Bintan Regency, Indonesia

Nikoi Island

Price per night from$416.86

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (SGD538.45), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Nikoi Island Photos

Style

Castaway playground

Setting

Coral-ringed reserve

Explore

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A barefoot-luxury family retreat in Indonesia, Nikoi Island kindles the magic of childhoods spent running wild in nature. Driftwood-hewn villas open directly to the private island’s jungle and white-sand beaches, where you can snorkel coral reefs and try adventure sports. There’s a kids’ club fit for explorers in training, too: hit the all-natural spa while they climb trees and toast marshmallows, then regroup for a wholesome Indonesian supper as the sun sets over the South China Sea.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

The hotel's cookbook, Island Life: Recipes from Nikoi & Cempedak Islands (one copy for each stay)

Facilities

Photos Nikoi Island facilities

Need to know

Rooms

18 villas.

Check–Out

11am, and check-in is at 1pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates don't include the compulsory S$121 daily board charge (S$61 for children and free for under-fours), which covers all meals, tea, filter coffee and some activities. You can prepay these charges ahead or pay locally in Indonesian Rupiah.

Also

Unfortunately, Nikoi Island is not suitable for guests with limited mobility.

At the hotel

Tennis court, volleyball court, croquet lawn, boutique and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: ceiling fans, coffee- and tea-making kit, ice box, free bottled water, beach bag, yoga mat, foam roller, TRQ kit, bathrobes and bespoke natural bath products.

Our favourite rooms

All villas are open to nature and embrace the resort's seamless approach to indoor-outdoor living. The Beach Villas are set near the main dining area, bar, spa and boathouse, so will suit younger or older family members. Tucked away from the island’s central hub, the Pool Villas give you seafront seclusion and plenty of space to spread out.

Poolside

Follow the scenic jungle path around to the northeastern side of the island, where two outdoor saltwater pools (the smaller one especially for kids) face the sea. There are sunloungers on the deck, fringed by lush foliage and a few handy steps from the bar. The pools are open from 8am to 5pm.

Spa

The spa operates in step with the island’s wild ethos. It’s set across three safari tents facing the water, with massages, facials and body scrubs using all-natural products. Manicures and pedicures are available, too, and little Smiths can get in on the relaxation with specially tailored kids’ massages. You’ll find a yoga mat in your villa — if you fancy a guided session, this can be arranged in your chosen spot around the island for an extra cost.

Packing tips

Bring your sea legs — you’ll reach the island by speedboat, and there’s a whole roster of watersports on the cards once you’re here.

Also

Artists-in-residence from across southeast Asia stay in Nikoi’s studio, creating work inspired by local ecology and culture. Look out for pieces by former residents around the island and, if you stay during an artist’s residency, workshops and talks, too.

Pet‐friendly

Pets are not allowed at Nikoi Island. See more pet-friendly hotels in Bintan Regency.

Children

All ages are welcome.

Best for

All ages are welcome, but over-fours will get the most out of the adventurous setting and activities. And kids older than 13 are charged as adults.

Recommended rooms

All villas have been designed with families in mind, with various configurations of bunkrooms and bedrooms. All master bedrooms have day-beds that can sleep younger kids. Pool Villas are a 10-minute walk from the main hub, so might not suit tiny tots.

Crèche

At the kids' club, which runs from around 9am to 9pm, days are filled with scheduled activities that might include tree climbing, jetty jumping, ziplining, woodworking, fishing and shell collecting. Each day’s adventures are rounded out with a treasure hunt, followed by marshmallow toasting around the beach firepit and a movie night. The main kids’ activity hub is by the tennis court, where you’ll also find a playground for younger Smiths.

Swimming pool

Water babies can splash about to their hearts’ content in the dedicated kids’ pool — an outdoor saltwater pool open from 8am to 5pm — so long as they’re supervised at all times.

Meals

The daily menus at both restaurants are fixed, but a kids’ menu of western dishes will always be available, and the kitchen will happily accommodate any allergies or preferences with notice. Mention any dietary requirements when booking or on arrival, or request specific changes when the daily menu is announced each lunchtime.

Babysitting

Available with a trusted staff member for an extra fee (from S$12 an hour) with notice.

No need to pack

Baby cots can be added to villas for free, on request and subject to availability.

Also

If you’re travelling with tots, fences can be added around balconies and pool areas on request.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel was built by Indonesian craftspeople using locally and sustainably sourced materials such as driftwood and alang alang grass. The villas were engineered to eliminate the need for air-conditioning, using low-energy fans and sea breeze patterns instead. The island also has its own solar panel grid, water recycling system and closed-loop waste disposal and repurposing system to keep rubbish out of landfill. Restaurant menus are fixed to minimise food waste, with ingredients grown on the permaculture farm or sourced from local suppliers, and the hotel eschews single-use plastics. Nikoi Island is a co-creator of a 138,500-hectare Marine Protected Area and works to restore the region’s coral reefs. Nikoi also runs the Island Foundation, which oversees local learning centres and organises teacher training focused on conservation.

