Stayed 28 Aug to 11 Sep with wife at GVC. We had stayed there in 2005 and thought it was tidy and comfortable so booked it again. Thought we would indulge and went for the superior room as we had heard they had been redecorated and also heard there was a new pool. We were very dissapointed with GVC and will never go back there. The mattress on the bed was extremely hard and although I asked daily for a softer mattress, nothing was done. I even spoke to the manager and also asked for single beds but nothing happened so didn't get a decent sleep for the 2 weeks. It wrecked our backs and the staff attitude was not good. The daily room cleaning was poor with us having to ask for toilet paper and soap. The wipe around in the bathroom left alot to be desired and yes there were lounger hoggers on a regular basis (aussies). The new pool may look nice at first glance but with not enough loungers - I think there were about a dozen, and no umbrellas or shade it was not good. The old pool had about 6 loungers , some that were broken and one umbrella. This pool is now run down with broken tiles etc and the surroundings do not appear to get cleaned often. I didn't expect 5 star at GVC, but I did expect clean and comfortable. Also wasn't impreesed to see owner sitting at restaruant table arguing with contractors when I went there for a piecful bite to eat. The only good thing was the staff at the restuarant.We will not go back.
Needless to say we checked out other accomodation and will very likely stay at Melasti on our next trip.
Another part of the trip that I was dissapointed with was the lobster meal at Indo national - overated, overpriced, chewy and tasteless.
On the good side;
Bali Bagus restaurant and Le monde provided good meals and good service as did Posers. We went to these frequently.
Wife enjoyed many visits to Melasti Spa where she was pampered.
I enjoyed massages regularly at Putri Bali for 50k rp with "Putu" who gave a good hours massage that was not too hard. She is a gem when it comes to a good massage.
They also do a good job of the laundry there.
We went to Kintamani as well as the Bali zoo and the Elephant temple. It was a good outing and although some animals at the zoo are in smaller enclosures that I would like to see, they were all in good condition and I know that they have been making a lot of improvements that are still ongoing.
We had glasses made at optik seiss at discovery mall and were pleased with the glasses and the prices. Many rupiah spent at Geneva, ketuts in garlic lane as well as carrefour and the usual street sellers.
Went to airport at 10.00pm to fly back to Sydney on 11th to be told that flight was cancelled by garuda. I believe it was because there were only 20 booked on it. Garudau loaded us onto a bus, i thought we were going to Kuta but we went to Sanur Beach hotel.
The room was musty with dirty sheets and the hotel tried to tell us that we were only allowed a fixed menu ie no choice whatsoever as to what we ate! and one 200 ml botttle of lemonade with each meal. I found out there was a garuda office there and had an "interesting discussion" with them! . We had no problem with no acohol although some took advantage, we just wanted to choose something simple before going on plane, did not want yesterdays leftovers.Forgot to mention that on the way from Melbourne on 28th, the toilets blocked on the garuda flight leaking onto the carpet- not good when wife has walked to toilet in sox!
Garuda couldn't guarentee our coneccting flights to Auckland that had to be rebooked as a result of their cancellation so a bit of stress until we had boarding passes for Air Nz to Auckland on the way home as wife had Brit passport and must have visa to stop in Australia which she didn't have.
Wont ever fly with them again. The other flights in our trip with Qantas and Air Nz were both good.
Overall enjoyed Bali, the massages, the food, the Balinese and the shopping. A good 2 week holiday with a few hiccups-steer clear of GVC and Garuda and I wouldn't bother with Indo National again!