sumaya99

We had a great stay at the Sthala in July 2017. The rooms were new, clean, and spacious. The breakfast was AMAZING. Some of the best Balinese food I had on our entire trip. Although these dishes may be more of what I would be used to for lunch or dinner (because they are served with noodles or rice and fish, which I think is customary to eat for any meal of the day in Bali), I couldn't resist, they were delicious! In addition to traditional food, there was an omlette station, pastries, fresh fruit, and just tons of options. You could get an iced coffee or latte included with breakfast. Or you could order something off the menu. We got the smoothie bowls...wow, yummy! We got 4 complimentary bottles of water in the room every day.

We did have dinner one night at the restaurant (where they also hold the breakfast), and it was really good. Not buffet style like breakfast, and less ethnic, but still good, and prices were very reasonable, especially after the 20% off for spg members. We also had dinner once at the rooftop - that was much less successful - less to choose from and pricier in relation to the food, but the real let-down there was the service; there were more employees than customers, but we still had to ask for things repeatedly. And we got stopped twice on our way out to make sure we paid (which of course we had), including one random employee (not even our server) who chased us to the elevator to ask if we had paid...pretty embarrassing for us really...

So, highlights in addition to breakfast were the activities the hotel provided (all complimentary). The highlight was the bike tour (by Sumairsi (I think I may be getting the spelling wrong..)). He took us through the local village, showed us the rice paddies, explained the growing process, and took us into a local home (I think it was his uncle's house). Really a highlight from our Bali trip.

Service by hotel staff was pretty good. Some were really great, and very personable; some were so-so, but none were bad experiences.

Location wise - this can be a bit of a hike from Ubud. But the shuttle service was really very convenient. Unlike other hotels, they actual provide shuttle service back to the hotel as well. The shuttle stop is a parking lot of a grocery store - so great spot to get some snacks and whatnots. There were at least 6 roundtrip shuttle option .... but you do need to reserve in advance. We never had a problem getting a reservation, even just a couple hours in advance. One time we needed to get to Ubud at a specific time, so we took a local taxi - the hotel arranged it with a local driver...it was 100k idr fixed rate (which I think is about $8)...but the ride took an hour due to traffic. Usually, I think the ride was about 15 minutes --- but I can't say for sure since I didn't really time it the other times. I did try to get a cab through the BlueBird app, but the drivers never actually came...

In summary - I recommend this hotel. Since most of the days we were exploring the island, it really wasn't that big of a deal that we were situated outside Ubud. The breakfast and village bike tour certainly well exceded any drawbacks of not being centrally located.

Misc non-hotel specific info: We got a name of a driver from other guests at the hotel - we used the driver twice - his rate was 500k-600k for 7-8 hours. For the trip to the airport, we contacted the local driver that the hotel had arranged for us to take into Ubud a few days earlier -- his rate was 300k to the airport. We contacted the drivers via text message or Whatsapp...and the front desk also helped us contact them...which as really great of them to do.