Nusa Dua
It was time to leave our humble abode in Seminyak and Kuta. I personally had enough of the birds every morning at 6 AM waking me up. We said goodbye to our villa after our last breakfast at Villa Seminyak and made our way via taxi (1 hour) towards Nusa Dua. As with the rest of the journey I was excited to check what kind of unique hotel design we would get this time. While in Nusa Dua we stayed at Mantra Sakala Resort and Beach Club in Nusa Dua (pictured below) and it is literally located directly on the beach.
The pool above is the Sakala Pool located directly on the beach. The walkway pictured there is the bar area where you can order fresh drinks and food from the restaurants located along the side.
The actual hotel area (lobby and rooms) are located across the street from the beach, but the main hotel pool (Sakala Pool) and restaurant are located on the beach. Most of the hotel guests could be seen tanning in the hotel lounge chairs with an amazing view of the ocean in front. The Sakala Pool include a big infinity pool- great spot for that vacation photo you want to post for social media, with a bar the center so you could have drinks any time.
The sunrise and sunsets in Bali were amazing, and with Mantra Sakala being located directly on the beach it provided some beautiful views.
This area of Bali was definitely different from the other areas like Ubud, Seminyak, and Kuta. There are a lot more resort-style hotels with several hundred rooms, convention center, spas, gyms, wedding areas, etc compared to previous areas where most of the accommodations were small villas. With that said, activities including spas, cost slightly more and food definitely cost a lot more even though it was nearly the same if not exactly the same food.
Also, if you were looking to do those water activities I mentioned in previous posts such as snorkeling, diving, parasailing, jet ski, banana boat rides, basically anything that requires calmer water then Nusa Dua is where you want to be. Unlike the beaches in Seminyak and Kuta, there isn’t a lot of room for you to lay around the beach and lounge around. You can definitely take your towel and layout, but not many people seemed to be doing that (might be more convenient to lounge alongside a beachfront hotel). Instead there were a TON of vendors who were renting out various tours and equipment for tourists.
***TIP: Visitors can also pay for a day pass to use the hotel pool for many of the resorts which is about $20-$50 day depending which hotel you choose, our hotel charged $30 for non-hotel guests.
Activities
While staying at Mantra Sakala we definitely took advantage of all of the hotel pools. We decided that we wanted to spend one day just enjoying the hotel and atmosphere at the beach and the Sakala Pool. The two hotel pools were very different from one another. The first one that was an outdoor pool that outlined the entire interior perimeter of the hotel. Meaning every room’s backside would look down onto the pool. If you booked a room with direct pool access then you got a room on the ground floor and can walk/jump into the 90F pool. There is a bar in the middle as well as one of the hotel restaurants if you get hungry from swimming. They had a bunch of seating outside of the pool as well as private little huts inside of the pool that you and your group could sit around in. It’s great for kids and families. There is even a <1 foot deep pool area in the middle for toddlers to sit and play in while parents order drinks from the bar and lounge around.
The main hotel pool that is accessible from the rooms located on the first floor. Also you can see the shallower area of the pool under the bridge, where small children can sit an play.
***TIP: I did not check it out but the hotel does have a kids play room and you can even leave your kids there for ½ day or full day – at a cost.
During our second day at Nusa Dua we wanted to check out the various water sports and surrounding islands (Bali has many surrounding islands). We took a day boat cruise that took us out to Lembogan Island, if I ever make it back to Bali I definitely want to spend a few days there. You can only get to this island by boat and it is absolutely marvelous. The boat tour has island tours for those who are interested. If not, there is a huge floating dock in the water where you can choose to stay on for the duration of your boat tour. Included in our tour was unlimited access to the connected waterslide to the ocean (FUN), unlimited snorkeling, underwater tour, and unlimited banana boat rides. In addition, you could pay for extra to scuba dive, parasail, seawalker, etc. For our boat tour we stayed out in the water and snorkeled. I got some cool pictures of the fish next to us which was awesome! I would recommend some kind of island tour while in Nusa Dua because there are several small islands on that side of Bali and can be cool to check out for a change from the mainland.
I took this photo while snorkeling off of Lembongan Island. There a lot of Angle fish that swim right under the boat waiting for food.
