We have just returned from a 4D 3N at Ubud Hanging Gardens for our honeymoon in May 2007. We had quite high expectations for UHG after our stay at The Elysian in Seminyak as the price for UHG was much higher. The villa is really beautiful and the infinity pool is really gorgeous. The villa views are absolutely beautiful. The staff are friendly.
We were however quite disappointed by a few things:
1. The shuttle bus that goes to Ubud centre runs only from 9am - 5pm. If you want to go to Ubud at any other time, it cost US$15 per way. We felt the shuttle should run after 5pm to allow people to go out for dinner. The distance from Ubud to UHG is 30 minutes and it is really inconvenient.
2. The restaurant food was really not up to our expectations. The price was really high and yet the food didn't really taste very good. Halfway through dinner, we even had a big cockroach that flew onto our table. We alerted the waitor but he just swiped it off the table to the floor below the restaurant - which happened to be the pool bar area.
3. On our 3rd day, we decided to explore the resort area and walked to the riverside (still within resort compound). Halfway it started raining. We took shelter in a garden hut and my husband decided to run to the nearby resort cafe to borrow an umbrella. I was carrying the camera and didn't want to wet it. We didn't want to wait as we wanted to catch the last shuttle bus. I was surprised when my husband returned in the rain empty-handed. The cafe guy told him they have no umbrella. He also checked with the hotel spa and they also had no umbrella. What surprised me was that the hotel staff just let a guest walk back empty-handed in the rain!
We waited about 30 minutes more and the rain didn't look like it was going to stop. My husband decided to try again and ran back to the cafe. This time, he returned with an umbrella - which he had to borrow from a visiting guest from another hotel!!! When we went back to the cafe, no one offered us any hot drinks and just left us at a corner. We returned the umbrella and waited again at the cafe. My husband then went to inform the cafe staff to get one of the hotel staff to send us an umbrella. We waited and waited and waited. Finally, I went out in the rain myself to check if the furnicular (elevator) staff was really that busy. Apparently, no one had signalled anything to him and he had LOADS of umbrella in the furnicular! I was really upset as we had missed the shuttle and had to pay US$30 for 2 way transfers. We feedback to the manager but although an apology was given, we didn't feel any action was taken.