Fav hotels & restaurants in Ubud, Sayan, Amed, Permuteran

[Sam Woodward]

Our best hotels and restaurants of Bali: Ubud, Sayan, Amed, Pemuteram

Notes – November 2009

$1 = ~10,000 Rp 2009
$1 = ~9000 Rp 2007

NOTE: As of Nov. 2009 US currency printed prior to 2004 is not accepted in Indonesia. Neither are any bills of series CB or DB. The government changes this rule every few years, so check on the web ahead of time. It is a good idea to check all the cash you plan to carry before leaving the US.

Here are some suggestions for bases in Bali. Please see our attached notes on travel in Bali dated 1996, 2000 and 2004 for more information.

Beach

Sanur or Seminyak or Jimbaran South, near the airport and the Kuta scene. These places have scenes of their own + beautiful beaches. Jimbaran is famous for fresh seafood. Great restaurants and any kind of chain. Boutique stores.

Amed Northeast coast. Quiet, rural, beach accommodations. Great snorkeling off the beach. Great diving nearby. A few restaurants.

Pemuteran Northwest coast. National Parks above and beneath the water. Tremendous snorkeling at Menjangan Island or off the beach. Quiet, rural area. Dry and weaker economy. Nice resorts, but not a lot of choice.

Lembongan Island I haven’t been, but you might want to read up on it.

Hill + culture
Ubud and surrounding villages (Peliatan, Sayan, Mas etc.) Central hills. Hotel rooms with incredible views for $100, great views for $20. Always lush foliage. Rice field and ridge trekking. Vibrant arts scene with impressive museums. Temple festivals and public cremation ceremonies. Authentic cultural performances every night. Great restaurants. No chain restaurants or billboards! Local boutiques. See the end of this note for more on temple festivals.

Drive time from Airport to Ubud—45-60 min. (90 min. in unusually bad traffic)
Ubud to Seminyak—45 min. Ubud to Pemuteran—3.5 hours.

In November 2009 we spent our first 10 days in Sayan Terrace Resort (just outside of Ubud). The views and energy are spectacular there. Room 110 has the best view, then 111. See our 2004 notes below for hotel details.

Sayan Terrace is a bit out of Ubud town and requires transport. The hotel charges $4-5 per trip into town. Ubud is bikeable, though the roads can be hazardous. For a family, it might make sense to book a driver for a few hours, or to have him on call. Meet someone with a car you like (they are everywhere as you walk the streets), get a ride back to the hotel and make conversation, and get his business card with mobile number. He’d love to become your regular chauffer.

Excellent driver based in Ubud

Our regular driver, who always is very accommodating, on time, and less pricey than others, is

Gus Putu
Mobile 081 933 005 931.

When not booked, Putu is based near the top of Monkey Forest Road (Zona X)—other drivers in that area can point him out. We were invited to his baby daughter’s “earth touching” ceremony in 2007—interesting and charming! He can make suggestions for itineraries all over the island.

Anhera Hotel
Jl. Raya Sanggingan, Ubud, Bali
Tel. +62-361-977-843 and 845
info@anherahotelbali.com; http://www.anherahotelbali.com

About midway through our visit we shifted from Sayan Terrace for a change of scene, peeking over a different valley. The rooms are built into a hillside slope. All have beautiful views of the Campuhan Ridge. You can call them from a restaurant after dinner and they’ll pick you up! (Many hotels have this service if they are a bit out of town.)

Great news! In 2009 Anhera hired a gifted chef named Dody Lesmana. Dody prepared a wonderful, multi-course meal designed especially for our small group (and with our participation). It was held on the open roof deck of Anhera. The power happended to be out that night, so we dined by candlelight with the stars brilliant above! We asked Dody for an Indonesian sampler and all agreed it was the best Indonesian food we had ever tasted! The price was very reasonable.

