Review: The Residence Bintan [Cenizaro Resorts]
We went to this resort for a long awaited holiday last year, it was wonderful and this is on our bucket list to head back!
Having never been to Bintan before, one half of us was keen to explore a resort as well as some areas around the resort. This was a resort that first caught our eye due to watching a TikTok that raved on how great the customer service was.
How to get there:
We took a ferry to Bintan (ticket bought from Batamfast) and were picked up at the terminal, similarly we were also dropped off at the terminal
At the terminal, there would be a staff member from the resort holding up a placard with your name on it
Check-in and cleanliness
Check-in waiting area
The check-in was seamless, complete with a welcome drink and refreshing towel. The reception called a buggy and dropped us at our room. You can tell the resort is huge but when we went it was a good time because it was just after the weekend so we saw many people check out and we basically had a lot of the spaces to ourselves, including the pool. We barely waited long before being ushered to our rooms.
Experience
We booked the Garden Terrace package.
The place is clean and well maintained, despite the ‘open-concept’ of it. It has a balcony and a hammock, the main living space with a canopy bed, and the washroom with a bathtub. Everything feels very up-to-date despite the long COVID lull. Customer service was very prompt in answering all our queries.
The room is very large, even though we only picked the basic package, we felt a bit like royalty. The room overlooks the beachfront and since there was low traffic during the weekday we felt like we mostly had the resort to ourselves.
At the beachfront, every guest is entitled to around 10-20 minutes or 1-2 rounds of water activities - ranging from banana boat to kayaking, and a few other activities. 10 minutes seems like a short time but when it’s all stacked together it actually didn’t feel that short of a time. Other than that we spent every day at the poolside and got drinks and chilled. In the night there’s a jazz band that plays and guests can chill at the bar.
On day 2 we chose to head out for a group tour, but since it was a weekday, we were the only ones on the tour. The tour included stopovers at Grotto Santa Maria, Tanjung Uban Kota and some homestays where we got to meet the weavers of bamboo and wooden roofs, and a fishing village.
We spent time at their local restaurant and the food was really quite decent for the price paid. We tried both the in-house restaurant as well as the high tea set which was on offer. The high tea set was great, definitely recommend.
Another thing we really loved about the stay was that the entire customer service experience could be done on WhatsApp. Typically if one wants to call the help desk they could just ring them up. But the value add for us was that the WhatsApp service allowed us to also see the menu of things offered, including food, massage services, tours, and any other add-ons. These daily tours available and activities such as the planting workshops, Batik Painting, Eco Garden tours and more were available depending on weather conditions and other factors meaning that they changed daily ang guests were updated.
Booking and Cost Breakdown
We spent time searching on Agoda only to find that we should have booked through the website. Later at the resort, a staff member told us that the official website usually runs promos which would have helped save money, so for future reference, consider booking from the official site!
We paid $1200 SGD ~ in total for the stay, and stayed 4 days and 3 nights. We ate all meals on the resort with the exception of Day 2’s tour where we ate at a small eatery near to the fishing port.
Overall feelings
We loved the atmosphere and how chill the entire resort was. Getting around was very easy, you could just walk or take a bicycle. It barely rained and the weather wasn’t too humid. It was really worth the money!
