Handara Gate

At 1:00 am traffic from the international arrivals Grab lounge was 28 minutes. Check in with passport was smooth. Convenience store is across the street. For purchasing drinking water or other forgotten amenities. The hotel provides refillable glass bottles and water from a filtered water station at the reception center but we chose to purchase from the store. Hotel is five minutes from the port which is the prime reason for selecting this hotel. If your first stop is Nusa Penida and you are staying there then this is a good overnight hotel. Our flight arrived late and boats do not operate until morning. Hotel was spacious and had amenities that were stated at reservation time. The bathroom has a wood slated window covering that provides circulation. It opens to the hallway and provides adequate visual privacy but no sound privacy. If you are looking for intimacy in the room or soundproofing while using the toilet this may be an issue. As far as I could tell it did not have a screen either. However, we did not have an issue with bugs. We did not wake up for breakfast but there is continental style breakfast if you pay for it. Staff was great and largely in line with the Bali culture of kindness and general hospitality expectations.

The plunge pool is huge and all yours! It was a beautiful property and a great stay! The staff kept everything very tidy multiple times a day!

This was our first time in Bali and Ubud, and Alaya was a great base for exploring. The location is very central, with lots of restaurants, cafés, shops and spas within easy walking distance. The hotel itself is clean, modern and set in beautiful, lush surroundings. It also isn’t a huge resort, which we liked, as it was quick and easy to get back to the room or head out again. The air conditioning in our room was strong and worked really well. The staff were consistently friendly, and the traffic manager at the front was particularly helpful with crossing the busy road and helping taxis get in and out. There were a few things that stopped it feeling truly five-star for us. Check-in was quite lengthy after a long day of travelling, and there was some early-morning noise from sweeping outside the room and the shower/plumbing. Housekeeping also came at around 8am on our first morning. We hadn’t put the bamboo privacy sign out, which was our oversight, but having only checked in the night before, a slightly later visit would have been appreciated. Breakfast was included and was okay, but portions were small and some basics, such as sugar for tea and coffee, were missing. There are lots of excellent cafés nearby, which we preferred. The gym is very small and limited, so we chose to train elsewhere in Ubud, which was easy to do. We didn’t use the pool or spa, so can’t comment on those. Overall, a beautiful, well-located hotel with lovely staff, but not quite five-star by Weste