Here is Dody’s menu. I’m sure he would be happy to reproduce it, or adapt, on request:

Candlelight Indonesian Banquet
December 9, 2009 7:30pm
Anhera Hotel

Starters
Soup Buntut (Oxtail Soup)
Spring Rolls
Satay Lilit Ayam (Balinese style, with chicken)
Duck Satay
Prawn, Peanut and Melinjo Crackers

Entrees
Grilled Cumi-cumi (calamari)
Fried Fish with curry sauce
Beef Masau Merah
Fried Chicken Galangal
Gado-Gado

Accompanied by a variety of homemade sambals:
Sambal Bajak
Coconut Sambal
Pineapple Sambal
Sabal Matah Bali
Sambat Ijo
Vegetable achaar

Dessert
Fried coconut bananas
with strawberry and chocolate sauces and grated cheese

Anhera is next to a nice restaurant called Indus (977-684) with the same owner as Casa Luna (977-409). Down the road is the award winning Mosaic (975-768-reservations recommended), run by someone who used to be at the French Laundry. It’s a short drive to Café des Artistes (see below).

Cheaper sleep: a wonderful, $20 alternative right in the middle of Ubud (but hidden in a quiet oasis) is

Gayatri Bungalows 2
Monkey Forest St., Beji Lane
(it’s down the alley which lies across from the intersection with Jl. Dewi Sita, at the north end of the soccer field)
Tel. +62-361-979129
ketut_bagia@yahoo.com

We didn’t stay here, but were tempted. Ask for an upper level, rice field view room. They have both A/C and fan rooms.

Here is a must-try restaurant. The Belgian owner raises his own beef and the steaks are fantastic. Actually, everything is good:

Café des Artistes
Jl. Bisma
Tel. 0361-972-706
cafe_desartistes@hotmail.com

Also, always friendly and excellent with a vast menu:

Café Wayan (Monkey Forest Road)
Tel. 975-447

We had a delicious, perfectly traditional American Thanksgiving feast (buffet) at Tutmak Restaurant (on Jl. Dewi Sita, off Monkey Forest, near the football field). We kept meaning to return, but never made it.

Ubud Spas

There are many, many spas in Ubud. Most are a much better value than getting spa treatment in your hotel. Typically a one hour massage with exfoliating scrub, yogurt wash and soak in a hot tub filled with tropical flowers costs $15 in a spa. But there are many different packages.

Favorites in 2009 included ZEN Spa and SANg Spa.

Amed 2009

We spent two nights on the beach in Amed at the new

Puri Wirata Dive Resort
Info@puriwirata.com; info@diveamed.com
http://www.puriwirata.com
Tel. (0363) 23 523

Rooms were very comfortable with AC, DVD players, and a large deck. Rack rate was $55 per night for a double (they have cheaper and more expensive rooms as well). There are two pools, the restaurant was fine, and the dive shop excellent. This is convenient for divers but the resort is great also for non-diving companions. We would definitely stay there again. The hotel sits right on the (pebbly) beach. There is fantastic snorkeling (and diving) off the beach. We did a drift dive from down the coast to the house beach—very nice corals, tons of colorful fish, a huge moray, rays, etc. The divemaster said that if there had been current, we definitely would have seen more shark, barracuda and tuna. Next time!

Sails Restaurant
0363-22006, mobile 0852 3710 2701

Sails is a cute, trendy restaurant that puts together some interesting dishes. Great view daytime, spectacular starry sky at night! They will pick you up from your hotel for free and bring you home.


Our best hotels and restaurants of Bali 2004: Ubud, Sayan, and Amed

Here are some notes about some favorite places during our three-week visit to Bali in May 2004. We spent six nights in Ubud, four nights in Amed, another two nights in Ubud, then two nights in Sayan, just outside of Ubud. It was low season and tourism was still slow in the aftermath of the 2002 bombing. Of course Bali felt as safe, friendly and magical as ever.

The exchange rate was about 9,200 rupees to US $1.

General comments about travel in Bali:

You can stay in Kuta, Sanur, Seminyak, etc. if you arrive in the evening. But on this, our third visit, we chose to skip that part of the island altogether. We arrived in Denpasar at about 7pm--and our hotel in Ubud sent a car to meet the flight. Then it was a 45 minute ride up north.

It’s easy to arrange day (or night) trips to the Kuta area from Ubud. Just arrange drop-off and pick-up with a driver.

