Post-Covid Travel to Montigo Resorts Nongsa Batam

We didn't want to take a risk by travelling too far away right after the borders had just opened so we decided to go to Desaru in June and to Batam in July.

We love going to Batam so much that we go every year (except during the pandemic of course). This is our 10th trip to Batam (I counted)!

You can read about our trips in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015.

Day 1

On the morning of our trip, my boy was down with very high fever. Our whole family tested negative for COVID-19 but we made the tough decision to leave him behind in the care of my mum-in-law and headed to Batam without him. It was the right decision as it turned out that he had COVID-19 and became positive one day after we returned from Batam (the rest of us were still negative even though we tested ourselves almost every day).

Our family of four boarded Batam Fast at Harbourfront Terminal and headed to Batam Centre Terminal. The ferry was super stuffy and halfway into the journey, the ferry stalled and stopped completely in the middle of the sea! 😖

To make things worse, the Littlest refused to sit in her seat, as she was so excited to be travelling via ferry for the 'first' time (she can't remember her actual first time to Batam as she was just a baby).

We were more than relieved when the ferry finally arrived at our destination! We took a cab and headed to our accommodation, Montigo Resorts.

It was our first time to Montigo Resorts as it was located at the more remote northern part of Batam (and we usually preferred to stay near malls). The price was also a big consideration; pre-COVID a villa costs about S$500-600 per night on average but post-COVID, we paid approximately $312 per night.

The resort was made up of many villas; most, if not all, of them facing the sea. The resort was huge so you needed to call for a buggy to bring you everywhere within the resort grounds.

The kids enjoyed riding the buggy, which brought us to our villa. The setting sun was shining into our villa as we explored all 3 floors our accommodation.

The spacious living room and kitchenette leads out onto a porch which faces the private pool.

We followed the stairs up to the 2 bedrooms on the 2nd floor, which came with on-suite bathrooms.

The second bedroom has 2 single beds while the master bedroom has a king-sized bed.

Although the second bedroom was of a decent size with a relatively big bathroom, the master bedroom and bathroom were definitely significantly bigger!

The king-size bed is placed in the middle of the huge bedroom, with the bathroom and wardrobe just behind it. Personally I find it a strange configuration as I always feel like someone could sneak up on me when I slept 🥴

The bathroom was as big as some master bedrooms in BTOs! The bathtub was so large that the water became somewhat cold by the time we filled it! 😅

One of the highlights of our villa is the beautiful seaview from the windows and roof!

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We admired the sunset on the roof before heading to the pool, which is another key highlight of the villa!

My kids love to swim so we spent most of our time in the pool! 🏊

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We were too lazy to leave the pool to get dinner so we just ordered Grab Food and have it delivered to our villa (we gave the staff who sent it to our door a tip).

Grab Food is very affordable here in Batam! We enjoyed our dinner by the pool 😋

To be honest, the villa was kind of breaking down, very likely due to COVID-19. Parts of the pool was also minimally maintained. However, the excellent service from the staff helped to make our experience better. The feeling I get is that the staff tries to do their best but there are limitations to what they can do. We really appreciate the staff for their attentiveness!

Day 2

We woke up to a very beautiful sunrise and called for a buggy to bring us to the restaurant for our breakfast.

The restaurant faced the sea, and offered a full buffet of food. There were hits and misses in terms of the taste but overall still satisfying.

After breakfast, we explored the boardwalk/jetty nearby.

The jetty offered us a very good view of the Montigo Resorts from the sea.

There was a large common pool next to the restaurant where we had our breakfast but we didn't use it as we preferred the private pool in our villa. There was also a small Kids Club with a ball pit and some colouring activities but that's about it.

We booked a car to take us to Amazon Seafood for lunch. It is located about 15 minutes by car from Montigo Resorts and had good reviews.

We were the only ones at the restaurant, probably because we were very early! We sat at a table right next to the sea and had a great view.

The girls followed their dad to choose live seafood for our meal. Littlest Girl was so intrigued!

While waiting for the food to be served, we enjoyed our drinks! The mango juice was amazing and the Eldest loved it so much that we ordered many cups! 😂

We had fish and it was sooo fresh!

But the best part of the meal had to be the live lobster that the hubby chose! Super delicious and the best seafood meal that we have ever had in Batam! It is also cheaper than seafood in Singapore! 😋

After lunch, our driver picked us up to send us back to the resort. On the way back, we got the driver to stop by a mini mart to buy some snacks. The return trip cost us 200k rupiah, which is ok for the personalised service.

For our convenience, we got the driver's number and arranged for him to pick us up the next day to send us back to Batam Centre.

The kids were excited to go back into the pool while the hubby ordered food via Grab Food. The food was surprisingly really good! So yummy! We swam until our hands were wrinkled before heading to bed for the night.

Day 3

The next morning, we had breakfast and a final swim before checking out. The Littlest Girl was the most devastated - she didn't want to leave!

Our driver picked us up as we had agreed and dropped us at Mega Mall Batam Centre. Many of the usual restaurants that we liked had closed (likely due to pandemic shut down), so we had lunch at Ultimo. The food is not bad and quite worth the money we paid.