Friendly Traveling Deathmerchant

***I didn't notice any loose tiles in the pool, there were a couple paving stones that looked jumbled along one of the walks, but I wasn't inconvenienced. The OSHA-safety eyebrows went up more on just the differing heights of steps and little drop offs all over Bali, to include the HGI, but... different land, different rules. Just like those cliffs in Iceland with a little sign "Hey, it's a long way down, don't fall and such..." vs. metal guardrails in America. Eh, you roll with it and watch your step!

***I knew this line was probably inflammatory, or at least a bit leading when I wrote it. Good for you to call it out. Honestly, I went having no expectations of NP, other than I'd seen some lovely photos on the JourneyEra blog. We went spur of the moment with Crown "Tours" and it was hell. Boat ride was late, unorganized, a little bumpy, some people throwing up. Oh well, that's no one's fault, but it set the tone for the day. We get to NP dock, and a ragtag fleet of unorganized "guides" took us in small vans on the donkey-cart "roads" they have there (having been around the world a little bit, it is charitable to call these paths roads, but there was occasionally pavement.) I'm young enough to appreciate a little roller coaster ride and I'm not against adventure, but I'm old enough to know this wasn't safe or particularly healthy.

I could take it, but did not like it. I know for sure many sensitive or older people could not. It was repeated hour+ breakneck drives of huge, hurtful bumps on claustrophobic half-lane semi-paved pothole fests through a scrubby, dry, honestly not very pretty island. Zero talk from the driver explaining anything we were seeing. Then, we'd finally arrive at a spot - and Holy cow, those views were undeniably amazing - and the guide would cattle-rush everyone into the line to take the Instagram shot. Without even five minutes to look down at T-rex, Angels Billabong, etc., it was all an exercise in shuffling through overcrowded, huge lines of perfectly dressed waifs posing like there was an unscheduled Vogue photoshoot, boyfriends and photogs carefully cropping out the huge, sweaty lines of identical tourists all waiting to get the same Instagram-I'm-Dreamily-Alone-In-Paradise angle, tossing hair and posting "I'm lost in the moment...#Bali..." and such.

Then, five minutes later, without time to appreciate it -- GET BACK IN THE VAN EVERYONE!!! -- and then we'd rush over the next bumpy hour drives to the next, too-short, overcrowded spot of selfie stick waving lines. I was honestly saddened. It's beautiful (here and there). I could see that not too long ago, it was probably unspoiled and uncrowded. Today, all the photo shots I'd seen are blocked off because of overcrowding. The lines of Facebook-photo spot collectors made every once-idyllic destination look like it's now gunning to compete with the front gate of Disney during Spring Break. Whatever natural beauty found between the no-toilet-paper "rustic" stalls of the dock and the chiropractor-begging "roads" was absolutely overtaken by sad crowds of photo-collectors at every viewpoint.

I went home wishing I hadn't done it, and knowing that this was only going to get worse, as the infrastructure there is already overcome by the crowds. The tourist board/government and private business is pushing every day to bring even more people to sprawl on limited resources. Maybe they'll have better roads and docks and actual hotels in the future, but that isn't going to have any positive effect on the nuts-to-butts lines of people waiting to smile in front of T-Rex beach cliff. Saddened is definitely the outlook that I came home with from NP. Well, that, and I did grab a lovely photo that almost makes the bad memories fade.

So, when I say "don't go", it's not because it doesn't have beautiful aspects to it. I say that because its beauty is already in the late stages of being overrun and I don't see it getting better. It struck me as a place that, just a few years ago, was worth the rigors of getting to by adventurous younger backpackers that might stay a few days. But a day tour is not worth bouncing through the cattle drive of social media hordes.

Just my opinion.

bamboola

I love this property - so conveniently located near the airport. At times when my husband and I arrive in Bali separately, we don't have to wait for each other at the airport. We just meet at the hotel. It's also wonderful to stay there on our last night so that we can do some shopping before flying home.

We will be sorry to see J-P leave this property. He has always ensured that we have an excellent stay here.

paulkevin

Just spent 10 days based out of this hotel - using 5,000 points per day with free 5th day etc. Wow, truly great value!
Some excellent reviews above. Just a few bullet points of my thoughts:
It's not a resort hotel which isn't what I wanted and it's why I decided to stay here for this trip - but it has elements of such to make it a very relaxing stay.
Very nice pool, great for laps, well looked after, no broken tiles. Spacious gym as well.
Free breakfast each day as diamond benefit. Room upgraded. Fabulous staff and ongoing engagement throughout stay. A bit spooky so many different staff seem to learn your name within a few days - how are you today Mr Paul, everything ok Mr Paul etc etc. I don't think they have too many guests usually staying more than a day or two.
Car with driver hire from lobby for day (10 hours) around $55 USD. Theme food Wednesday (seafood) and Saturday (BBQ) for around $15 was a feast.
Main Kuta beach 40 minutes walk away, or plenty of good value motorbike and taxi options make it 10 minutes. 2 or 3 reasonable shopping centres within the same radius.
Complimentary shuttle transfer to and from airport was super smooth - 5 minutes.
Overall I found Bali generally to be a bit of a traffic jam, and would stay more central on the island if I were on a touring holiday. But for an airport stopover, or longer, really impressed and very happy with this HGI.

