There are some hotels and resorts around Nongsa, but in my humble opinion Turi Beach is the best, despite of its minuses. Well, maybe it depends on what you’re looking for from a resort anyway, while for me it suits most of my needs. Let me talk about the good stuffs first, and later I will point out the minuses.

Not all of the beaches in Nongsa is swimmable nor playable, due to lots of sharp corals along the shorelines and some beaches even doesn’t have the sandy shorelines. But in this hotel, you have 3 spots where you can play by the beach. First, on the farthest East or on the right hand side when you’re facing the sea, between the jetty and the border of this hotel property. This spot is the best part to look for seashells, play with the sands, and to get wet, but not for swimming; because on this spot there are a lot of big stones from stretching from shore line to open sea direction about 30 meters away. But you can climb to these rocks and take beautiful pictures with jetty or ship passing by as background. At the end of this 1st beach, is connected through small path alongside the shore lines to neighbor resort. But when I was there, this path was under construction after broken down by the big waves. Too bad, because I couldn’t say anything about it.

The second spot is the one in the middle. This is the spot where you can swim with mild depth up to about 30 meters away to open sea direction. Though water sometimes gets milky and the seabed full of seaweed, but if you’re OK with those, the water is nice and warm and the wave are smalls since it the strait between Singapore and Batam, not the ocean with big waves. On this second spot they have some facilities you can try and enjoy like fly-board and hover-board, jet skiing, water skiing, wakeboarding, knee-boarding and banana boat. Knock yourself out!

The 3rd spot is on the farthest West or on the left hand side when you’re facing the sea. On this spot you can play by the beach, play volley beach (the hotel provide the net and the ball), or just sitting under the unique tree which grows on the seashore. If you have small children, this is the ideal place to play with sand toys because they can play under the shade of the trees. At the end of this 3rd beach, is actually the border of this hotel property side by side with Nongsa Pura Resort as its neighbor. The guest of these two resorts are free to use each other facilities including beaches and swimming pools, though you have to bring your own towels. The most attractive place to visit and taking pictures in Nongsa Pura Resort is the Marina or ship and yachts docking terminal. It’s a tiny version of Monaco, but it’s worth a shot.

Between the first and second spot, this hotel has beautiful 220-meter long jetty with island bar in the middle and a gazebo at the end of the Jetty which is the ideal place to read books while hearing the sound of the wave and company with the breeze. Both at day time and night time, this place is ideal for taking pictures. At day time you can try fishing from the jetty or in the clear day just enjoying the view of Singapore skyline and Johor Baru land in the distance.

If you are want to cool down after playing on the beach, you have 2 choices of swimming pool. The first one near the restaurant they call it the ‘Lagoon Pool’ with combination depth for small children up until 2.5-meter deep. The color of this Lagoon Pool is light blue, when the second pool near in the middle called ‘Emerald Pool’ has the green color like emerald. This Emerald Pool has two separate pool on different height while the top pool is infinite pool with controlled temperature of warm water. This pool also has combination depth but not for very small children because the depth is not changing gradually, and step down vertically instead.

Jogging or simply walk around the complex is also something you should try especially the path alongside the beach. To get to the 3rd beach spot I mentioned earlier, you have to go through this path entering small ‘jungle’ or complex of trees where you can see monkeys on these trees if you are lucky. Just be careful to your belongings not to be stolen by the monkeys and don’t try to feed them or they would follow you begging for another treats. Along this path, is also ideal to be in your Instagram pictures.

Now let’s talk about the food. This resort has at least 3 places to eat. First is the restaurant that utilized for breakfast. The second one is underneath the 1st one, is the bar with pool table. And the 3rd one is in the island bar I mentioned earlier. All foods and drinks are consider expensive to Indonesian people and the price are very much like in Singapore. So if you don’t want to spend too much on expensive foods, you might just try the breakfast as it includes in room rates. For me the taste was not something that this resort could be proud of, because it was just so ordinary. And the menu for the breakfast for resort like this was also consider very limited. I suggest the hotel should be more creative to make more variety menu for breakfast. It’s 5-star resort for crying out loud.

How about the room? This resort has 2 separate type of rooms. The first one is the bungalow complex stretch out on the East part of the resort located on slopes from the top near the entrance or lobby to the bottom near the shore lines of the 1st beach I mentioned earlier. Of course you would always have to choose the one near the shorelines if you want to stay in this type of room. Because the one near the entrance would be full of disturbances as cars passing by, and they are too far from the shorelines.

