This was our second trip to Bali, the first happening in 2002. We were flying from Denver Colorado to Bali via United Airlines going first to San Francisco, connecting to Narita Japan (Tokyo), and on to Singapore. We stayed overnight in Singapore and flew to Bali on Asia Air.
The biggest change I saw in our travel in going through Japan was the number of people wearing germ masks on the flight. We also had to fill in health questionnaires in Japan, Singapore, and Bali.
Total travel time was 38 hours with 24 of those in the air. This is a good indicator of why we waited 7 years to go back to Bali.
We didn't use VIP VOA and it worked out fine. We were near the front of the plane and there was no line when we got our VOA.
We stayed in Nusa Dua, staying our first night at the Conrad and the next week at the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel.
The Conrad was very impressive. It is relatively new, modern, and plush. The room (we upgraded to their club rooms) was large with a fabulous bathroom. Most impressive was the bathtub that allowed you to fill it up while your partner was asleep without disturbing them. Included with the club services was high tea, a two hour cocktail session, and a beautiful breakfast.
Here are the pluses and minuses of the Conrad. Plus—very plush hotel, great service, modern with multiple water features throughout the resort and the bed was very comfortable.. Minuses—not distinctive to Bali (you could be anywhere in the world), not a lot of foliage, and loud water sports by the beach area of the hotel. It's actually not in Nusa Dua but in Tanjung Benoa. It is very close to Nusa Dua, but Tanjung Benoa is a bit more third world than Nusa Dua.
The Nusa Dua Beach Hotel. When we first saw the resort, the front lobby was very impressive. We checked in at the Palace Club (same as the Club at the Conrad). The room was not as plush or impressive as the Conrad. Some people have complained that the rooms were old and needed refurbishing. I would agree in one sense, but it depends upon what you are looking for.
The rooms are beautifully deck out with extensive wood features. From the beautiful wood doors to a gorgeous wood sliding wooden screen type door in the bathroom, this hotel has warmth and charm.
The longer I stayed here the more I loved the décor. The bathroom was smaller than the Conrad with older features, but it was perfect for what we were looking for. The shower was large and the bathtub had both a fixed faucet and the hand held type which became very important in the second half of the trip.
Where the Conrad had all sorts of water features, the NDBH has gorgeous grounds with beautiful landscaping and wonderful Bali features. The area where the Palace Club was had a park like setting with a large pond with its own flock of ducks. Breakfast, high tea, and the evening cocktail hours were all held here.
The Nusa Dua beach area is the focal point of the resort. It has great landscaping with multiple restaurants, bars, pools, etc. all in this area. Again lots of Bali statues and architecture shows that you are in Bali. And again like the Conrad, the bed was very comfortable.
Service was outstanding at both the Conrad and the NDBH. I believe the culture in Bali tends to lead to outstanding service at many places in Bali.
What we were looking to do in Bali was relax on the beach, eat out, get lots of massages, and do some shopping. The last time we were there we did a good deal of sightseeing, so this time our focus was different.
I had created a schedule to do all of the above. Since we were in Nusa Dua and many of the restaurants and massage spas were elsewhere, we were looking to maximize what we did.
Massage: We found a massage place just across the street from the Conrad. After all that flying it was great to find something that was inexpensive and convenient. In fact, I knew there were great massage places from our 2002 trip but in tourist areas about 1 in every 10 businesses is a massage pallor.
Massage in the hotels in Nusa Dua is about what you would spend in the USA at about $60+ per hour. You can find some very attractive spas at about half that rate ($30 per hour). There are some nice places where you can get massage at $10 per hour and there are more basic massages for $6 to $7 per hour (all prices are in USD). We tried massages in the later three categorizes and found all of them to be pretty good. We did find one that was exceptional.
Chill is a reflexology only spa. It is very modern looking. When you go inside you find a counter with a menu (only 4 items on the menu—all of them reflexology). We selected the 90 minute session for $18 each. Your masseuse washes your feet and gives you slippers to move into the 'quiet' area. There are about 20 lounge type chairs. When we went in there was only one other person in the room. They give you an ipod with a very relaxing (my wife said almost out of body) music. They then go to work on your feet, legs and end up with a shoulder massage. It was truly extraordinary. For ninety minutes the masseuse worked on these areas and was very skilled in what he did. When we were done we found that the room had virtually filled up while we were undergoing our session and we heard and noticed nothing.
Afterwards, Jackie was commenting on how good her legs felt (they were hurting before the session), while I noticed that I felt as if my feet were walking on clouds. We vowed we would come back.
Other spas we would recommend were the Mureno Spa and its sister spa (check the website). Both had nice facilities (Mureno's was nicer) and fell into the $10 price range.
Restaurants:
I had assembled a booklet with restaurants we were interested in trying in Bali. Here are the ones we tried.
Bumbu Bali. Touted by many as the best place in Bali to eat, my wife would agree with them. Traditional Bali fare with a lot of spice (the way she loves it) the cost of meals is very reasonable for the quality of the food. My score 10/10
Nyoman Beergarden. We went here primarily for the lobster that was mentioned in many write ups. The lobster goes for 70,000 per 100 grams with 500 grams the minimum we found we could order. Jackie thought the food was good, but not as great as others had described. I'm not a lobster fan so I had steak and found the food to be very good and very reasonably priced. 8/10
Rumours. Here was another restaurant we picked because of the lobster. Rumours had 500 grams of lobster for 105000 Rps total, a fantastic price. The 500 grams came in the form of 5 baby lobsters which Jackie found to be good, but not as good as Nyoman's Beergarden. I had a steak here. 7/10
LaScala. Nice restaurant with a great water feature going from the second floor to the first. Food was good. 7/10
Santorini's. It was right across from the Conrad, but was no longer in business.
Alleycat. It was the second highest rated restaurant in Kuta. Went looking for it otherwise we never would have found it. It's a British style pub with good food very cheap. It's like it is in a bombed out house and in fact, the bathroom has a bathtub in it. Not very clean though. I would give it a 6/10.
Breeze's at The Samaya's. A wonderful restaurant. Food was excellent and it is right on the beach at Seminyak with a great view of the ocean. It wasn't cheap, but for about 20 to 30 USD you can order any of the entrees. I would rate it a 9.5/10.
Karma Kandaras new di Mare. There are a lot of things going against this place. It is forever away from anything over the last few miles of very bad road. It was quite expensive and the portions are quite small. In fact, Jackie ordered a pumpkin ravioli. They had it in two sizes, entrée and starter size. Jackie ordered the entrée size. When they brought it we thought that had brought the wrong one and gave her the starter size. They confirmed that that was the entrée size. I have no idea how small the starter was. The restaurant was beautiful with a great view (go for lunch not dinner to really enjoy the view). The food (what there was of it) was very good. Overall I would give it an 8/10, but realize you will spend a lot of money here and don't be really hungry when you go.
Chess at Nusa Dua Beach Hotel. This is a very nice restaurant with tables on the grass next to the beach and a wooden platform on the beach. The food is good and reasonably priced (Jackie had the lobster again $25.50 USD I had a half a roasted chicken $15 USD). It was perfect with the breeze off the ocean and the candlelight. 8.5/10
As I said we wanted to spend time on the beach, eat out, get massages and do some shopping. Then we went shopping (Part 2—the bad)