nk15

All three Bali Hiltons show no availability with points (standard or premium) anywhere in the schedule, does anyone know what is going on?

jbeckett

Try logging out of your Hilton account, then do the search. Sometimes the Hilton site will not show you point availability if you do not have enough points in your account, but it will if you are signed out.
I just looked (arbitrarily picking March 20) and see HGI for 5K points (standard), Conrad for 37K (standard), and Hilton for 44K.(premium).

Fearsome Puppy

We would have overlapped as completed a 5 day status run last week. Agree with all your points on the hotel.

nk15

That was it, thanks, I recall it has happened before as well.

yann

Hello,
We will be staying there in a few weeks.
What are the available transport options and approximate prices for short (e.g. Kuta or Jimbaran) and long (eg. Ubud) distance trips?
Are there tips to (at least partially) avoid trafic? What about the highway?
Thanks in advance.

more4less

Hiello yann,

I did not stay at the HGI but remember that taxis in Bali were not expensive. I used the company Blue Bird but you may use Uber as well that for sure it is cheaper

KLflyerRalph

nk15

Do you guys recommend any tours, a driver hire, or would you rather suggest taxis to and from?
I just checked the reviews for the bluebird app, they are not good...

Also, does the HGI room safe fit a laptop, it looks a bit small in the pictures...

Jaimito Cartero

Friendly Traveling Deathmerchant

In-room safe: Yeah, I think you could fit a smaller laptop in it. I didn't bring one, but I'd think at least a 13-15" should fit. I usually bring a good lockable backpack and a non-TSA lock along with a steel cable, and will put things in that and lock it to some furniture or something, cover it with a jacket for some discretion.

Transport: While a guest at HGI Bali for a week, I used 3 methods of transport (not counting the hotel shuttle to and from the airport and Kuta Beach area): Grab, Go-Jek, and hired a private driver. I didn't have local cell service, so some of my experiences are flavored by that. Obviously you need to have wifi or cell service on your smartphone to hail the first two app-based services. Of course, when you're still on wifi at hotel, you can start your outbound journey!


Grab / Go-Jek
Download both of these apps before you go, familiarize yourself with them / put in whatever info required.
The local taxi mafia apparently doesn't like Grab and Go-Jek, so those services are not available in all areas: We went to Canguu via Grab, no problem. Used the app to locate a driver to pick us up promptly at the HGI, but coming home from Canguu we got a "no drivers available in your area." There are signs posted around Canguu and Ubud saying "Support local cabs, NO GRAB PICKUP HERE" in these towns. Our Grab driver apologized when he dropped us off, with a kinda "Uh, I can't really come get you here to take you home, you'll have to use a Bluebird or something..."

We found that the cabs were wildly more expensive (3-5x Grab), shifty/shady with price quotes, and turned me off in general. I walked a ways until we got service again at a shop that had free wifi: Still no Grab, but was able to app-hail a Go-Jek to take us home.

Even Grab and Go-Jek had their shady guys: just like Uber, circling vehicles were available to hail only minutes away. The price is $5 bucks. I hit "go" and a driver messages me back "Hi, I'm your driver. There's traffic. How about I charge you triple because it's a long drive?"

I cancelled that on principle. It's not about the few bucks, it's about shady stuff like that. How can I trust a driver that ignores the "meter" on the app? I secured another driver who took forever to pick us up from Canguu, but kept to the price the app suggested.

Those little quirks aside, if you've got coverage with phones, download Grab and Go-Jek, they're your best bet for transparency and not getting ripped off. If nothing else, it gives you a price floor / suggested reasonable rate to ask for if you DO want to haggle with taxis. Blue Bird is the only "reputable" cab company - and there's tons of fake Blue Bird taxis that have copied their brand. I wouldn't take a fake BB on my life, again - principle. I looked at Grab, saw one ride I needed was around $6. I asked a Blue Bird, and he's like "That's a $12 ride." He was not interested in haggling, nor was I. That's why I like Uber and such - not because it's cheaper, but because I know what I'm getting into before I sit down and the cabbie says "Traffic: so extra rate on meter!" and takes off before we can leave the cab. (Happens!)


In general, though, do the math each morning to determine if you just will be needing a hotel shuttle and some quickie Grabs/Taxiis, or if you'd be better suited with a private driver.


