Understand
Don't be fooled by the name — Waterfront City is no city, it's a purpose-built tourist development home to two large hotels and not much else. Construction started in the 1990s with great hopes, but like many of Suharto's big projects, it never took off the way it was supposed and multiple failed developments still litter the area: the first thing you'll see as you exit the ferry terminal is the rotting carcass of Snow World, which lay uncompleted for years before burning down in 2006.
All that said, if you ratchet down your expectations very low, Waterfront City still makes a reasonably pleasant weekend getaway: the hotels are high-quality and affordable, there's just enough to keep you entertained for a day or two, and at night you can dig into cheap seafood and sample the nightlife. Batam as a whole is still growing fast and with Harris's recent expansion and the refurbished cable ski operation, there's even faint hope of a belated renaissance.