While in Nusa Dua we checked out the Nusa Dua theatre for the Devdan Performance- a cultural display of the various cultures that make of Indonesia. I don’t know if you guys remember but in one of my first Bali posts I mentioned that Bali is comprised of 17,000 islands (11,000 uninhabited) and they are all very unique in their own way. Each island has their own language, religion, traditional holidays, traditional foods, etc different from the others. The Devdan performance covers 8 of the most popular cultures of Indonesia including Bali, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo to name a few. I’m LOVE LOVE LOVE culture and history so for me this was amazing to see and for them to perform through dance (no words). Tickets are also very inexpensive and can be purchased in advance online or you can go the night of and buy them on the spot. Just a heads up- they only perform 4 days a week (Wednesday, Friday-Sunday) while I was there, but things change often so check first!
The Devdan Show was a great display of culture, language, and traditions that make up the beautiful country of Indonesia.
ULUWATU
The view directly outside of our room looking out over the Indian Ocean. There was some minor construction going on while we were there to add on bowling and a game room.
For our last two nights in Bali we went as far south as we could go where the cliffs are high and views of the Indian Ocean are unlike other areas of the islands. This area and our hotel was by far my favorite part of Bali and when I look back on my trip, this is the part of Bali I get excited to share with others.
The view directly outside of our room, with the infinity pool. We spent some lovely quality time basking in the sun during our stay here.
So where do I start. First let’s start with our hotel. We stayed at ‘The Edge’ Hotel and just like the name says, it is located on the edge of a 150 ft. cliff looking straight out to the Indian Ocean. We rented the 1-bedroom villa which went for $600/night – this hotel was not cheap at all but the views, experience, and ambiance are definitely worth it, and if you were to stay at an equivalent in the states or similar this room could easily go for $2,000/night. I have included pictures below in slideshow format of the actual hotel, because I couldn’t describe these photos in words and do it any justice. Featured is our villa, the spa (chairs in water), and view from gym.
Included in our hotel stay is your own personal Butler. Ours was named Bitu, and he was the kindest man we met in Bali. He was in charge of bringing us any food or drinks that we ordered. If we wanted to go to the spa he was in charge of coordinating that with the hotel spa for us. The best thing was that when we went on the local tours, he accompanied us and was like our own personal tour guide. This was extremely helpful when we went to Uluwatu Temple because he came with us and gave us a tour of the grounds as well as explained the history of the temple and the significance it has to Balinese culture today.
Uluwatu Temple is located high into the cliffs at the southern most edge of Bali and offers some of the most beautiful views of the Indian Ocean and surrounding area. There is a long walkway (about 1 mile total) that goes along the coast (might be able to see in pictures a few people in the background walking)
***TIP: It is customary in Bali that you wear a sarong when in/on sacred grounds.
Majority of the visitors go later in the afternoon because every night at 6 PM (at sunset) they perform the Kecak dance at Uluwatu Temple.Between the Devdan dance and the Kecak dance I don’t know which I enjoyed more. Both unique in their own way, the Devdan explains several islands of Indonesia while Kecak is unique only to Bali. During the Kecak dance they tell (through dance) the legend of King Rama and his Queen who is kidnapped by an evil ruler resulting in King Rama to work with the legendary Monkey King to save his Queen. The Kecak dance also does help give a little background to why monkeys are so revered in Balinese culture.
The dance is performed by the local villagers 7 nights a week at 6 PM/Sunset at Uluwatu Temple.
During the Kecak dance you learn about the legendary White Monkey King and how he assists King Rama to get his queen back.
For the remainder of our stay we stayed onsite at our hotel (we were the only guests during our stay) and the hotel staff was nice enough to give us a tour of the other villas that they had onsite. There are two 2-bedroom villas and one 5-bedroom villa as well our 1-bedroom villa creating a combined 10-bedroom hotel. Now if you go with a big group you can rent out the entire site and you would have the ENTIRE hotel to yourself. That includes the cinema room in the 5-bedroom villa, the kids playroom (also in 5-bedroom villa), hotel bar, hotel gym, and hotel spa exclusively for you and your guests. While we were there the hotel was in the middle of constructing a bowling alley and pool room, so definitely keep an eye out for the Edge Hotel.
The view of our villa and gazebo from the 5-bedroom villa during our tour.
***TIP: If you call the hotel to book your reservation you will be able to negotiate a better deal than if you do it solely through their online site- as told by the hotel manager himself!