Food and Drink

Photos Nikoi Island food and drink

Top Table

The main restaurant has two dining areas, with one usually set aside for families with younger children. We’d say snag a spot with a sea view at Biru, but you’d be hard pressed to find a table without one.

Dress Code

Floaty and fresh from the beach.

Hotel restaurant

Both of Nikoi’s restaurants are guided by sustainability, offering set menus and sourcing ingredients from local fishers and markets, with spices, tropical fruits, free-range eggs and more coming from the hotel’s permaculture farm on Bintan. The main beachfront dining area serves Indonesian specialties, often spotlighting dishes from a different region each night. Meals here are usually served family-style, so you’ll tuck into plates of barbecued seafood, tempeh and sambal around the impressive driftwood dining table. Biru is a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant on the other side of the island, where flatbreads, tabbouleh and pizzas are served poolside. 

Although menus are fixed, dietary requirements can be easily accommodated with prior notice, and staff will let you know each day’s dishes in advance in case there are any changes you’d like to request.

Hotel bar

The main bar is the island’s focal point, a toes-in-the-sand spot to waft into for a morning coffee, then wind your way back in time to watch the sunset over a craft cocktail from the open-air lounge. There’s also a bar at the poolside Biru restaurant, to cater to all your post-swim tipples.

Last orders

Breakfast is served in the main dining area from 7am to 10am, lunch from noon to 3pm (last orders 2pm) and dinner, 6pm to 9pm. The bar is open from breakfast until the last sips are sunk.

Location

Photos Nikoi Island location
Address
Nikoi Island
Nikoi Island
Nikoi Island
Indonesia

Nikoi Island is a 15-hectare private island surrounded by coral reef off the east coast of Bintan in Indonesia.

Planes

If you plan to reach the hotel via ferry, you’ll want to fly into Singapore’s Changi Airport, around a 20-minute drive from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. Alternatively, you can touch down at Raja Haji Fisabilillah International Airport in Indonesia’s Tanjung Pinang; from there, the hotel can arrange return private car and boat transfers to Nikoi at additional cost.

Automobiles

Nikoi is a car-free island.

Other

The best way to reach the island is by ferry, followed by round-trip private car and boat transfers arranged by the hotel (additional charges apply). Take the two-and-a-half-hour crossing from Singapore's Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to Bintan in Indonesia, where you’ll be met by car for the one-hour transfer to Bintan’s east coast, then board the hotel’s speedboat for the 20-minute crossing to Nikoi Island.

Worth getting out of bed for

There’s dreamy swimming to be had off the island’s beaches. For something more adrenalin-spiking, head to the boathouse, where kit hire for watersports including paddle-boarding, snorkelling, kayaking and laser sailing is covered by the daily board charge. For an extra fee, you can try wind- and wing-surfing, or explore the surrounding coral reefs on a scuba-diving expedition. Back on dry land, take a walk around the island’s forests, either solo or guided by a staff member to flag the local flora and fauna. Charged adventures for landlubbers include jungle ziplining and rock-climbing on the island’s natural boulder formations.  

On the conservation front, you can join a beach cleanup or take a behind-the-scenes sustainability tour of the island. From June to October, you might have the chance to help the resident marine biologist safeguard turtle nesting and hatching sites, and watch the hatchlings make their way to the sea. If you have your sights set on snorkelling and sunbathing, aim for the dry season (from March to October). November to February is a good bet for most watersports.

Local restaurants

No need to venture from the island — the daily board charge includes three meals a day at the hotel’s two restaurants.

Reviews

Photos Nikoi Island reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this nature-nurturing hotel in Indonesia and unpacked their sambal and snorkels, a full account of their private-island break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Nikoi Island in Bintan Regency… 

Salt-mussed hair, gathered seashells and golden sunsets — these are the kinds of snapshots the owners of Nikoi Island have striven to capture, inspired by their own carefree, outdoorsy childhoods.

They’ve aced the brief, creating a family-focused private island that artfully balances luxury with life on the wild side. Guided by knowledgeable local staff, you and your budding Attenboroughs can roam jungle that’s home to otters and monitor lizards, watch turtle hatchlings scuttle down white sands, and sail the reef-ringed waters around the Riau Islands. Thanks to a finessed kids’ club, poolside martinis or a massage in the ocean-gazing spa tent could just as easily be on the agenda, too.

Best of all, the hotel has sustainability and conservation at its heart — villas are built from reclaimed flotsam, and a permaculture farm fuels the nourishing Indonesian menus — to ensure that core memories can continue to be made on Nikoi for generations to come.

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Price per night from $416.86