When I was here with my family I stayed in the second type of rooms which was more ordinary room, located on the West part of the resort. It has 4 stories of building in cascading type also located on a steep slope. So if you don’t take elevator you would have to climb dozens of stares from the pool level near the Emerald pool I mentioned earlier to your room, especially when you’re staying on the top floor. If you want have the nicest few of the beach, I suggest you take the 4th floor But if you want to easy access to the pool and the beach, I suggest you take the 2nd floor. Or you can add more extra cost to stay on the 1st floor, because the rate on 1st floor a more expensive compare to other three floors. I was staying in the room 3006 on 3rd floor, because it was new year and any other room were fully occupied. From 3rd floor I still can see the beach but not as good as on the 4th floor. Overall the room was good, but I guess the furniture in the room needed to be upgraded since they look outdated. Funny thing about all the room on this complex is the way you open and close your room door. It opened in wrong direction to the point that you have to position the curtains in a way for them not to be nibbled by the door every time you’re closing and opening the door. What I did was I just left the curtains in open position. It’s true that anyone who would see clearly to my room, but it’s on 3rd floor and the only one who see it would be the hotel staffs. So I didn’t care. But I suggest, the management of this resort somehow have door direction fixed in the future.

I have one hindrance when I stayed in this room 306. One day I asked the housekeeping to clean my room before I left by hanging the sign ‘Clean My Room’ on door handle, only to witnessed when I got back on the late afternoon that my room was not cleaned. I address my complaint to manager on duty and he directly took action by coordinating his crew to clean the room. I also demand answer why they didn’t clean my room. The housekeeping guy told that he saw the sign “Do not disturb” hang on the door handle. I did hang the “DND” sign in the morning when I went swimming that morning and returned to my room after that. Before I left I changed the sign with “Clean My Room”. This is the solid proof that he went to my room in the morning and did not recheck the sign again after that. My family and I waited in the lobby and later we moved to patio on the beach. After the room was cleaned the MOD called me and we returned to our room. The problem solved, but I believe that this thing should not be happening in the hotel like this. This hotel should train the housekeeping crew to check many times to rooms that have not been cleaned in order not to miss anything. And to my surprise there are no single ‘service recovery’ from the hotel for me and my family but a simple sorry. What a lousy way to treat their guests!

The most perturbing thing about this hotel that surprisingly some part of the beach are dirty, full of garbage that swept away and brought by the waves overnight. I know that this not their fault, and maybe this is just the way it is for the beach in this area. But in my humble opinion, this 5-star resort should have special crew to clean the beach. No matter how dirty it is, they should have their beaches clean at all time, even if that crew has to work around the clock! I will return again to this resort if I visited Nongsa, therefore I hope by that time I would find that these 3 beaches they have, would be clean and free from litter and rubbish.

If it was not because of the ‘room cleaning’ incident and garbage on the beach, I would have already gave full 5-point rating for this resort.

Room Tip: With beach view or closer to the beach

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Location is the number one attractive point of this hotel. It is located in the heart of Harbor Bay complex which also has a ferry terminal to go across the strait to Singapore. And within the walking distance, you can enjoy sunset with many choices of sea food restaurant. If you get bored with seafood, the Indonesian local cuisine or western food are also available in many restaurant and café still in the same complex or in the Harbor Bay mall located with the same building with this hotel. You don’t need to go somewhere else.

This hotel is also consider the new and modern hotel. I was there on the new year and you can tell that this hotel is chosen with so many domestic and overseas visitors. I was staying with my family in the spacious room 500 with jumbo king size bed, a sofa bed, a desk with office chair, and bathtub in the bath room with separate shower booth.

Breakfast were also amazing, because it has buffet with so many variety of menu that I had to take turn every morning which one that I should try first. Western, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese, and even local cuisine. The taste was also two thumbs up to the chef.

But it almost perfect... I stayed in the nonsmoking floor. But one time I saw a guest who was smoking in front of elevator near the no-smoking sign. The thing is, this hotel provide an ashtray in the nonsmoking floor, which may caused confusion to the smoker guest. I did address the complain to the manager on duty about this, and I asked him to check their CCTV recording as proof to what I was saying. You know, that I signed the agreement which stated I would not smoking the nonsmoking room, or otherwise I would get fined. I thought it also include that someone may not smoke on entire floor where nonsmoking rooms were located.
 
