In Reply to: accomodation posted by balihopeful on Wednesday, 26. April 2006 at 10:38 Bali Time:
Hi, just back back from Bali 2 days ago. Had a fabulous stay in 3 different places. Stayed in Seminyak at the Oberoi. The Oberoi is quite pricey but as i strolled along the beach I noticed lots of other hotels. The beach here is a long ,clean surf beach. The sand is quite dark and the surf a bit rough but great if they want to body board as the water is quite shallow. I noticed that the hotel (on the beach) next to the Oberoi was an Accor place. These are normally moderate prices. I stayed at their Accor Novotel in Tanjung Benoa last year and it was around $50 US. The quality was good and it seems quite small and intimate.
SEminyak itself was just a short walk along the road oralong the beach. Plenty of good restaurants and bars.
The other places we stayed were in Tanjung Benoa at the Conrad (gorgeous, new,very funky modern asian decor but not particualry Balinese feeling). we def felt safe here. As it's on the beach but also on the main road of Tanjung Benoa rthere are plenty of places to eat, although this are is a LOT quieter than Seminyak. The beach here is much more of a whiter sand, flat water beach. A little further up the coast we stayed at Nusa dua. TThe hotel we chose was the Nusa Dua Beach resort. It was gorgeous, quite old burt well kitted out and VERY Balinese in the decor, architecture etc.
I hope this gives you a feel for these places, although I have to admit that Tanjung Benoe and Nusa Dua won't allow you to really 'see' the real ali as they just have hotels there.
Depends what you want. i'd visted Bali a few times before and saw lots of temples, waterfalls, forests, culture etxc. This time around I just wanted, sun, sand, hospitality etc.