Hyatt Regency Bali REVIEW - MASTER THREAD
The room booked is the Regency Suite King which did show up for cash rates, so I guess if it is available for a cash rate - it should be open for redemption.
Not the whole place is open yet - no suites no rc no kids club but pools are in great shape including nice hot jacuzzi. Until rc opens breakfast is in the main restaurant (awesome) and cocktail hour is there too from 5 to 7. Of course great service all around and plenty of restaurants within short walk.
The only major issue is the amount of trash in the water and on the beach - a well documented problem on bali (and many other areas) unfortunately especially around tjis time of year..
Last edited by azepine00; Dec 25, 2018 at 6:35 am
Haven't been to the Sanur area in quite some time, but can only imagine the pollution issues similar to other areas. Waste management isn't a well understood and properly executed concept. They'll only learn when tourists stay away and for that to happen it will have to get much worse before it gets better (hopefully).
Usually stay at the IC in Jimbaran, but need to be near this area next time around and traffic isn't that pleasant either. Over at the IC they clean the beach area twice a day and still you can find some stuff lying / floating around. Sad though not a problem that is only particular to Bali / Indonesia.
Last edited by demue; Dec 25, 2018 at 7:47 pm
Hyatt Regency Bali
Jalan Danau Tamblingan 89 Sanur, Bali, Indonesia ID 80228
Hyatt Regency Bali in Sanur (0 Photo)
Hyatt Regency Bali
I have spent 2 days here already and will be checking out tomorrow.
Booked 2 nights on points at 7k points for a Club Access Twin room and 1 night using the Hyatt credit card free night. I live in Oz, so not too many options to use the free night cert, so happy to be able to use it here.
Rooms are fairly small, but suffice for 2 people. Couldn’t imagine having more than 2 in a room here, even with a rollaway. The TV’s, as some one mentioned, are quite large ( 50”, I think) and they have all kinds of international programming, including 3 HBO channels and 2 Fox Movie channels, as well as most Asian country programming, and local Indonesian programming. CNN, Fox News, Bloomberg, and History channel (just in case you get rained in).
Balcony is a good size, with table, chair, and small 2-person chaise lounge type thing.
Regency club breakfast offerings are decent - made to order eggs, bacon, chicken sausage, potatoes, 4 varieties of fruit, yogurt, cheeses, various breakfast breads, various juices, and an Asian (Chinese?) soup option. During the day, it’s basic snacks like wasabi peas, chips, cookies,sodas, and coffee/tee. From 5-7pm, 4 hot food options (today was steak, fish meatballs, quiche, and spring rolls....can’t remember yesterday, but there were chicken croquettes and a few other things), self-serve alcohol (wine, beer, liquor), fruit, meats, cheese, and bread. Definitely worth the extra 2k points in my opinion.
The pool area is pretty expansive and since the hotel opened only 10 days ago, not very crowded. There do serve a limited menu near the pool. Margharita pizza was 90k, sodas 24k. Food was pretty good, but that’s all i’ve eaten onsite so far. There’s an outdoor finer dining restaurant that looked to be pretty good - but didn’t feel like eating there. There’s a beach bar and pizzeria that seemed more popular in the evening.
Service has been nothing short of excellent. Extremely attentive staff - lounge people greeted me by name on the 2nd day. Everyone says hello & is super friendly.
The grounds still need some work in my opinion, but it’s good for what it is.
This was my first time in Bali and I spent 3 days at the Bulgari in a villa in Uluwatu (I wanted to check it out - heard nothing but amazing things about it - and it’s all true - one of the best hotels I’ve ever been to and I will upload a video later if I can from my phone of that place). I was hesitant to come here as everyone told me that Sanur’s nick name is “Snore” because it;s a boring place.
If you’re looking to chill, then this is a good spot. I’m not really interested in the “happening” scenes (been there, done that, lived in Vegas, NYC, and backpacked Asia in my 20’s and early 30’s and am over it). There’s no sunset here on this part of the island, but there’s a sunrise and it’s lovely.
The local area isn’t bad - but nothing fancy. You can get to “town” either by walking down the front driveway and turning right or left. To the right, there’s a construction site for a new Andaz opening in 2019 (looks like 2020 to me based on the construction) and shortly passed that, shops, restaurants, etc). There’s a store called Hardy’s - which is indoors and has a crafts section - so you can get an idea on the retail prices of things before you decide to buy from smaller vendor shops around town. Most smaller shops you can negotiate - though they will ask for a lot more than the retail prices (but it still so cheap & it supports the local economy more than the retail shops do I think). Post cards are cheapest at the Coco (i think) convenience store (3,500 vs 5k) and you can get reasonably priced Indonesian coffee there to bring home if you want.
To the left (there’s some closer shops & restaurants, but more variety to the right, just a bit further walk.
The best way to get to either is to walk along the path on the beach - totally safe & easy walk, just go to the left (seems like a longer walk) til you get to a left turn that will take you to the Main Street. To the right (along the beach path) are several small restaurants and bars. Good for lunch & crowded for dinner with super slow service, but reasonable prices. These restaurants are okay - food wasn’t great, but you’re there for atmosphere and they’re still really reasonably priced.
There are a few water sport options on the beach - paddle board, banana boats, jet ski rentals, etc. The water is good for swimming, barely and waves to be honest. There’s a snorkeling reef to the left about 100m down if you’re facing the beach from the hotel. It seems you’d have to have your own snorkeling stuff though as I didn’t really see any rentals available - but a few people were snorkeling.
Overall, a heck of a value for points & if coming back (which i will) if staying in Sanur, I’d stay here again. Next trip will likely be in Ubud as i want to check out stuff there.
I used Klook to arrange airport transportation both ways - it was reasonable priced, though local taxis are cheaper, it was nice to have a car waiting with driver for about $15USD. Taxi (with meter) would have been about $7 according to the Grab app (which you should definitely download before you go - super cheap taxis). Right now, Klook has a code, BALIAU which gives 10% off any service, but it can only be used once, so if you’re doing some thing more expensive, maybe save it for that (or have a traveling companion/wife/kid/partner create an account too).
Room
Room is good - small for a standard room, but decent size shower (no tub), 2 sinks, separate toilet.
Balcony has sitting area, which is nice.
Internet is good & TV is good.
Service
Service has been excellent. Staff is warm & friendly.
Only complaint so far is that the hotel doesn’t sell postage stamps, which is surprising for a 5-star hotel. They only offered to have a taxi take me to the post office vs. offering to mail on my behalf and charge to my room (which is what most other 5-star hotels would do).
Will try a meal at Omang-Omang (their all day dining venue) sometime this week.
Just a warning about transportation in Ubud area. There is a very strong "local lobby" that has made it close to impossible to get a Grab, Gojek or even Bluebird (this is an official and very good taxi company in Indonesia) in Ubud city and the surrounding area.
You may get lucky every once in a while with a Grab, but they often cancel on you when they see that you are in a "tricky" area. One example, we had to shift hotels and it was 9km distance i the Ubud area. Grab said 45k IDR, but no takers after 30mins. So the hotel got a local taxi guy who quoted 300k IDR. When I chuckled he dropped it to 250k IDR. I just told him that I didn't want to go to the airport (which costs about that much with a cab) and said no thank you. We got a free pick up from the other villa so problem solved.
I could have accepted 100k IDR given the situation, but this was a plain ripp off and very particular to the Ubud area. All the posters you see about "online taxi services being not allowed" are bogus. The police is officially supporting Grab, but Ubud is a stronghold that is resisting. You don't have such issues in Nusa Dua, Jimbaran, Sanur, Denpasar etc.