Our family of four visited Telunas Beach, in the Riau archipelago of Indonesia, near Batam. What we discovered was a love of island vacations and sleeping in huts over water. We really loved Telunas, and highly recommend it to families.

The first time I heard of Telunas was when a teacher at school took her family. She shared her photos, and when I saw how much fun her family had, I knew mine needed to go too. There was a lot to love about Telunas.

The journey to Telunas is a bit of a haul. We took a ferry to Batam from Singapore, then were met by the Telunas resort people and taken to our longboat. The ride there in the boat was about an hour and a half, which was really too long. We were glad when we finally arrived at the island. The ride home was much worse, however, because it was raining. They had to close the windows, and the fumes from the engine filled the air. It was an hour and a half choking fumes. Despite the rough weather, though, we made it back safely.

On the boat

The longboat captain

The resort is just beautiful. We loved our cabin. There was no air conditioning, but we didn’t need it. The beds were comfortable, and the bathrooms were nice and clean. There is no TV, and no internet. I loved it that way. My husband and kids fully unplugged and did things together. It was a much needed technology break.

View from our cabin

Reading in the reading room

The huts are all connected via these wooden piers

The food was plain, however, and it really needs to be addressed. My husband won’t go back because of the food. I thought it was tolerable, and my kids liked it. However, it was a bit bland, which given that we were in Indonesia, was disappointing.

There is a large recreation room with books, games, and such. We sat and read all weekend. The beach is amazing. It is long and shallow, so the little ones can wade quite far out without being too deep. There are tons of hermit crabs, and my kids had a great time corralling them into a hermit crab city that they built in the sand. There is also a pier and a high jump to plunge into the ocean. I did the pier jump, and my daughters and husband did the high jump. That was pretty awesome.

Overall the journey was about 3 hours from Singapore, and quite affordable. The prices at Telunas Beach are very reasonable. It is more expensive than Sea Gypsy, but cheaper than Rawa, Batu Batu, and Nikoi Island. I would definitely recommend it, and we had a great time.