Hello there! I haven't been updating this space because I was lazy, as per usual. But I just wanted to share my experience at Montigo Resorts. Do note that these are all based on my own experiences and I am not paid to advertise for them. Do not rip my photos or I'll stab you (I kid lol)
We booked our tickets from Batamfast and we bought insurance as well, so we ended up spending about $50 each on tickets (two ways). Singaporeans do not need to have visas or anything, just be sure to head to the Batamfast counter with your passports and get your physical tickets. Be at the terminal about 1 hour before so you can chill and get things done. Small luggages can be brought up the ferry but huge ones have to be checked in.
The ferry ride was only about 30min, and good thing was that the haze wasn't bad for the entire trip. (Must thank the wind god) Upon arrival at Nongsa terminal, the first thing that struck me was that it wasn't as high tech as the one at Sekupang because this didn't have the electronic scanners (for Singapore passports) and wasn't air conditioned as well. But whatever, it's not like I'm sleeping there HAHAHA.
So, as what most resorts would do is that they would send someone to bring you to the resort (remember to liase with them via email) and we were well on our way. When we arrived at the resort, we were greeted warmly with cold towels (soaked in lemon, I presume) and some cold drink that we had no idea what it was LOL. We were then brought to the reception where we waited while a guy, I remember he's called Ricky, helped us out with check in procedures. They were super friendly, like throughout our entire stay and I loved it. Once everything was settled, they helped us call the buggy and sent us to our villa, VILLA 86!
I know there hasn't been much photos till now, they're coming up! HEH. I snapchatted instead, so.... oops.
It's a really good photo taking spot since you get all the natural sunlight that you need, and it's white. Instagram worthy!
Getting there
We went to the one at Nongsa, Batam, Indonesia. They have just recently opened one in Bali, Indonesia as well. As you guys know, there's actually two terminals that have ferries to bring us to Indonesia: Tanah Merah & Harbourfront. We had to go to the Tanah merah one, which is also the one that people go to to go to (that's confusing lol) Bintan. It is super out of the way, but luckily I had my dad to send me there. (But FYI, the trip from my house - Admiralty - to the terminal cost about $25)We booked our tickets from Batamfast and we bought insurance as well, so we ended up spending about $50 each on tickets (two ways). Singaporeans do not need to have visas or anything, just be sure to head to the Batamfast counter with your passports and get your physical tickets. Be at the terminal about 1 hour before so you can chill and get things done. Small luggages can be brought up the ferry but huge ones have to be checked in.
The ferry ride was only about 30min, and good thing was that the haze wasn't bad for the entire trip. (Must thank the wind god) Upon arrival at Nongsa terminal, the first thing that struck me was that it wasn't as high tech as the one at Sekupang because this didn't have the electronic scanners (for Singapore passports) and wasn't air conditioned as well. But whatever, it's not like I'm sleeping there HAHAHA.
So, as what most resorts would do is that they would send someone to bring you to the resort (remember to liase with them via email) and we were well on our way. When we arrived at the resort, we were greeted warmly with cold towels (soaked in lemon, I presume) and some cold drink that we had no idea what it was LOL. We were then brought to the reception where we waited while a guy, I remember he's called Ricky, helped us out with check in procedures. They were super friendly, like throughout our entire stay and I loved it. Once everything was settled, they helped us call the buggy and sent us to our villa, VILLA 86!
I know there hasn't been much photos till now, they're coming up! HEH. I snapchatted instead, so.... oops.
Villa
There are 5 types of villas: Garden villa, Hill top villa, Hill side villa, Seafront villa and Spa villa. We chose the seafront villa because we wanted unobstructed view of the sea. One night cost us $320, but be sure to check out the offers that they have so you'll get to save money! Oh and, they only allow a maximum of 4 guests per villa because there's only 1 master bedroom (1 King sized bed) and 1 guest room (2 single beds). There's also 3 levels, usually the infinity pool and the living room is on the first floor, bedrooms on the second and the sky terrace is (obviously) on the rooftop. Oh, and we booked it for 4 days 3 nights, which totaled up to $1.1k after other charges. |
| This is the view from our sky terrace! |
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| Just me and my donut float HAHAHA |
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| The view from our private infinity pool |
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| Yes, I bought this for the trip HAHAHA |
I didn't take a photo of the super awesome bathroom in the master bedroom though, coz I snapchatted it instead lol. But it was huge! One huge ass bathtub, glass ceiling so we could watch stars, two sinks etc etc. They would come and clean every morning, so if you don't want them to disturb you while you snooze, you can hang a sign. Pretty common everywhere. They've got a safe for you to put your valuable stuff so be sure to put it inside, and lock your luggages too. You can't be too careless when you're overseas, else it'll be a major pain in the ass.
REMEMBER, you can call the buggy to go everywhere. They are damn nice, just chat with them k!
Food
There are 3 dining areas within the resort: Tadd's (All day dining - Indonesian, Western), Pantai (Seafood, tze char/Chinese) and Tiigo (beach club/bar)Unfortunately, Tiigo is only open from Thursdays to Sundays and we checked in on a Sunday, so we didn't really try it. It would be cool to chill by the pool with drinks though.
