selection was great. The breakfast buffet was a big let down.

4. The worst part was when we checked out. Like they say, the first and last impression in a hotel are the most important and my last impression was terrible! The shuttle service to the ferry terminal was to arrive at 7pm for the 8:15 shuttle. No bus till 7:20pm. Then the bus finally comes and when we arrived at the ferry terminal, the staff riding the shuttle with us asked us to collect the ticket from the counter. When we went to the counter, the Bintan Resort ticketing staff told us that the hotel had already collected the tickets! Nobody gave us our tickets at the reception when we checked out. So again my wife and her friends started panicking. The Nirwana Garden staff at the ferry terminal finally got someone to bring our tickets from the hotel on a motorcycle and we just about made it to the ferry.

5. All the chalets are very old and run down. The doors are broken, the toilet is horribly dirty and stained. The beach loungers are broken and have mold on them. The TV in the room is soooo small.

All this for a rather expensive price. I think the hotel management should look to make some serious changes fast - renovate some of the chalets, buy new beach furniture, fire some of the receptionists. Overall I was extremely disappointed and I have every intention of letting all my friends and family know that they should stay away from this resort. Also I am still waiting on the General Manager to get back to me about my complaints, which he hasn't till date.