Singapore's Changi is one of the world's great stopover airports, but a growing number of travellers are adding a second leg to their trip: a ferry across the Singapore Strait to Bintan, an Indonesian island that has quietly become a serious luxury beach destination.
The story starts with Andrew Dixon, an Australian banker who moved to Singapore in 1998 and spent weekends exploring the Riau Archipelago's islands. In 2001 he and friends stumbled across Nikoi, a 15-hectare island eight kilometres off Bintan's east coast. They took the lease in 2004, built a simple, low-key escape, and opened it to paying guests in 2007. Dixon calls himself an accidental hotelier; a decade later he added Cempedak, an adults-only private island nearby, which has now made Conde Nast Traveler's 2026 Gold List.
Meanwhile, the big hotel groups have moved in on Bintan's northern coast. Movenpick Resort & Spa Bintan Lagoon offers 408 balcony rooms, five restaurants, the Sonada Beach Club with weekend DJs, and two 18-hole golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus and Ian Baker-Finch. Hotel Indigo Bintan Lagoi Beach brought IHG's boutique brand to the island in October 2024, with rooms from a roomy 42 square metres and suites with private pools. Next door, the family-oriented Holiday Inn Resort Bintan Lagoi Beach opened in February 2025, and Four Points by Sheraton has added Marriott to the mix.
The pioneers haven't stood still. Club Med Bintan, welcoming guests since the 1990s, is mid-refresh through 2026 with renovated rooms, new family facilities and expanded activities. At the other end of the scale, The Sanchaya on Lagoi Bay goes deliberately small: just 21 suites and nine villas set in gardens sloping to the sea, plus a VIP lounge for guests at the ferry terminal. In 2026 it joined The Leading Hotels of the World and picked up two Michelin Keys.
For anyone flying long-haul through Singapore — Australians and Europeans alike — Bintan makes an easy add-on: a short ferry ride from Changi's terminal drops you on a island with everything from all-inclusive family resorts to two-Michelin-Key luxury. Singaporeans have known this for years. The rest of us are catching up.
