I accept that the Sira isn’t in a Nusa Dua with multiple restaurants and shopping areas around the corner.

I also don’t rate any of the places on the beach. They were cheap however so that’s a benefit. I’d say actually car rental would be my recommendation if you do want to leave the hotel and explore.

Grab and Bluebird are available and cheaper than the Sira cars but they may or may not be available. As I said in my video the first few days I was easily able to get a grab from the hotel and after that I couldn’t find one at all. Use a Bluebird taxi but even that wasn’t a sure thing. It seems renting a car would provide more flexibility and would be cheaper than using the Sira cars if you wanted to go to Mataram regularly. However if you’re just going to go to another hotel nearby to eat that’s over doing it.

I really, really can’t stress this enough that my number one recommendation is to go the Gili islands - they are so close and very beautiful.