I believe the hotel did not do anything to that particular guest who smoked, nor fined him either; and that caused me to remove one star from the rating for this hotel.

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I didn’t spend the night in this hotel, and only use their seminar room when giving a seminar there. The atmosphere of the hotel is good, located in the business activities of North-east Bandung, and it is quite a new hotel. The seminar room is also good, but I had a slight problem with the sound system. The hotel doesn’t have the alternative cable for my sound system and wireless mic, to the point that the sound was not good throughout the session. I didn’t have time addressing complain to the manager that time, so I hope this review can be as their input to be better next time.

The food on other hand, was very good. I had both local cuisine and international cuisine in the menu. So thumbs up for the chef.

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Pangkep, the capital of Pangkajene dan Kepulauan Regency is the small town. It doesn’t have the representative hotel, only some motels available. So if you have to go to the office or attend an occasion of Semen Tonasa, the only choice you have is staying in the company’s Lodging facility, which they call it “Wisma” in Bahasa Indonesia language.

It is not a hotel, so you can not find any hotel facilities like swimming pool, fitness center, bar, business lounge or restaurant. But as far as food is concern, you will have 3-times a day meal provided for you. The chefs are a local people, therefore you will find local cuisine in your menu. They are good, especially if you like to try something new and like the hot spicy food. The room itself, is standard. They are all have AC, refrigerator, TV and in-room bathroom with hot shower. Some of them has bathtub, and some only with shower booth. Channels of TV available are limited, due to poor signals in the room. But in the dining room, the signals are much better. The Wi-Fi is free, but you have to register your email once in every 24 hour. Though bandwidth is small and not sufficient for video call, at least you can browse, check your email, and chatting via Whatsapp.

Another good thing of this lodging that it is located in the housing complex of company staffs, and therefore it is quite and very good condition to rest after your busy hours. I suggest you do the exercise by walking around Semen Tonasa huge housing complex. The scenery around the complex is nice with many trees. But you have to do it before 7, because when the factory is running in full capacity, the air would polluted by tiny dust of clay and coal.
 
By staying here, ust don’t expect too much. But I guess it’s OK since you don’t have any other choice.

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I booked this hotel for my colleagues from China, just for a few hour from 9 am to 2 pm, before they moved to the better hotel of Aston Braga next door. I know that Fave hotel is budgeted hotel. The suite room in this hotel doesn’t even have the window. But it was OK, because they only was going to use it for rest after overnight flight from Ningbo, China.

In order to be able to use the hotel room in the morning, I had to book it from the day before. This means that the hotel room was not in use at night. But to my surprise, when my friends enter their room, half of the room floor was flooded by water from AC. It was at Idul Adha muslim holiday and the room were fully booked. So when I requested the new room, they couldn’t provide it for us. The house keeping staff came to the room and assessed the situation only to informed us that it going to take at least 1 hour to fix the AC. Because my colleagues would only stay form 5 hour, I decided to let it be and let them fix it after my colleagues check out that afternoon. They just wanted to take some rest anyway.

But that was it, only simple sorry from the receptionist, which I thought that it was necessary for me to talk to the MOD. A man who act as MOD that morning came and see me in the lobby and apologize. Only to apologize! I know this is budgeted hotel, but even lower class hotel would give a service recovery on occasion like this. Not until I asked he promised to discuss it with the management. Later that afternoon he called me and said that the hotel could only gave the neck pillow as their service recovery. Well, what could I say, I told him to give it to my colleagues.

Room Tip: Room with good AC condition without leaking water

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It looked like 5-star hotel from their website. But in my opinion, this is 4-star hotel or even lower. Not because of the service they delivered, but due to the limitation of its facilities. If you are looking a place just to spend the night on business days and do not care about hotel facilities, you might just fine. But if you also want to enjoy some of the hotel activities, you might want to choose another hotel nearby.

The ball room was big and I gave a seminar there, but the restaurant was small and become and entrance or passage to the ball room. The gym is also small, and the swimming pool only 7 meter in length on the corner of 3rd floor, isolated from anywhere else in the hotel. Thankfully the food was consider good and things that I also enjoyed. And I forget to mention about Wi-Fi speed. It reached more than 35 Mbps. In Indonesia, this is consider very fast.

