Context - I spend 150+ nights a year in hotels across Europe and Asia, typically a mixture of the nicer Starwood/Hilton and the Four Seasons. So generally quite good places.

This hotel is one of the best I've ever stayed at. Period.

The service was incredible, the room (pool suite) was great (and private), and was uber-romantic. It's expensive.... but value for money is high (try and do the 50% rack rate savings).

I conviently chose to get engaged here recently and my fiancee and I were really impressed. We were here for almost a week and didn't want to leave!

There's lots of good comments above, so I'll focus on parts that impressed or I'd prefer to mention...

I checked out some of the other rooms while there... the Gardenia Villa is nice... I would personally avoid the Lagoon Villa's as they really feel less private (as their "backyard" faces onto a public lagoon). Avoid the basic room and at least go for the Pool Suite - it's really worth it and the private backyard with dip pool and "gazebo" are really nice.

The breakfast is great (and included). Read what other people wrote above... it was funny we developed a "plan" to try out each of the different a la carte options (e.g., lobster omelette, croissant french toast).

One big plus - the place always feels "empty". We rarely saw more than 6 or 8 guests near the pools / beach or wandering around. This really made it feel very private and romantic... the breakfast area was nicely busy, but you then rarely saw people throughout the day.

Food (and especially alcohol) is expensive. Some ways to avoid the pain -
- There's a good beach "shack" / restaurant (Nusa Dua Beach Grill) 10min walk down the beach that serves reasonably priced food/drinks and has a nice outdoor atmosphere (they also do pick-ups)
- Bumbu Bali was tasty (also does pick-ups)
- Bring your own wine / champagne...
- ...the main restaurant at the St. Regis is actually quite good (we had the Rijstafel and quite enjoyed it).

Sunrise at the St. Regis (6am) is nice.... however, sunset (6pm or so) at Jimbaran is stunning. You can have a touristy seafood dinner on the beach with everyone else (I'm sure there's more private options you can arrange with similar views). Still at least good for a beer and some grilled garlic shrimp.

SPG Perks? Forget about getting an upgrade. We were two (!) platinum members and the hotel knew I was going to propose... still got the same room (no complaints here). Instead we took the complimentary 30min spa session and quite enjoyed.

One upside... with the SPG bonus / benefits available at the time I took in 30,000 points for our 5 night stay.

We hired a great driver (name is "Pak", [email protected]). He charged us about 450,000/day ($40) and took us around the whole island. We've had two other groups of friends use him and all liked him.

All in all... well worth the trip. I highly recommend (Saw the Conrad, also looked nice)

Special thanks to our Ambassador (Nick) who helped arrange everything!

...pictures posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/9598345@N05