Riau

• Dumai - a bustling port, with ferries regularly departing for Melaka (Malaysia) three times each day. From Dumai, ferries also travel to and from Pulau Batam, Pulau Bintan and Jakarta.

• Natuna Islands - an isolated group of islands, which are quite tricky to actually reach. The Natuna Islands are most famous for their basket-weave cloth, as well as their displays of traditional dancing. Pulau Natuna Besar is one of the more interesting of the Natuna Islands. 

• Pekanbaru - a busy, modern city, which has become the wealthy oil capital of Indonesia. Pekanbaru's population is now close to 800,000 people and facilities here are excellent, with banks, shops, restaurants and hotels lining the main thoroughfare of Jalan Sudirman. Also most tourists come to Pekanbaru for its good ferry connections with Singapore and there are a handful of notable attractions, such as the Malay exhibits at the Balai Adat Daerah Riau, the 18th-century Grand Mosque (Mesjid Raya), and the seasonal performances and events at the Riau Cultural Park. 

• Riau Islands - spread across the South China Sea and numbering around 700 in total The Riau Islands tend to be regarded as quite separate to Sumatra, with both the islands of Pulau Batam and Pulau Bintan being so close to Singapore that they are almost suburbs. Other noteworthy islands within the Riau archipelago include those of Anambas, Karimun, Lingga, Natuna, Penuba, Singkep and also Tambelan