My review echoes those of a previous reviewer who wrote that this is just not worth the effort. How true that is!!
We have lived in Singapore for over 18mths and during this time have been told many times that we should do ourselves a favour and go to Bintan. Many spoke of the pristine beaches and the many wonderful, family-friendly accommodation options. Nirwana Gardens was recommended so 3 nights were booked in a 2 bedroom Banyu Biru villa as this was a cheaper option than 2 adjoining hotel rooms (we are a family of 3 adults and 2 children).
The ferry left Singapore late (don't bother getting to the ferry terminal too early as there is nothing to do) and was a fairly good trip. Once we arrived, the line through immigration was long! Luckily, we were whisked through by an immigration officer as we had 2 children under 5yrs. He took our passports, got them stamped and bought them back while we were waiting for our luggage. Be warned though, after handing our passports back, he kept his hand out waiting for a tip!
We got through Customs and found the resort people greeting us at the other side. They ticked our names off the list, took our luggage and ushered us to a waiting bus. And there we sat. And sat and sat. We had to wait for everyone else staying at Nirwana Gardens to get through immigration before the bus could leave. Finally we were on our way. Checking in was a complete disaster. Of course all the people on the bus were checking in at the same time so another nice long line at Reception. The staff had no idea what to do. We thought that they would be used to this as the buses arrive several times a day full of guests. They were bumbling around, getting in each others way. It was ridiculous. The booking ended up not being in my name and they had to speak with the Manager in order for us to get an extra room key because they told us they couldn't do it. What a start!
Anyway the Banyu Biru Villas although part of the Nirwana Gardens complex are a 5min golf buggy ride away from reception. The buggy service was quite good and we used it if we wanted to go to where all the facilities were. We just called for a buggy and the longest we ever waited was 15mins which we thought was quite good.
The villas look nice enough from the outside but it is a different story inside. They are old, smelly and not suitable for small children due to the very steep spiral staircase and the face/head level of the sharp-edged coffee table. The kitchen has a medium-sized fridge/freezer, microwave oven, gas cooktop and kettle. There are cutlery, plates and glasses. Beware of the plates and bowls though as we found several that had not been washed and had mouldy food caked on them which was disgusting. There are 2 bedrooms upstairs and 1 bathroom. The bedrooms are nice with excellent air conditioners which we had running all the time. Bathroom was tiny with no handtowels or bathmats provided.
The lounge area had a very dated sofa that was stained and smelly. TV reception was pretty bad and (I hate to sound precious) there was no DVD player which is a godsend when you have small children and the tropical thunderstorms roll in. The villa had not been cleaned properly as there was an army of ants on the coffee table as something had been spilled and not cleaned up and rubbish had been left in the TV cabinet from the previous guests. Again, beware of the staircase. We ended up putting the ironing board in front of the bottom step as my 1yr old just couldn't resist climbing it.
Lets move to the service. It appears that Basil Fawlty trained the staff! They were clueless. They moped around looking dazed and confused most of the time. Drink orders arrived after our food, orders went missing and dirty plates just stayed on our table right up until we had left the restaurant. The best service we got was from the staff at the towel counter (although when I asked for 5 towels he wouldn't give them to me until I showed him there were 5 of us!). Everything was in "Bintan time" so you got what you ordered when they could work it out and were ready to get it for you.
The food is very average and very overpriced for what you get. Everything is priced in Singapore dollars and we paid a lot for food that was not that good. Breakfast buffet was OK but not a lot of healthy options apart from fruit. We had a dinner buffet one night which was a Mexican theme and it was terrible. The food was overcooked and because no-one was eating it, it sat in the bain maries for too long so it dried out. We found that the food at the poolside bar was good. It has burgers, pizzas, etc and if you can put up with the terrible service you will do OK. One dining highlight was a Thai restaurant at one of the other Nirwana Gardens properties (Mayang Sari I think) which had outstanding service and food.
The main pool is nice and has a shallow area for kids with seating so that you can watch them without having to be in the water. The adult pool has a jucuzzi section and is quite deep in places. There is a bar in the pool but we didn't use it.
On our second day we stumbled across a pool within the Banyu Biru villas area which we were not told about. It has a slippery dip into a shallow pool which is perfect for kids. Our 4 and a half yr old loved it and we struggled to get him out when it was time to go for dinner.There were plenty of loungechairs on the edge and there was also a towel counter so you didn't have to trek up to the main pool to get towels. It seemed that a lot of other people were also not told about the pool as it was only us and 2 other families there. This was the highlight of the holiday!
Forget about the beach. We didn't know that it was monsoon season (north-east) when we were there so there were warnings not to swim. The bottles of kerosene/turps (?) were everywhere. Those that risked it and went swimming, came back with oil all over them so had to use it to get it off them. Pretty grose!
Anyway checking out was not so bad. They confirmed our ferry tickets for us which was good and we confirmed what time we needed to get the bus back to the ferry terminal. We arrived on time and waited in line to get on the bus. Up the steps we went to get a seat and found that there were no seats left. We got off the bus and spoke to the driver who didn't believe us so went to check himself. He got off and muttered something and then headed towards Reception. He bought someone back with him who advised us that we must have made a mistake with our ferry time and asked to see our tickets. When we showed them our tickets and told them that perhaps they were the ones who had made the mistake the colour drained from their faces. It turns out that they had miscalculated the numbers and there were quite a few of us whose luggage had gone on the first bus without us. Lets just say that we had not seen them move so fast the whole time we had been there!! To their credit, they managed to organise another bus to pick us all up and get us to the ferry on time. A piece of advice, check your luggage in yourself at the ferry terminal as it is much faster than letting the Nirwana people do it.
As I read over this review, it sounds really negative. But the problem we had was that we work hard and when you are spending $S500+ a night, we expected a whole lot more than what we got. We hate the feeling of thinking that we got ripped off and on this occasion, we did. So do Bintan if you must but stay elsewhere.