Room Tip: highest floor available, to get nicer view of the town

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When I was staying in this hotel, one of minister in Indonesian government of Jokowi’s office was also stayed here. May be because of there is a VVIP present at the hotel, all of the staff in the hotel served at their best level. They even greeted some of the hotel guess by name, including me, and it was surprised me a bit. So there I was, lucky me, I received first class service. I hope next time I visit this hotel again and when no VVIP around, the hotel would deliver the same service.

I was staying in room 959 on old wing. This hotel has new wing which is more modern and fresher. If only I had known they have a new wing upon checked in, I would had requested room in that new wing.

The breakfast was awesome. They serve American breakfast, Indonesian cuisine, Japanese menu, and also South Sulawesi traditional food. I wish I stayed here more than one night to be able to taste all kind of food at breakfast. Because in only one breakfast, you would be too full before you can taste them all. Food that I had, all of them with excellent taste and presentation. Two thumbs up for the chef!

I gave seminar in their ball room. The seminar was a huge success because the hotel staff who responsible to every parts of the venue were there and stand by every time my team needed them. I didn’t have time to thank personally to each one of them, but the hotel management should give high appreciation for them.

One thing that I regret was I didn’t have time to enjoy the swimming pool, because my schedule was tight and I only stayed for one night. This hotel has big swimming pool, suitable for adults as well for children with special pool for them.

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I stayed in this hotel on business trip for only one night. My Japanese friends and I chose this hotel because it’s close to where our business meeting would take place. It is 4-star hotel with high Aston standard. I checked in early around 12, but it was already 8 pm when I entered my room and close to 9 pm when I was ready to take shower.

The shower in room 1028 was nice until I realize that the floor drain was clotted. It didn’t bothered me at first. But when I finished shower I was shocked to find out that my room was flooded. The water from bath room was already on the bedroom floor and reached underneath the wardrobe. I called the house keeping to deal with the problem. It was almost 10 when they finished cleaned my room floor and fixed the floor drain in shower room. It turned out that the floor drain was clotted with a huge ball of hair and stuffs as big as tennis ball, filthy and stinky! And all they could say was a simple sorry. (I actually have some pictures, but I decided not to share them here).

Not until I called the receptionist and ask to meet the MOD, a lady who was the PR manager and acting MOD at that night showed up on my door and apologized. She didn’t offer anything until I asked how the hotel procedure handling this kind of problem. Only after then she offered me to be moved to another room. I asked where she would move me, only to know that I would be moved to the room next door. In my humble opinion, the guest who experienced this kind of hindrance should had room upgraded as part of hotel service recovery. But because it was already late, I was tired, and I will check out early in the morning, I turned down the offer. Because I refused to be moved to another room, she then offered me fruit parcel to show their regret. I couldn’t believe to the point I was speechless. Ten minutes after she left, a boy showed up and gave me a plate of fresh fruit wrapped in plastic... and that was it!

When I took the shower in the morning, the floor drain was better but still needed to be fixed because my bath room was still flooded though it didn’t get in to the room like the night before.

Upon checked out, I was hoping that I would get letter or note from the hotel manager to apologize, but I didn’t get anything. Nothing at all, as if the flooded room never happened. Once again I couldn’t believe myself. This is 4-star Aston standard hotel for crying out loud. I think this hotel procedure needed to be re-evaluated by Aston and all the staffs needed to escort back to class to get lecture about Quality Service Excellent, things that they failed to serve!

Room Tip: Make sure your room would not get flooded!

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Choosing the hotel in Pangandaran, sometime can be tricky, because many things you should consider. First is the location. Which one is better, west beach with sunset view and nice wave for surfing, but it rather dangerous for young kids? Or east beach with sunrise and fishermen activities view, but the beach is not good for swimming? Then the type of the hotel. Is it the one with swimming pool or not, is it the one with AC or not, is it the hotel or just home stay?

But if I were you, since the price for hotel in Pangandaran still not that expensive, especially if you travel with young children like me, this is what I recommend: Choose the west beach, don’t worry about big wave, just keep an eye always to your children and make them close to you every time. Then choose the hotel with AC, because home stay seldom has AC and Pangandaran is HOT. After playing on the beach, room with AC always preferable. And with these choices, Hotel Laut Biru must be in your top list.

