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Old Sep 1, 2022 | 2:52 am
  #9  
Martellus
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10 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: New York
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 265
Just stayed here for a 2 nights on the "opening offer" rate (which we BRG'd against Agoda) here are my random thoughts, in no particular order.
  • This one absolutely one of the most unique hotel stays I've been in. It's not for everyone - if you're deathly afraid of bugs or have mobility issues, I don't suggest coming here. If you're looking for a luxurious, adventuring, and novel experience with fabulous food I would highly recommend it here before the instagram crowd takes over.
  • Regarding the weather - The resort is about 700 meters above sea level and quite cool. In our late August stay we were seeing temperatures between 21C and 27C. It was actually too cold to comfortably swim in the plunge pool and the main infinity pool. We gave feedback that heated pools would be nice and I believe they're going to do some experiments later this year with converting one of the villas to having a heated plunge pool for an environmental assessment. Even in the very few times we felt warm the AC device installed above the device cools you down quick.
  • The hard product is excellent and very high quality. It's definitely a lower-key, understated luxury with muted tones and shades of bronze and natural wood rather than the Bill-Bensley in-your-face colonial style.
  • You're smack-dab in the middle of the jungle. That means you'll experience everything that comes with it, so plenty of creepy crawlies running around your Bale/room. The staff does a commendable job with cleaning your room when you're out and will lower all the netting for turndown service. Mosquitos or other bitey insects were relatively rare. During turndown service they lower two sets of netting around the Bale, though the outer one isn't insect-tight. The inner one around your bed will keep the bugs out, though, so you won't experience any issues during sleep (unless you're careless with the netting)
  • The bedding was fabulous. Incredibly comfortable and soft.
  • During our first night it rained pretty much all night and cleared up the next morning. Since it was a while since the last rains and it was dry season, this apparently triggered a flying termite swam the following evening. Totally harmless but quite annoying as during our dinner as they kept on converging on the lights and basically died en masse on all the dining are tables. The poor staff had to run around and attempt to mitigate the situation by adding a ton of UV lights and distracting the swarms to go somewhere else. Other than that one experience, the main pool and living room area was basically bug-free.
  • Dinner is included in the rate and is a prix-fixe style 7-course affair. They source almost all of their ingredients from local farms and it's mostly vegetarian, but it's fantastic and they've done a ton of work on making it taste great and flavorful. The dining experience was something I'd happily pay $100+ for it in NYC.
  • There's a good set of complimentary activities, ranging from creating local drinks, foraging in the hotel's vegetation area and farm, to one of the most brutal bike rides we've ever done. (labeled as "medium" intensity but in fact going up and down multiple 30% slopes) You can of course also pay for other more extensive, private activities.
  • You can definitely Grab/Gojek *to* the hotel if you're around Ubud, but we couldn't find one from the hotel so we had to resort to paying for the hotel transfer back to the airport at ~680K IDR++. You may want to pre-arrange a driver to pick you up on the day of departure to save some money.
  • The massage and spa experience was one of the best we've had, both from a massage and an overall ambience/experience level.
  • I wouldn't try to visit Ubud unless you're on a longer stay. It's about a 40-minute drive to central Ubud.
  • I would say 2-4 nights would be a good stay length. We were slightly rushed trying to do all the complimentary activities over a 2-night stay, and the prix-fixe dinner rotates every 4 days (i.e. there's a different menu daily for 4 consecutive days before the menu repeats itself again)
Happy to answer any additional questions, if you have them. The few issues we experienced were quite minor and I'd strongly recommend staying here if you have a sense of adventure and are looking for something different from the standard set of Bali luxury offerings.

Last edited by Martellus; Sep 1, 2022 at 3:03 am
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