rkaradi

Sweet Suite UG. Is the laundy a perk of the suites or your status? Going in July and that would be a nice benefit.

JDiver

As lovely as the Conrad is, I'd not go as far as Bali without heading upland at / around Ubud for a few days.

hfly

Ubud?? There are only so many rice terraces that one can take in! Yes it's beautiful but also extremely dull,a daytrip there for a few hours more than suffices.

mario33

A Conrad Ubud is under development, same owner as Conrad Bali.

Skyman65

Not to dispute the plug for Ubud, but I have to say that I was frankly underwhelmed by my visit there. Perhaps I didn't spend enough time there to appreciate it (we just drove up for a day trip), but I was a bit disappointed at what I found after hearing countless recommendations to go there.

The monkey forest was interesting, and I enjoyed walking the jungle trails there. The spa we went to was...okay. The food was so-so. The town was a crowded, jumbled, touristy mess, IMO.

Sorry to be a such a contrarian, since I know a lot of people seem to really love Ubud. But I just didn't get it. Perhaps because I lived for several years in rural areas of Taiwan, I didn't notice anything "special" about Ubud.

hfly

The best I can understand is that those who haven;t spent too much time in Asia before think its great, those who have find it dull, I concur with your assessment however.

Brattflyer

Ubud rocks.

Just back from a trip to Bali with a night at the Conrad. I didn't get upgraded to Suites. The room was okay, but I could have been at any beach front resort in the world. I only knew I was in Bali by running on the beachfront walkway.

However, I went to Ubud and loved it. Yes, downtown is a hippie ghetto of sorts, outside of the main streets it's awesome. The Balinese people are some of the sweetest and most honest people on the planet. I could have hung out in Ubud indefinitely. A Conrad in Ubud might be overkill as most hotels appeared half full.

Skyman65

Well...we are in the middle of a worldwide recession, and tourism is down all over. So just because hotels are half-full NOW doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad idea to expand with an eye to the future.

mario33

Its still low season in Bali at the moment.

However, the "worldwide" recession does not appear to have much effect on Bali especially last year when room rates went through the roof. While its recession for some the Russians are still spending, and with more cheap flights coming in from Western Australia I dont see much downside in the near future.

derpelikan

Hi folks,

after providing help at the conrad tokyo and hilton phuket for hundreds of FT guys.

i can now happily extend this to the Conrad Bali from the beginning of may.

so in addition to the other hotels, you may contact me if you want to score an upgrade or get it confirmed in advance.

and of course conrad maledives you can contact me too.

dp

Thunderroad

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but what do you mean by this offer?

hfly

It should be noted that while the rest of the world was booming, Bali's tourism industry was in the dumps due to the two sets of terrorist attacks on the island. As time has gone by people have forgotten and prices and numbers have risen.

HLS2002

I've just returned from a nice stay at the Conrad Bali. My experience is basically as others have described here. This was a free stay on points, but I felt like I was received as a VIP. The manager on duty came out to welcome me during the check-in process and thank me for my loyalty to Hilton. Even though I didn't get upgraded to the exclusive Conrad Suites building, I had a very large room. It would qualify as a junior suite at many hotels. The bathroom fixtures were ultramodern and required an instructions sheet.

As a diamond, I had full access to the Conrad Suites lounge with breakfast, afternoon tea, cocktail hour, Internet access, etc. I also received a 15% discount on basically all hotel services. There was daily tropical fruit in the room (plus unlimited passion fruit in the lounge, a perk I abused). I kept the Conrad monkey that was on the bed, and I haven't been charged for it yet.

The beach wasn't great and there were annoyingly persistent guys trying to sell me on parasailing, but I'm so pale that I suffered terrible sunburn in just minutes of accidental exposure (it's only 8 degrees south of the equator after all). Thus I went out to Ubud one day, and I spent a lot of time enjoying fully-shaded activities around the hotel -- including taking full advantage of the free club lounge offerings.

My only complaint was some confusion surrounding "Reflections", the departure lounge. I was denied late check-out but offered free access to this lounge that apparently has showers and changing rooms and cookies. That seemed fine, but then my bags traveled to different parts of the hotel and it ended up being an inconvenience. The hotel continued to extend free Suites lounge access after my check-out, so I was still content. I thought the hotel restaurants were kind of expensive. Even with the 15% discount, it was close to US$20 for a burger (compared to US$2 for delicious suckling pig in Ubud). Imported alcohol was very expensive, but that may be outside the hotel's control.

At this point, I mostly associate the Conrad brand with the affable Connie portrayed on Mad Men. The stay nevertheless left me eager to explore Conrad Hotels a bit more.

rkaradi

Happy you enjoyed yout trip. I love this hotel and it got me hooked on Conrads^, Since then I have been to Tokyo and Maldives, both are aloso wonderful hotels.

As for the Monkey, it is a gift. Each Conrad has a different mascot and they are yours to take upon departure.

gleff

How would folks compare this hotel to the Intercontinental?

Conrad Bali as a Diamond vs Intercontinental as a Royal Ambassador?

I've been to the Intercontinental and loved it, will the Conrad be a step up or a disappointment?

(And I assume both as better than the Grand Hyatt as a Diamond)