A private island for $1,000 per night — for those who are willing to get there

When Richard Kvech first set foot on Pinang four years ago, a dilapidated bungalow used by passing fishermen was the only sign of human life on the island.

Kvech and three friends, all from the Czech Republic, slept in hammocks and cooked on the beach, while dreaming of creating an eco-retreat on the 50-hectare Indonesian island off the western coast of Sumatra.

Tomas Ouhel, a member of the group, had come across Pinang while doing conservation work on the nearby island of Bangkaru a year before.

After a year of discussion — among themselves and the two families that own the island — the group, Kvech and Ouhel, along with photographer Stephan Kotas and fertility clinic co-owner Martin Mrazek, signed a 50-year lease to create a small eco-resort on the island, said Kvech.

“Before we came to Pinang, there was hardly anything on the island — a small pathway around, a collapsed bungalow and a small field. It was really pristine jungle which had not been interrupted by human beings,” Kvech told CNBC Travel.

“We are trying to interrupt it as little as possible. It’s such a beautiful island and we don’t want to ruin the pristine nature, so our place only takes up one or two percent of it. There are swamps, bamboo forests, coconut trees, hills. There are hermit crabs, lizards and gumtree snakes. The jungle is very active.”

Since it opened to the public two years ago, Pinang Island has welcomed 100 guests and has become an appealing destination for yoga and surf retreats, Kvech said. He’s received interest from other groups as well, he said — from writers to martial artists, DJs to gardeners.

The island costs $999 per night for eight people. Up to four additional guests can stay for  $125 per person per night.

The rate includes all meals, daily cleaning, a weekly change of towels and linen, Starlink satellite reception and 4G Wi-Fi, as well as activities like snorkeling, fishing, stand-up paddle boarding and kayaking.

For $500 more per night, guests can take guided surf trips to places like the Bay of Plenty, or to Bangkaru and other nearby islands.

The final leg of the journey is an hour and a half boat ride to Pinang Island. This can be a treacherous one — in August 2023, a boat en route to Pinang from the nearby surfing hot spot of Nias Island capsized during a storm. Seven people were missing at sea for two nights and one day, as Kvech and the group confirmed in a statement. A large-scale search and rescue mission recovered six of the passengers, a group of Australian surfers. But the captain, a local Indonesian, was tragically not found.

“We express our deepest sympathy for the distress caused by this unfortunate event and we acknowledge the importance of working with the broader Pulau Banyak community to improve marine safety standards of vessels and captain training in the region,” the statement read.

“This incident serves as a reminder of the unpredictable nature of the sea and the importance of advanced safety measures. In light of this, we want to assure our community that we are taking decisive action,” it stated.

The resort closed temporarily, Kvech said, but reopened after the group, who had previously relied on local vessels, purchased their own fiberglass boat. It’s equipped with a marine VHF radio, a Garmin Inreach satellite communications device, an Ocean Signal GPS transmitter, smoke flares, flashlights, floating rings, life jackets and whistles, he said.

The group also set up the Fifan Foundation, in the name of the missing captain, to improve safety training for other local sea captains, Kvech said. They also changed the boat transfer point from Nias Island to Singkil, which is a shorter, safer journey, he said.