Private Driver
If you've got, say, an all-day ride up to Ubud with a bunch of long stops? Then it's going to be better to hire a daily driver for $35-50. Having him give a little bit of a tour while you're driving, and getting you to the places you want to go and be waiting for you to pick you up when you want to leave... worth it. You'll find a thread about drivers here: Bali driver / car service recommendations

A guy named Made ("Mah-day") is often recommended here at TA. Squared away, good English, honest. We took a ride to Ubud Traditional Spa, Monkey Forest, lunch at the Ubud Nuri's, etc. from HGI: He was always on time, booked the spa for for us for no extra price, steered us into one stop we hadn't planned on that was a real winner(a kopi luwak tour/swings than I had planned), and kept to my conditions on no shopping stops / didn't try to lure us into tourist traps. I wouldn't hesitate to call on him again.

If you just want to go up to Kuta or Seminyak, Grab from hotel (or take the hotel free shuttle if the hours work for you).

I'm cheap and wasn't in any hurry, so on a few of my days there, I took the free shuttle up to Kuta Beachwalk area, and after wandering around there a bit, we springboarded up to Canguu or wherever from there on a Grab. Knocked down the overall price because free shuttle went halfway.

PS: Totally off topic, but Ubud Traditional Spa is a heck of a good value, and classy spa massage experience. Even higher value, and not a shabby experience is De Nyuh Spa Kuta (the one located in "Grandma's Hotel"). I'm still amazed how I got a four-handed massage for 1.5hr, my wife did a Balinese massage for the same 90 minutes... and my Amex bill says we paid $23.00. I wanna go back and do that pretty much every day.

nk15

Thanks for all the feedback, great stuff, a couple of additional questions:
1. Is there a mini market nearby the hotel to get cheap bottled water, or does the HGI provide enough (I heard not).
2. What is the tipping culture at the massage places, something like 5-10% in cash? Do they prefer USD or local? Do they take credit at De Nyuh Spa Kuta? (we will be regulars there, lol)
3. Is anyone tipping at the HGI, and if yes how much, what currency or on the room?
4. Are the private drivers recommended by the HGI good and reasonably priced, anyone tried?

Friendly Traveling Deathmerchant

1. Between huge breakfasts with juices, and plenty of water left by maid, did not have reason to go to a mini-mart. There IS a Circle K .6 mil walk from HGI as you turn left out of the parking lot entrance. Seems a bit far just to get a drink, but maybe if you want to walk to or from De Nyuh, it's on the way! (1.1mi walk total HGI>CircleK>DeNyuh ) As a bonus, you can stroll by Satria Gatotkaca Park (traffic circle thing with some huge ornate sculpture) on the way there.
Yeah, De Nyuh took my Amex. You pay at the hotel counter (the spa is a wing of the hotel.)

2. My local guy explained to me that service workers don't "expect" tips, and whatever you give out of your heart is accepted as such, small or big. Dunno, I felt bad leaving a 15% tip like I might in the States, because, uh... 15% of a ten dollar massage is like, A BUCK. I think we usually tipped a 50,000 IRD bill, making things easy. They would have taken USD, I'm sure. I prefer to keep it local currency though, I just changed a large bill at the in-lobby cash-exchange desk for walking-around money. The massage place people seemed happy, hope I didn't short anyone. And if you overtip, it's not like you gave away more than a few dollars.

Edit to add tipping culture note: NOWHERE, I mean NOWHERE do the credit card bills have a tip line. I went everywhere from street food places to swanky bar/restaurants, and when they ran my Amex or Visa, I'd get the bill to sign, expecting to leave a tip on the cc... nope. Just a place to sign for the total, no way to alter or leave gratuity. I learned this the uncomfortable way - At one place, I didn't have cash, fully planning on leaving a tip on the Amex. I asked about it, and they looked at me like I was from another planet. They run the bill on a little machine separate from the till, and it spits out a receipt to sign, but they do not have a way to accept tips via CC at most all restaurants, hotels, or spas. Bring cash. USD or IRD will suffice (I've never known anyone to turn down a tip, regardless of currency!)


3. I left whatever cash I had left for the maid. Otherwise, put all drinks and food on room tab (points!) and tipped waiters.

4. Did not use HGI's tour desk or recommended daily tour drivers. There's plenty of guys you can email with (Made, of course) that can help set your itinerary in stone. Local pickup guy might not have as good English if you don't speak the local tongue. We had two different local drivers that the hotel got for us as the free "shuttles" up to Kuta*: He didn't say much, and when we asked him to drop us slightly different place than the expected hotel drop off (not out of his way or extra distance, really), he just said no. The first driver we had was happy to drop us there - suggested it, even - so we figured it would be fine with the second guy, but no. (*When there's not enough people to justify a van for the free Kuta run, the hotel calls you a cab and pays for it. I tipped, but no discussion of fare - HGI covers it. I assume this happens a lot on the later of the two scheduled Kuta shuttle runs. We woke up late and took breakfast, then went to front desk to reserve shuttle. Both times a driver was hailed for us while we waited in the lobby.)