You can get a private, aircon car with driver to take you almost anywhere on the island for 150-300K. If you want to drive yourself, you’ll need an international driver’s license, which is not hard to get.

We booked our first three nights in a place I’d read about in other people’s posts: Tegal Sari Resort. But our first morning we hired a driver to take us to look at 8 or 9 other places I’d read about. We wanted to see the rooms and the pools and find out what kinds of deals we could negotiate face to face. That worked out quite well. In one place, we eventually ended up getting an incredible room for US$75 per night (it listed for $175). I don’t know if that strategy would be as effective in high season (Dec.-Jan. and July-August), but it might work then as well.

I won’t quote the prices we negotiated for the hotels below since they would be misleading--the price you get depends on the situation at the time you’re negotiating. But be sure to bargain--it’s natural here.

There must be crime on Bali, but we’ve never seen evidence. Rome and Amsterdam are MUCH more dangerous in terms of pickpockets and robbers.

Ubud

Note on Tegal Sari: the hotel was very good value for the money (rooms ~ $20-40), but it wasn’t quite as spectacular as we have come to expect from Bali and it was a tad too close to road noise. However, we can see why people like it!

There are lots of places to stay in Ubud–you won’t have any trouble finding accommodations. Just ask your driver to help you check things out; or park your bags and walk for awhile.

Unfortunately our beloved Vila Bukit Ubud (see our 2000 and 1996 posts) is no more. The grounds were a busy construction site during our visit (the new resort is called Uma). Since we couldn’t stay at Vila Bukit, we were forced to find new homes. And that worked out well!

Hotels:

ARMA Resort.
http://www.armaresort.com/
mailto:info@armaresort.com
PO Box 9696, Pengosekan, Ubud 80571, Bali.
Tel. (62-361) 976 659

ARMA stands for the Agung Rai Museum of Art--it’s one of the three main museums in Ubud and is located in the vicinity of the Monkey Forest (it’s close to Tegal Sari and adjacent to the village of Peliatan). But ARMA is much more than a museum--it’s a performance venue (Balinese dance and music), it’s a gallery space, it’s a foundation dedicated to preserving traditional Balinese culture (especially through training and promoting young artists), and it’s 15 bungalow-style rooms and 5 amazing villas. The resort grounds are Bali-gorgeous! We spent eight nights there and loved it. The deluxe room we had during our second sojourn was truly spectacular! I am a swimmer and always look for a decent lap pool--the one at ARMA was reasonable and usually empty. They offer free tea, coffee and traditional Balinese snacks by the pool in the afternoon. But the greatest thing about ARMA is the culture connection: every day after school, children come to ARMA to learn Balinese classical dance--it’s always free, and great fun, to watch! The most talented kids dance each Saturday night at the ARMA Open Stage, next to the Museum--don’t miss it. And the charming and informative Agung Rai himself-- owner of the resort and director of the museum and foundation--often hosts guests on short field trips to see “his” Bali or to receive a special blessing from the Peliatan high priest. He is an amazing man! ARMA offers a wide range of cultural classes, but the time with Agung Rai is gratis. ARMA also is very generous with it’s in-house transport service--they are willing to drop and pick you up anywhere in the Ubud area, free, up until 10pm. ARMA has air-conditioning, but no TV and no on-site web access. However, there are web cafes, a supermarket and ATMs on the road, outside the Café ARMA entrance. Finally, the staff are great--very, very helpful with all things--and ARMA was a wonderful place to stay!

Sayan Terrace
http://www.sayanterraceresort.com/
mailto:info@sayanterraceresort.com
Jl. Raya Sayan, Ubud, Bali
Tel: (62 361) 974 384, Fax: (62 361) 975 384

