CanuckFlyHigh

I could reccomend Amankila. Cool experience, but not for two weeks. Amanusa is in a pretty sterile part of Bali, and Amandari is OK but Ubud is getting pretty over run.

IF you are doing a chill quiet week, consider another week somewhere more lively like Seminyak. The Legion is probably at the top of the list.

vuittonsofstyle

I am not crazy about Uluwatu in terms of location - it does not feel like Bali. Hearing good things about Capella Ubud - maybe combine that with the Legian or The Oberoi.

Zertis77

Thanks for the advice. I have booked the mandapa in Ubud now for the first week as I am hearing good things about it.

Want to spend the second week on the water. Booked a pool suite at six senses which I can cancel for free if I find anything better. Problem is that I would like to have two bedrooms and an own pool with seaview That´s out of my price range at amankila. A resort with a beach would be nice for the kids, but I don´t really find anything that has it all

uclabruin82

At Mandapa, are you getting two rooms or one? If you are planning on all staying in one room, then the Pool villas at Amandari would work well as they are duplexes so the parents can have their own bedroom / 1/2 bath upstairs.
We stayed at Amandari last November and really loved it - personally I think the staff / setting here is great, if you exclude Ubud town itself. The downside with two kids is they may go crazy with no TV and overall the resort may be a little too tranquil for them but is great for couples.

Musken

Agreed that the Dari duplex villas are great if you want to fit in kids (that is if it is OK that they sleep downstairs and parents upstairs). With regards to TV, you can always ask Aman to put one in for you. No problem at all, we have done that for our son at several Amans.

Duck1981

Hi All

I will be flying to Bali for the second time with my wife (after our honeymoon 2 years ago) and it will be a bit of a surprise for her (she thinks we'll fly LHR to LAX - instead it will be DXB - DPS

I always thought that I am a seasoned traveller myself (a consultant with approx. 500 hotel nights by the age of 37) but the richness of information here in this thread or generally at Flyertalk is unbelievable. I don't want to know how many tripadvisor reviews I would have had to skim to get the same level of information (and I see many excellent reviews re/ Bali hotels from Chinese persons with 1 submitted review only - just check out the reviews for the RC.

Today I have booked my trip and thanks to this forum - otherwise I would not have remembered - I booked via Amex Platinum service to get the FHR benefits - a great add on.

We'll be there end of September (hope the weather will be still good) and we'll start four nights in the FS in Sayan and then head over to the FS Jimbaran beach. Being technically a Marriott loyalist, I was thinking of the RC but I like to avoid Nusa Dua this time (our first stay was at the Sofitel which was honestly also very good). Will be my first FS stay so looking forward to it.
I was also thinking (and almost booking) one of the Aman hotels (especially the Amankila) but both of us like hotels which are not so remote so I opted for the FS; also we like slightly more modern properties.

Anyway - thanks for all your posts!

Really helpful (I know this post won't provide a lots of help to anyone of you but I just wanted to say it).

Daniel

FlyerEC

Duck1981

Thanks a lot!

To be honest it was a very close call - and I had to give it a lots of thoughts as I practically cannot discuss where to go with my wife

I only think that the Amans might - only might - be slightly to secluded so I go with the FS option. But as it stands my wife is a big fan of Bali so we'll come back anyway - and then I can suggest the Amans to her.

Buster

I confess to being a little overwhelmed by the options in Bali these days! My husband and I are planning a Bali trip for next year and trying to figure out where to stay. It's our 20th anniversary, and we actually went to Bali for our honeymoon. Back, then there weren't nearly as many options. We split our time then among the FS Jimbaran Bay, Amankila, Amandari and Amanusa.

Here's our overall travel plan: we're headed to Singapore first to visit dear friends who are moving there in a couple of months. We are thinking of going to Amanjiwo from there, and then we'll have 5 nights in Bali, for which at least some part our friends (and their kids) will join us.

Is Amanjiwo worth doing, and if so, for how many days? We've tentatively penciled in 4 nights, not sure if that's right or not. We were thinking of maybe going back to Amankila for 2 nights and then going to the St. Regis for 3 when our friends are around.

I'd welcome any suggestions - in looking at all of the various Bali options, I'm wondering if we should just drop the Amanjiwo stay and spend the whole time in Bali.

Thanks!

FlyingDoctorwu

BESVISOR

I would also highly suggest Kila + Jiwo....There are great package offers from Aman as well for visiting multiple Amans in Indo.

chinmoylad

I personally thought 3 nights was far too few for Amanjiwo - there is so much to do, but a lot depends on interests (and also your flight timings of course). By the time we arrived to the resort it was close to 7pm so the first day was wiped out. We did have a late evening flight going out so that was okay, we used that final day to tour Prambanan.

But we never got a chance to see much of the arts scene or the coffee plantations, and we only went on the Selogriyo hike. Would have loved to have done more proper hikes - if you're into hiking, you definitely need ~5 nights minimum.

chinmoylad

This was experienced/written by my colleague (disclaimer, he was hosted etc etc), so not creating a full separate thread for it but full review of Soori Bali is here: https://www.thesuitelife.com.hk/soor...-hotel-review/

Video and some pics:










Couple of key points - and I've generally compared these directly to Amankila because that's the real reference point here, and they're similar in that they're both beach resorts (black sand at that) that are quite far from the main areas of Bali.

• He thought the resort was absolutely wonderful on the whole - amazing hard product for the most part, great food throughout, pretty good service throughout. Though note the comments re: beach villas being a bit dark
• The water is a bit rough (unlike at Kila) so swimming etc for very advanced people only; kayaking etc very, very difficult.
• In comparison to Amankila, there aren't really many common areas that you find yourselves in - so unless you're out doing an activity, you spend most of the time in the villa itself (vs the main pool or beach club at Amankila). The main pool at Soori is picturesque enough, but something of a let down in comparison to the rest of the resort (and to the usually gorgeous Aman pools).
• It just lacks a certain charm that Amankila has that is completely intangible (he stayed with me at Amankila a few years ago); all in all it's a fantastic resort, it's just missing something...soul?

What surprised me the most was the 10-bedroom Soori Estate. Bit disappointing that!

m0hamed

The Kardashians stayed in the 10 bedroom estate in the last two eps. I was surprised given the past violent robbery they would stay in a resort with other guests.

The hardware did look impeccable and the pricing is very good.

chinmoylad

Yea - I think the price points at the entry level rooms aren't too different to what you'd pay entry level at Aman for most of the year (albeit at Soori, you'll have a private pool). But once you look at multi bedroom options, Soori's rates are really competitive.

I've visited Soori myself with my colleague when we stayed at Amankila (and Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay). The hard product is indeed really good. That was back when it was an Alila