The location for this hotel is almost at the tip of Pangandaran peninsula and very close to get to each side of the beach. It’s the new rebuilt hotel. The old wing is still nice and the place where the lobby is located. The new wing across the street connected with indoor bridge on the 2nd floor level. The old wing do not have the elevator, but the new wing has two. The old wing has nice and cozy swimming pool to relax and reading book while you sunbathing, while the new wing has more interesting swimming pool with water boom facility for your children. And the restaurant is located on the new wing. I suggest you ask the room in the new wing if you want to stay in this hotel.

My family and I were staying in the room B608, on the 6th floor of the new wing. It has two queen size beds, one big bath room, a refrigerator and the balcony with the pool view. We missed the beach view, but it was OK since the pool view rooms are more quite compare to the beach view rooms. The beach view rooms are more noisy by the sound of people activities by the beach. This is because the beach is located near the main road where the shops and restaurant are also located. There is no single hotel in Pangandaran which has the private beach. Every one of the beach front hotel is separated with the beach by the main road, both in west and east part.

The breakfast however, was not that fancy. We stayed for three nights and at all three times breakfast we had, they serve almost the same food. Fried rice, rice noodle or regular noodle, chicken porridge, toast, egg station, limited cut fruits, and beverages like water, tea, coffee, milk and OJ. But for Indonesian people like us, it is quite enough and OK. But if you are Westerner, you might want to go to coffee shops nearby to get more western or American breakfast. My suggestion for the hotel management: You should prepare more fruits for breakfast. Because the fruit always ran out around 9 AM when still many people having breakfast.

One funny thing for this hotel is how they operate the check in and check out process. They didn’t use the computer. All still done manually and write down in big folio size book by hand. Including the booking reservation through the internet, they write down it by hand in the log book. Even when writing a receipt, they write it by hand! The only computer they have is to check which room is available. But don’t worry, the door key is using the programmable magnetic card. And also they received payment by credit cards.

But with all limitations that this hotel has, I guess it worth every penny you spend for the unforgettable experience in Pangandaran.

Room Tip: The best view is to the beach but the quite view is to the pool

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I somewhat had different experience from other reviewers for this hotel. If it was not because of the good service they gave, I might have given a lower rate for this review.

I stayed in this hotel because the location is close to my mother house in Depok, and it was the 1st day of Idul Fitri feast. This was the newest hotel in Depok and consider luxurious with medium range rate. So if everything had turned out differently for me, it would had been the excellent experience staying in this hotel. But as I say, I somewhat had unfortunate experience.

My family and I were staying in the room 1216. It was fine at the moment we entered the room, but at night when we had already fallen asleep the disturbance began. It was the sound of water from floor drain above our floor. It seems like when every time somebody flushed their toilet or even used their bathroom, we can hear the sound of water running down the drain pipe from above us through the side of our room wall. It was really annoying to the point that my wife and I could not have a good sleep. The main purpose by staying in the good and comfortable hotel is to get the good night sleep, and it was exactly what we didn’t get. I wonder what is wrong with the design of this hotel. Had the architect not graduated from his/her school properly? What on earth were they thinking when they drew the floorplan for this hotel? Had they not thought about putting the insulation system around the drain pipe shaft as sound barrier to protect the room nearby? Beats me!

When we checked out and I was at the lobby, a lady next to me who was also doing her checked out process complained the exact same thing. She could not sleep because of the sound of floor drain or pipe drain water disturbed her night. So at least there are two rooms in this hotel had somewhat a flaw in the design. These two rooms are the rooms you guys want to avoid if you pick this hotel as your choice.

The other unfortunate experience was at the breakfast. It was major thing, but since the hotel PR manager had already called me and apologized, I decided not to share it here (sorry).

We had time to enjoy the swimming pool before sunset. It was on the side of the building at 5th floor (if I’m not mistaken). The pool is in narrow rectangle shape and it had an infinity pool with the view of Margo City Mall which located next to the hotel. It also has the small pool for children in the corner. It was nice and you should try it, especially when the day is hot. It will chill you down.

Back to lack of sleep we had. Because of this very reason, we didn’t pay full attention to our things when we checked out, and my wife left his cellphone charger in the room. Not until we had already back to our home in Cimahi, when she realized it. So I called the hotel and it turned out that the house keeping had it and the hotel promised to send it to us by courier. When I asked how much was the courier cost to send the package to us, the hotel PR manager who called me said that it was free of charge as they service recovery to what we had experienced during our stay. It was nice and I thanked her for that. As I wrote above, if it not because of this good service they gave us, I would had been given lower rate for this review.

Room Tip: Choose the room without water drain noise

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