The Chedi Club Tanah Gajah, Ubud, Bali

Booking:We booked a pool villa through our TA, although there were no affiliation benefits (though Chedi Club is a LHW hotel, so you may get something by booking through Leader’s Club).

However, room rates for for pool and spa villas (and above) include “club benefits,” which are quite generous. The list is below with some of my annotations:

Quote:

As you can see, a ton of value here.

Our booking also included a complimentary airport transfer -- not sure if that’s no longer a listed benefit, or if our TA secured it for us.

I emailed back and forth with the hotel on a few things (dinner reservations, spa bookings and airport pickup), and they were always responsive.

Check-In:While VIP meet-and-greet at DPS is temporarily suspended with the construction of the new terminal, we arrived at around 10AM to an empty airport, and were through customs in less than ten minutes.

This was where one of the few hiccups happened, as we couldn’t find our Chedi Club driver among the crowd of people holding signs. After a few minutes of wandering around, we asked at the information desk, where an employee paged for the driver and he walked up to us shortly.

From there, all went smoothly, as he helped us over to an SUV prepared with cold towels, drinks and WiFi for the drive to the hotel, which took around an hour.

One note that applied to our entire trip through Bali: the roads here are not pleasant...narrow, winding and crowded, which can lead to some pretty aggressive driving. If you get carsick easily -- as my wife does -- you may want to ask to sit up front.

As we drove, the driver pointed out many of the different villages we passed through and what made them special. It was a great, if fast-paced, introduction to Bali.

When we finally pulled into the Chedi driveway, though, things took a turn for the serene.

We were greeted in the main lobby by Alain, the GM (formerly of the Chedi Andermatt), and our butler, who served us cold drinks and warm banana fritters while he completed check-in procedures.

Alain would check in with us daily throughout our stay, often working the room at breakfast and making sure that all of the guests were having a relaxing time.

After showing us around the property in a golf cart (which, as we soon learned, was pretty unnecessary, as the property is pretty small and an absolute pleasure to walk through), our butler took us to our villa and left us to settle in.

Room:

We stayed in Villa #7, a pool villa. We could see the rice paddies right from our pool:



This was both good and bad...it made for a picture-perfect setting, but we did see rice farmers walking by a few times, which certainly impacts the level of privacy you have. Our butler came by to close the back doors every evening though.
The pool had lounge chairs on one side:



A daybed on the other side (where the entrance to the room was):



And a large lounging area with a dining table behind the pool, where we enjoyed drinks and afternoon tea.


The inside of the villa was beautiful as well, with lots of natural light from the floor-to-ceiling windows all around:



Two sinks and vanities, directly opposite from each other:



Separate shower and toilet rooms:



A desk and armoire area:



And a side door that led to a beautiful outdoor tub:





Property:

The rest of the property was also really relaxing, with lots of green (and elephant statues, as there’s an elephant temple nearby):





With only 20 or so rooms, Chedi Club always felt quiet and peaceful, and we only saw a few other couples there for most of our stay.

The property has a main pool, which you might use if you book a spa suite (these don’t have private pools, but come with complimentary daily spa treatments), but we didn’t try it.



The restaurant, to me, felt like the most stunning place in the entire resort, with panoramic views of the property’s rice paddies:



Service:

No complaints at all here. Every staff member we interacted with was warm and helpful, and spoke English well.

Dining:

The food at Chedi Club was excellent.

Breakfast was often more than enough to keep us full until dinner:







The executive chef (“Chef Dean”) is a fixture on property.

One example of him going above and beyond that stands out to me: we had a dinner reservation for the tasting menu at Mozaic, but got so relaxed at the resort that we decided not to make the 30-minute ride to the restaurant. When we shared that with Chef Dean, he offered to create a special five-course menu based on whatever we wanted to eat using local ingredients. It was superb.

Overall:If and when we come back to Bali, we will absolutely make another stop here. We looked at a lot of different properties in Ubud while we planned our trip (including Amandari and FS Sayan), and are thrilled with the choice we made. Highly recommended.

Amankila, Manggis, Bali

Amankila wow’ed us in a very different way from the Chedi Club.

While at Chedi, the thought constantly running through my head was: “This is an unbelievable value.” At around half the rack rate of Amankila, by time the all of the inclusions were considered, the Chedi is a steal for the incredible experience they deliver, and I’d happily pay more.

On the other hand, with significantly higher rates, it’s very hard to call Amankila underpriced.

But at the same time, it was well worth it: Amankila stunned us with it’s beauty and warmth, and was unlike any hotel we’d ever stayed in (though some of it, including the main pool, reminded us of a larger, Balinese version ofLa Casa Que Canta, where we stayed for our honeymoon).

Booking:

We booked the Bali Break package through our Virtuoso TA, with Virtuoso benefits stacked on top of the package. We ended up with complimentary breakfast, a complimentary activity, transfers, one lunch or dinner, and an upgrade.

That upgrade ended up being a tremendous one, as we booked a garden suite, and my request for Ocean Suite #37 -- a favorite of many, it seems -- was granted.

Check-In:

Amankila’s driver picked us up from the Chedi Club for another winding, bumpy drive to our next stop. Just as with Chedi. the clean SUV had water, snacks, WiFi and cold towels. The ride took around an hour and a half.

We were struck by the view of the bay as we drove up Amankila’s steep entryway, and as soon as we pulled into the port in front of the lobby, we were greeted by three or four friendly staff members who grabbed our bags, gave us a quick tour of the lobby level of the property, and escorted us up to our room for check-in.