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| This is Tadd's |
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| Food at Tadd's Food: Beef burger, nachos and Nasi Goreng Drinks: Blue cappuccino and coconut |
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| Coconut creme brulee, can't quite taste the coconut though |
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| This is the food from Pantai |
If you don't really want to head to the restaurants, then you can call for room service!
We only had room service on the last day because.... we just decided to eat out the first few days
Activities
There's quite a lot of things you can do there, be sure to check their site to find out more. We pretty much just went to the gym and chilled in our pool on the first day since we only had half a day. On the second day, we went to Nagoya Hill shopping centre, it cost us RP60,000 (SGD$6) per pax for this. We had to leave at 10am and they'd pick us up at 4pm. However, if you prefer to do it at your own time, then they can get a taxi for you, but that would cost you RP200,000 (SGD$20) I think. The ride there took us about 30-45min, depending on the traffic.The first place we went to when we alighted was A&W.
Okay, the reason why we went there first was because we don't have it in Singapore anymore. When we entered, there wasn't a single soul hence the staff all attended to us LOL. But anyway, the food were meh. Quite pathetic actually. We ordered 2 meals, upgraded the drink to the float, and that cost us about SGD$12. Well, slightly cheaper than Maccas, but the meat inside was miserable. It did fill me though, probably because of the float. HAHA.
As I've mentioned earlier, my friend has a HUGE ASS appetite, so we went around eating again, well.. most of the time I was watching him eat LOL. It was pretty similar to the one at Batam central, but this had a lot of food! Maybe because I was with someone who could eat more.
We then walked around, and as usual, we didn't see anything we like, simply because the stuff there didn't really suit our taste. Some things were priced about the same as in Singapore as well, so there wasn't much point.
Now, for the water sports. As this resort is still relatively new, not all facilities are built. After chatting with the staff, we realized that they still haven't have their own water sports because of administrative procedures which require time (but I heard it would be partially done by Nov!)
So instead, we had to head to Turi Beach resort. We took a taxi (They have taxis on standby) and that cost us RP$100,000 (SGD$10) for a round trip, which is really cheap and it took us 15-20min to get there, if I'm not mistaken.
We wanted to go snorkeling, but the water had been pretty murky for the past 2 months due to haze, so that was a no go. None of us dared to operate the jetski, so nope. In the end, we rode on the banana boat for 30min. I totally regretted sitting in front, I was constantly splashed with water -.- But hey, we could see our resort when we were out at sea.
We then tried parasailing. I mean, I've sky dived, so this shouldn't be hard.
Pardon the quality of the video, it got compressed hahahaha
Here's my instagram worthy shot hahahha. But it was really fun! Just that I got a bit of scratches from the parachute while running. Clumsy as usual. Landing in the water was pretty scary for me though since it was open waters, even though I had my life jacket. I love being in the air, flying and though it lasted for about 10min or so, I still enjoyed it a lot. Maybe I should try snorkeling next time and overcome my fear of open waters. Pretty disappointed that we didn't get to go see fireflies though, because there wasn't much tides and all on the nights we were there. Sighpie. :(
So after the water sports, we went for a dip in the pool at the resort and headed back for lunch. And after lunch, we went to the public infinity pool to soak somemore LOL.
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| The public infinity pool at Montigo |
LOL at our shameless photos. But who cares. AHAHAH
Well, after dipping, I went for my SPA. He didn't like massages, so I went alone.
They sent a buggy to pick me up, and once I entered, the receptionist brought me tea and a cold towel. She then proceeded to ask me to fill up a form to ask about the strength etc etc, and whether I was prone to headaches and all. I think this is pretty good since it can help the masseur figure out where to focus on more. I'm pretty ticklish, so I chose medium because having a super soft massage probably won't be useful. They also gave me more head and neck massages since I was prone to headaches. Oh yes! The receptionist also gave me 4 test tubes, each with a different scented massage oil, for me to pick one. 2 of them had black pepper and smelled weird to me, 1 had lavender or something and the last one had lemon grass. I chose the lemon grass one. I already had a complimentary 30min SPA from the package I booked, so I only had to top up another 30min worth. I opted for the Montigo massage, which has softer strokes by the way.
After everything, I was brought to a room to have peppermint tea and cookies. I LOVED THE COOKIES. They had 4 and I finished all 4. What a glutton. They must have cursed me after I left HAHAHA! I then went back to the receptionist, got the receipt and went back to the villa and chilled the last night away.
Overall
All in all, I really enjoyed myself a lot at Montigo. The staff were always very helpful and friendly. The gym instructor loved my friend so much, as he went there every morning, that he drew a portrait of him and waited at the reception to give it to him. Having a private pool was amazing as I can go for a soak whenever I want to. Loved the clean and simple decor of the place, it's so white, super good for photos. The whole resort reminded me of the picturesque Santorini. The only downside was the bugs, but there's nothing much you can do. All I say is that this is a really good place to go to if you want a pretty resort. The rest of the resorts were a lot cheaper, but the rooms were miserably tiny and the service wasn't as great. I would love to try the one at Bali if I get a chance to, since I've never been to Bali.
I hope that this post would come in handy when you need to plan for a trip there! :)
Oh yes, so in total we spent:
$550 (villa) + $50 (tickets) + $400 (expenses) = $1000 per pax
Some might say it's a little pricey, but we don't really like squeezing with too many ppl, and we had a lot of space to ourselves, which was pretty good
