Bali Resort Reviews

Keraton Jimbaran

Finally wrapping up the Bali recaps: we stayed at two resorts in Bali for our 9 day trip in late November / early December: the Keraton Jimbaran for 2 nights and the Purist Villas & Spas for 6 nights. I like staying in Jimbaran for a few days of beach relaxation in the southern Bali; it's a lot more peaceful than Kuta / Seminyak, and less overbuilt resort-y feeling than Dreamland and Nusa Dua. Plus it's convenient to some excellent BBQ seafood at the beachfront warungs right on Jimbaran Bay. A few days is enough, I prefer to spend more of my time in Ubud, which has great food, local treks, shopping and massages, and is a convenient base to explore the scenery and temples of the rest of Bali. While clearly touristy, it doesn't have the young partying beach crowd of the South.

Keraton Jimbaran Review: Location was great, right on the beach with a large pool and lots of beachfront chairs and umbrellas. The architecture and decor is traditional Balinese style for the lobbies and building exteriors. Our room was very basic, not a villa or suite or anything, and connected to other rooms, but it was perfectly comfortable. Rooms could use a little updating and the bathroom could be a little nicer, but nothing to complain about for about $130 per night including a breakfast buffet. Restaurant was ok, not great, but the middle seafood warungs were right next door. We've stayed at the Four Seasons in the past, which was nice, but probably not worth 5-6x the price. The beach is actually nicer at the Keraton. Free wifi in the lobby only.

Nice gardens at the Keraton

Traditional, fairly ornate lobby

Purist Villas & Spas: I love this place and would stay here again in a heartbeat. It's a small, private place with only 7 villas. I love staying in resorts where I feel like the only guest. The decor is the Balinese modern style that I like, similar to Amankila and the Four Seasons Sayan, lots of dark wood and stone, clean marble lines and sleek fixtures. We had our own private deck / patio with a dining set and couch, where we had breakfast everyday and a little yoga most days, a large bedroom with a sitting area and a huge bathroom with double sinks, separate bathtub and shower as well as a fountain and goldfish pond. It was very private and quiet, with just an occasionally morning noise from neighbors that you could hear from the bathroom, but otherwise you never saw / heard anyone else. The complementary breakfasts were excellent, with lots of fresh fruit and juices, pastries and cooked dishes. We only had dinner once in the resort, which was good and never tried the spa services, but all the facilities looked nice. Service is excellent as you would imagine at such a small place. You definitely get to know the staff well and they are just the best, super accommodating for whatever you need. Wifi was a little spotty in the room, but available in the lobby. The location is a little remote, it's about 1 kilometer north of Raya Ubud, the main road which Ubud Palace is on, so it's a hike to the center of town if you want to walk, especially in the heat of the day, but was fine for us since we had rented a motorbike. We were able to negotiate a great deal since we were there for so many days, and it is so worth it. I've stayed at the Uma Ubud and Four Seasons Sayan in Ubud in the past, as well as Amankila in the North, near Manggis. Uma Ubud is really nice too, and convenient to Naughty Nuri's Warung and my favorite spa, Bali Botanica, but you get a lot more privacy and space at the Purist Villas for the same price. The Four Seasons Sayan and Amankila are stunning resorts with impeccable service (especially at Amankila), but for 4-5x the price, I'd rather stay at the Purist Villas.

Our bathroom goldfish pond

Miscellaneous Bali Eats

The gorgeous Water Palace, next to Cafe Lotus

Almost done with the Bali recaps...just in time for my trip to Mexico... One of my favorite reasons to visit Bali is for the food; it's delicious, flavorful, fresh and reasonably priced, particularly in Ubud, which is why we always spend the most time there. I've already posted some excellent meals, including Ibu Oka, Jimbaran seafood warungs and Three Monkeys, but we had great food pretty much everyday. We tried a lot of new favorites including Sari's Organik and Cinta and returned to old favorites like Naughty Nuri's Warung.

Normally on saturdays you can watch dance performances at the neighboring Water Palace from Cafe Lotus, which is why we ate here. Unfortunately, they were having a ceremony instead and cancelled the performance

One of Bali's famous dishes:  24 hour smoked duck, from Cafe Lotus

BBQ chicken from Naughty Nuri's, although the rack of ribs is really my favorite dish, a must eat for every visit

Same owners as Cafe Batan Waru, we really enjoyed our meal here

Best Mie Goreng (fried noodles) in Bali, they make their noodles fresh, like at Kafe Batan Waru

Really excellent seafood curry

Chicken Curry from Murni's Warung. Good, but we had better food the rest of the trip

Chicken Satay from Murni's Warung

Ubud Hiking: Camphuan Ridge

The alang along grass; they use this grass a lot for building materials as well as ceremonies

Ubud has a lot of lovely trails with a variety of scenery, through rice paddies, grassy plains, steep river ridges and small villages. Part of the reason why I like Ubud so much; there's just so much to see, it's very easy to spend a week or more there without running out of things to do. We did a nice 4 km roundtrip walk along Camphuan Ridge on one of our last days in Ubud.

At the top of the ridge is Karsa Kafe, where we stopped to have a refreshing lime juice in one of the three bales on top of lotus ponds

Ubiquitous stone carving shop

Bali Motorbike Adventures: Goa Gajah & Yeh Pulu

Goa Gajah

 We rented a brand new Honda motorbike for $4 a day for the five days that we were in Ubud.  For the most part, we just used the bike around town, to lunches and dinners or massages. It was really convenient; we could have walked, but it was quite hot and humid while we were there, generally in the 80's, plus all the roadside pollution from the motorbikes, so traveling by motorbike was much more comfortable. We stayed a little bit far from the center of town, north of Raya Ubud near the Botanical Gardens, so one-way cab fares to and from our villa would have been about $4 as well. We didn't want to take too much risk on the motorbike so the only places that we went outside of central Ubud was to do a little sightseeing at Goa Gajah and Yeh Pulu. Goa Gajah was super crowded with not a lot to see, but we enjoyed Yeh Pulu, There was no one else out there and it was a nice little walk through rice paddies and ducks.

OT, but Lululemon is the best for hot and humid tropical weather. Love the No Limit Tank.

Gas was quite inexpensive as well, $1 for 2 liters. You didn't even need to go to the gas station, just buy them at roadside stands, look out for the yellow liquid in glass liquor bottles.

Mount Batur: Bali Volcanoes and Temples

Mount Batur on the left. You can see how its all volcanic ash on the hillside with little patches of green

I've been wanting to see a Bali volcano up close since our very first trip, as Mount Agung was quite close to Amankila, where we stayed. We visited Mount Batur this trip, as supposedly there are a lot more pushy tourist vendors around Mount Agung. I wish we could have gotten even closer to the volcano, next trip we will definitely wake up at 3am and hike up Mount Batur for sunrise (see, even after 3 trips to Bali, still more to see and do!). Still, it was pretty stunning from afar and the views from our touristy lunch buffet restaurant were great (though the food was mediocre). After lunch, we visited the surprisingly tourist-free Mount Batur Temple with all the tall pagoda spires, which was one of my favorite temples from the entire trip.

The lake by the volcano

Zoomed in picture of the top of Mount Batur

Like most temples, must wear a sarong and sash to enter the temple