Our first trip in 4 years and the "Island of Smiles" still captivates us. My wife Jan and I travelled as usual with our buddies Jan (man) and Judy. Decided to try Legian instead of Tuban this trip, took a little time to get used to the streets and to get to know the people, but made some new friends as well as caught up with some old ones. This JBR will be in installments, so hope you all enjoy.
As we only had 9 days to stay this trip no tours etc were pre-booked, then again we have been there and done that on most other trips, this was more about the shopping, pool lazing and getting to know new people. We decided to book the Kumala Pantai during our last trip and inspection. Since that time the KP has added the two new wings and pool which we were lucky enough to stay in. We were not disappointed and about the only difference with a hotel like the "Bali Dynasty" is that it doesn't have a night time bar and music, and kid's club. For some that may be what they are looking for, for others, it may be a problem. We were more than happy with the facilities and the staff as usual, were friendly and all smiles, and it was only a short walk to find good restaurants and bars with music.
Another complaint I read on this forum was that the rooms were not as clean as they could be, well some people must want 6 star for 3 star prices because we were pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness, sure the sheets and towels were a bit grey, but they were clean, changed daily and smelled lovely.
As usual there were the pool lounge hogs, which meant we had to take it in turns to get hold of a lounge really early if we wanted to spend a morning around the pool. There were one crowd that tended to think that because they were in a large wedding party, they could rule the pool, fighting with, hogging and damaging pool noodles etc, but hey, we are all on holidays so let's not let it get to us!
Prior to the trip we read that Breakfast was adequate but not brilliant, I would rate it as good as anywhere I have stayed, especially as it was included in the room rate, the only complaint was no "Banana Pancakes", but could not fault the amount of fresh fruit and hot food. Other meals we had in the restaurant were very good sized and priced very much the same as restaurants and Warungs outside the hotel, amazingly, their room service food costs were lower, go figure ????
We arrived late afternoon on Frid 15th. and it did'nt take long to settle in to the zone. Had a drink and snack at Ocean Blue watching the sun set then tizzied ourselves up and walked along the esplanade to Jl Melasti and a nice meal at Sheppy's tried the Nasi Kampur on recommendation from this forum, quite good.
To be continued.....