When you first arrive at the Mayang Sari, you pat yourself on the back for choosing such a delightful locale. The beachfront chalets are charming and rustic, right on the pristine and private sandy beach, surrounded by idyllic palms, even a couple of hammocks swaying in the breeze. (Unlike the sister Nirwana Beach Resort which is modern and overcrowded.) The sea is warm and inviting. Service is friendly and responsive. Then the cracks start to show.

The TV is fuzzy and receives only a few channels. (We had two rooms and both tv's were the same).

The bathroom is functional, but why the ugly floor and tub surround?

Our triple room needed an extra bed - and they brought a sunken foldaway, with a thin mattress that sank in the center. Upon request, they sent an additional firmer mattress, but still the bed sank in the center, and I suffered a backache.

Finally, the unkindest treatment to their guests relishing the peace and quiet of Mayang Sari - the infamous thumping through the night from the disco from Nirwana Beach Club across the bay. The soothing crashing of the waves is totally drowned out by the out of control bass woofers. It's maddening and all the complaints in other reviews are not exaggerated. Do not stay at this hotel on a weekend!

On a positive note - the food at the Nirwana resorts are all consistently good and of high quality. I highly recommend the Kelong. Go before sunset and enjoy the gorgeous view.

We just got back from a 4 day stay at the Mayang Sari. Overall it was a unique, amazing, relaxing holiday!
We arrived at the ferry terminal of Bintan (from Singapore) and there was a Nirwana gardens bus pick up, everything was well organized.
Check-in was also smoothly, but however friendliness at the lobby was not 100%. We received a welcome drink at the lobby, a pity that is is not fresh juice but just a sweet water drink.
We've got a room in the Starfish ensemble. The view from there is amazing, you see the whole bay from your room and terrace, honoustly it's breathtaking and you relax immediately. The room was ok, it's true that it's quite old, but bed was ok. Bathroom needs defintely some renovation... On the other hand, we prefer to enjoy authentical, a bit worn rooms with the typical indonesian charm instead of newly built concrete rooms that you can find anywhere... This is in our opinion very unique and we hope it can stay like this, it feels like a small village. We hope that they won't put a big concrete development on it!!
But why would you spend a lot of time in your room when you have a magnificent garden, private beach and sea right in front of you? The beach was very clean, the sea also. There was an alert for jellyfish, but the hotel sends 2 guys in a kajak on the water to look for jellyfish and to catch them. Thanks to these 'jellyfish hunters' we have never seen one. We even did some snorkeling near the rocks and we saw some colourful fish! You could see them even without snorkeling because the water is so clear. It's a private beach and never busy, so it's just heaven.
We tried the breakfast buffet in Spice restaurant at Mayang Sari and in Coffee Shop at Nirwana gardens. Both have a bit the same selection of food. It was much more quiet at Spice restaurant then in Coffee Shop. However Coffee Shop has a little more choice, but it feels more like a 'canteen'.
There is a shuttle bus that runs every 30mins and takes you to the different resorts of Nirwana gardens and to the restaurants.
We tried 3 different restaurants:
Coffee Shop dinner: buffet style: 30S$ per pers. ok, a lot of choice and not busy.
Kelong restaurant: à la carte, quite chinese menu, nice place, you have dinner right above the water, approx. 40S$ per pers. quality of food was ok
Baan Ayri (the thai restaurant): approx. 50S$ per pers. food quality ok, but it's very expensive for small portions. when you compare it to good thai restauants here in hong kong, then the one in Bintan is really overpriced. The spring roll starter had only 2 spring rolls, the red curry chicked had only 4 tiny pieces of chicken... It's a beautiful restaurant with a beautiful setting and the food tastes good, but it's really overpriced.
Overall you have a lot of choice of different restaurants.
Regarding the night club, we stayed there from Wednesday until Saturday, we had the noice only on friday. We went to have a look at the beach club, first there is a band performance with all cover songs, quite ok, and at 11.30pm the disco music started, to be honoust there were not a lot of people and the music was quite loud, at 12pm we went to our room, we fell asleep immediately, but it's true you can here it in your room. We were staying in the room the most far away from the beach club and you could still here it. Normally it stops around 2am.
We have tried the spa 2 times and it's heaven!!! Defintely try the treatment in the private cabana, you will walk away from there on little cloud, it's very very good!!
Here you go, a small summary of our very relaxing holiday. We will defintely go back! We loved our stay at this bay!!

This is our first visit here, purposely picked Mayang Sari instead of the more popular Nirwana garden Resort because we wanted to be nearer to the sea! Looking forward to this trip after hearing quite a few positive reviews around.

We had a sea view chalet (Lobster 4) which was spacious and clean, includes a balcony facing the sea with wooden table and chairs, very nice to sit back and relax and enjoy the beautiful seaview. Wooden ceiling was tall and toilet comes with a bathtub. We totally like the the "small house" that really gives a rustic indonesian culture feel. :)

Daily international breakfast was at the Spice Restaurant Mayang Sari itself, Food & variety was good and great. One night's dinner was at the kelong and the other night was western food at Luna at Nirwana Beach Club (shuttle bus is available). Both was great!

Beach was clean and very desirable and if you are lucky you can see small sea creatures on the seashore and small fishes! Water was clean that you can see through down the to the sand bed where sands are fine and clean. Lots of activities going around too, people sunbathing, enjoying a dip in the sea, jet sking, windsurfing.

What impressed me very much is also the services, be it the reception, beach attendant, restaurant staff or just a guard, we were greeted by smiles and help everywhere.

We will definitely come back! :D

Indeed a perfect n nice place to rest n relax n forget abt everything.

Would return again earlier next year!!