Batam: the island that connects Singapore and Riau

Batam has a reputation as a ferry stop and an industrial zone, and it is both. Ferries from Singapore arrive every hour or so, disgorging weekenders who come for cheap seafood, massages and shopping. The island's free-trade status has filled it with factories, warehouses and hotels, and the traffic between the terminals is heavy.

But Batam is bigger than its ports. The island is roughly twice the size of Singapore, with hills and mangrove coast, fishing villages on the south side and a string of bridges to the islands beyond. If you have a day between ferries, or a weekend to spare, there is more here than the mall next to the terminal.

The ferry terminals and Nagoya

Most visitors arrive at Batam Centre, Sekupang or Harbour Bay, all within half an hour of each other. Nagoya, the commercial district, is where the hotels, malls, massage parlours and seafood restaurants cluster. It is busy, functional and not especially attractive, but it is convenient and cheap.

The ritual for a Singapore day-tripper is well established: ferry, massage, lunch, shopping, ferry back. If you are doing that, Nagoya is fine. If you have longer, get out of it. The island's interesting parts are on the coast and in the villages, and they are a scooter ride or a taxi away.

The Barelang bridges

The Barelang bridges are the island's one proper sight: a chain of six bridges linking Batam to Rempang and Galang, built in the 1990s and named after the three islands. Driving across them is the best thing to do on Batam, with views over the straits, mangrove islands and fishing boats.

The bridges lead to quiet beaches, seafood kelongs and the Vietnamese refugee camp memorial on Galang, which is a sobering and worthwhile stop. Allow a half day for the drive, more if you stop to eat. A car with a driver is the easiest way; scooters are fine but the distances are longer than they look.

Beaches and seafood

The beaches are not Bintan or Belitung, but they are better than most people expect. The south coast has calm water, pale sand and a line of trees; the north coast is more developed and busier. The best swimming is on the islands beyond the bridges, where the water is clearer and the crowds thinner.

Seafood is the reason many people come. The kelongs, floating restaurants over the water, serve crab, grouper, prawns and shellfish, priced by weight and cooked simply. The classic Batam meal is grilled fish with sambal, and the classic mistake is ordering too much. Go hungry, go with others, and let the waiter advise.

Practical notes

Hang Nadim airport connects Batam with Jakarta and other Indonesian cities, but most foreign visitors arrive by ferry from Singapore. The crossing takes about an hour, and immigration can be slow at peak times. Bring your passport, check the last ferry back, and allow a buffer if you are connecting to a flight.

The island is hot and spread out; taxis are cheap but the traffic is not. If you are staying a night, choose a hotel near the terminal you are leaving from, not in Nagoya by default. And if you have time for only one thing, make it the Barelang drive rather than the mall.

• Ferries from Singapore take about an hour.
• Drive the Barelang bridges; stop at Galang memorial.
• Eat at a kelong on the south coast.
• Stay near your departure terminal, not Nagoya.
• Check the last ferry time before you go out.

How Batam became a city

Until the 1970s Batam was a sparsely populated island of fishing villages and forest, with a handful of Malay settlements along the coast. Then the Indonesian government created the Batam Industrial Development Authority and turned the island into a free-trade zone, deliberately modelled on Singapore and deliberately close to it.

Factories, shipyards, warehouses and housing estates followed, along with migrants from Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and the Chinese communities of the region. The population went from a few thousand to more than a million in two generations, and the island became one of the busiest industrial hubs in Indonesia, as well as a weekend playground for Singapore.

That history explains both the island's energy and its ugliness. The traffic, the half-built blocks and the strip malls are the price of the boom; the food, the markets and the sense of people making a living are the reward. It is not a place to fall in love with at first sight, but it is a real one, and it repays a little curiosity.

Questions people actually ask

Is Batam worth visiting beyond a ferry stop?

For a day or two, yes, mainly for the Barelang bridges, the seafood and the quieter south coast. It is not a beach destination in the league of Bintan or Belitung, but it is more interesting than the strip around the ferry terminal suggests.

How do you get around Batam?

Taxis and ride-hailing apps are cheap and easy, and a car with a driver for the day is good value if you want to do the Barelang bridges. Scooters are available but the traffic is heavy and the distances are long; public buses exist but are not designed for visitors.