Welcome drinks were poured, our room was shown to us and check-in was over in just a couple of minutes.

Room:

It’s easy to see why so many guests (and employees) love this room: as the map shows, it has the most unobstructed view of the ocean on the entire property (aside from the top-tier suites/villas).



We spent a lot of time enjoying the view from the daybed on the terrace:





The room itself was also very nice, with windows and daybeds galore:













And a fruit basket that was refilled daily:



The staff also dropped off gifts -- like these tuberoses -- each day:



Property:

Every review of this place says the same thing, so I’m not really adding anything new, but wow: Amankila is a stunner.

No photos I could take of the pool or main areas could do them justice, but a simple Google Image search will confirm what I’m talking about. Any time not spent in our room or doing activities was spent on the extremely comfortable daybeds by the main pool.

We only took a single meal in the restaurant, which was also nice (but we didn’t want to miss a single opportunity to enjoy a meal on our terrace, and often we didn’t feel like leaving our daybed to eat).

The Beach Club -- which is down quite a few stairs, though we enjoyed the exercise -- had another pool, as well as loungers and daybeds on the beach:



Admittedly, we didn’t swim in the ocean at all, opting for the pool every time.

Service:

This is the area I was most worried about before our trip.

Service is what most Amanjunkies cite as the reason they keep coming back.

But shortly before our stay, Amankila’s GM, Claudia, was transferred to Venice. Her replacement, Sandra W of Amanpuri, didn’t start until our second day.

Arriving during the transition scared me a bit, but as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about.

Shane, the Executive Chef, had stepped up admirably with GM duties, greeting every guest and constantly checking in with us to see how things were going.

And Sandra, once she arrived, was off to the races immediately, and to my untrained eye, looked as though she had been at the helm for far longer.

The entire staff was incredibly welcoming and made us feel at home...no request was too much, and it always felt like our well-being was the primary concern of whoever we spoke with. It’s really impossible to compare to any western service I’ve ever experienced.

We only had one minor issue during our four-night stay: a housekeeping hiccup that truly didn’t call for anything more than an apology and a visit to our room. But the team overdelivered, not only with a heartfelt apology and immediate fix, but with a beautiful locally handmade gift.

Activities:

I wanted to strike a balance between trying as many activities as we could and not overplanning so as to cut into our relaxation, and I was very happy with how things ended up.

We tried:

Morning Cruise and Snorkeling:







The snorkeling isn’t the most impressive here, but the experience of being out on Aman’s gorgeous boat, seeing Bali from another angle and getting to meet another couple that we hit it off with was well worth it.

Trekking:

It was hot and humid, but our trek, led by one of Amankila’s staff (not a third-party tour operator) was excellent. We were driven about 20 minutes to a drop site, and picked up later (with cold drinks and towels, which, per my wife, is how she now expects every hike to end).

It was a bit strenuous (some reasonably steep climbs), but a lot of fun. Our guide showed us some great views and pointed out a lot of the local plants.



Vanilla:



Coffee:



A nice touch: when we returned, a note was waiting in our room for us to leave our shoes in the provided box so that the staff could clean them for us. When we got them back, they looked brand new!

Private Satay Dinner in the Hills:

This one started off on a funny (to us) note, as the Jeep they drove us into the hills on broke down about 50 feet from the destination. The staff were incredibly apologetic, but we laughed it off, apologized for breaking their car and happily walked the rest of the way up the hill.

The setting was, as I’ve already described much of Bali, gorgeous...a daybed overlooking the hills:



Our private chef and server had a cooking station set up behind the daybed, and cooked us a delicious satay dinner, with as much satay as we wanted and some tasty extras:












Balinese Blessing Ceremony:

Arranged for us (along with the Dirty Martini) byFlyingDoctorWu, the blessing ceremony involves the local priest performing a blessing ritual...in our case, blessing our marriage.

The ceremony is supposed to take place at Amankila’s temple. Unfortunately, it was raining on the afternoon that the ceremony was scheduled.

No problem, we thought...let’s reschedule.

To our surprise, the staff wouldn’t hear of it...”it’s not a problem,” they said. “We’ll set up the temple in your room.”

What?

Indeed, soon five or six of the team were busy setting up a Balinese temple on our covered terrace, complete with an ornate entryway, offerings and tons of little touches. The priest came up to the suite and performed the ceremony there. It was a very special -- and memorable -- experience.

Dirty Martini In The Hills:

Scheduled for the same night as the ceremony, this got rained out as well, but the staff were happy to set this up on our terrace.

The martinis were very dirty, but delicious, and the accompanying snacks were good, too.

We also had some spa treatments that we both really enjoyed.

Dining:

The food at Amankila ranged from pretty good to fantastic.

The western options on the Beach Club menu (things like burgers and pizza) were fine for satisfying a craving after being away from home for two weeks, but certainly nothing memorable.

The more local options -- especially at breakfast -- was reason to return to Amankila alone.

From Nasi Goreng to the Moroccan Donuts (not really local, I suppose :-)) and Banana Pancakes were all excellent.







We enjoyed breakfast outside in our suite every day.

Overall: As someone who's always balked at the price of Amans and didn't really understand how it could be "worth it" at these rates, I'm thrilled with this choice as our first (and after this, certainly not last) Aman. I'm a believer