Bintan Agro Beach Resort

Over the long weekend, found myself at the Bintan Agro Beach Resort. I thought it was part of the Bintan  group of Resorts but unfortunately or fortunately, it was not. Why?

Night view of the main lobby and a wee little swimming pool

It wasn't really much of a resort. The website looks good but look can be deceiving as we found out too late. Firstly, it was small. Too small for my liking. I had brought along my running gear intending to do a nice round around the resort but the only runnable route was a 800 metres stretch of pavement. 

The signboard seems to suggest a whole lot of facilities but most of them are the name of the blocks of rooms.

The accommodation was rather basic and looks run down. There were only 2 restaurants serving rather mediocre food! In fact, for the time we were there, we had the typical buffet lunch and dinner that back in Sg we normally cater during family gatherings. So after dinner on Sunday evening, a group of us took a cab and went to Tanjung Pinang for seafood!

Our 2nd dinner venue!

There wasn't much things to do too. Apart from a nice beach, there was a spa but it was fully booked by the time we checked in. There was a horse cart ride at $10.00 a ride, a gym which was not air conditioned. There was also a "mini" zoo which comprised 3 pathetic cages of rabbits, and some parrots. There was also a "plantation which was actually more of a vegetable plot with several different type of vegetables.

Horse cart riding!

Its only saving grace was the beach. The almost 300 metres stretch of beach had nice clear water and was so shallow one could walk 200 metres out and the water will still be up to the thigh at most! The exciting part was the water sports which apart from the kayaking was the "skiing" on various contraptions pull by speedboat.

Nice beach & clear sky

Inflatable boat skiing!

Apart from the beach, the only other saving grace was that the prices in SGD were rather reasonable compared to Bintan Resorts. But apart from lazing around and getting burnt to a crisp in the hot sun, there isn't really anything else to do. After all, one can only do so much skiing and that again will have to depend on the tides too!

Will I visit the place again? Honestly no, unless it is 100% free.