Having read “A House in Bali” by Colin McPhee several times, we wanted to hike on the Sayan ridge, northwest of Ubud. Following directions in our guidebook, we started out from the Sayan Terrace resort. When we returned after the hike, we looked at their rooms (and those incredible views of the Ayung River gorge!) and decided to spend our last two nights in Bali at Sayan Terrace. It is next to, and above, the Four Seasons, so you get the same view at 25% of the cost! The Sayan Terrace staff were great--they even carved us some Balinese sate sticks to cook with at home. Unfortunately, the Sayan Terrace pool is for splashing only, but it IS a cute little “infinity pool” and, again, offers those fantastic views. Shopping Op: there are some very tasteful art, jewelry and décor shops on the road, near the Sayan Terrace entrance. There are also two restaurants nearby: Gaya and Red Rice. We timed our move to Sayan to coincide with a once-in-25-year festival at the temple in the next town. It was the most amazing we’ve seen! The Sayan Terrace staff were kind enough to give us rides to the town on their motorcycles, then we easily found paid transport back a few hours later. It was a great experience! One caution: Sayan is several kilometers from Ubud and the Sayan Terrace isn’t set up for guest transport as well as ARMA. They got us where we needed to go, but be sure to ask if you need to pay for the ride (we didn’t, but at first all the rides were on our bill). In spite of those minor complaints, we certainly will stay at Sayan Terrace again. The memories of lying in bed, looking out the nearly-all-glass wall of the bedroom at the clouds and river gorge as they change color during sunrise are too sweet not to repeat. PS--if you’ve read “A House in Bali,” the Sayan house was adjacent to the current Sayan Terrace resort. And the owner’s mother used to cook for McPhee!

Restaurants:

Mozaic may be the best continental-style restaurant in Bali. Run by a Franco-American chef formerly with the French Laundry in Napa Valley, California, dining at Mozaic is a wonderful experience. One is steered by the staff towards the prix fixe dinners, but everything also is available a la carte. With wine, we spent about US$75 each. Mozaic is near the Neka Museum and Indus Restaurant.

Three Monkeys is a pleasant bistro with good food on Monkey Forest Road. Sometimes dessert is free with dinner!

Gaya is a pyramid in Sayan, five minutes walk from Sayan Terrace. It’s set in a rice field--the bottom floor is an art gallery. and on top is a charming restaurant and bar. Gaya specializes in Italian cuisine, but has Indonesian dishes as well.

Amed

Amed is a small fishing village whose name is commonly used to refer to a semi-developed coastal area north of Candidasa. There are many small hotels and restaurants scattered along this beach road. Some are right on the beach, others on bluffs above (with fantastic views). There are black sand beaches here, though they often are crowded with fishing boats.

Diving and snorkeling: There is a great WWII wreck to dive in Tulamben (north of Amed) and reefs and walls in Amed itself. We saw sharks, rays, turtles, and many other creatures. I dove with EuroDive. They were fine, but some of their equipment was old—once my depth gauge got stuck, another time the booties they gave me gathered more pebbles than they kept out. So next time I might try EcoDive instead. The “Japanese Wreck” is about 10 meters off a beach near the southern end of the Amed stretch. Snorkelers also will enjoy this wreck and the coral and fish are nice all along this beach. Some people I spoke with were staying at the next bay south, at the Meditasi bungalows. They said the snorkeling was even better there, but I didn’t see it for myself.

Hotel:

Blue Moon Villa
http://www.bluemoonvilla.com
mailto:info@bluemoonvilla.com
Selang Beach, Amed – Karangasem, Bali
Tel: (62 812) 362 2597 (International), 0812 362 2597 (Local)
Direct Satellite Phone: please be aware of the time difference. Bali is GMT +8:00
(62 868) 1210 3650 (International), 0868 1210 3650 (Local)
Fax: (62 363) 21044 (International), 0363 21044 (Local)

Blue Moon Villa has wonderful staff, comfortable rooms, and beautiful views. The restaurant is nice too. Blue Moon is on the bluff, but the stairs to the beach are only a minute or two away. The Japanese wreck beach is a kilometer south--an easy walk.

Restaurant:

Pavilion Restaurant, just around the corner from Blue Moon and above the Japanese wreck beach, offers a surprising and delightful menu beginning at 10am. Australian owner/chef Donna supervises the kitchen and greets guests too. Some nights Pavilion organizes traditional dance performances--they are small scale and very personal with many photo ops!

Have a great time in Bali!

Scott Wittet
swittetATpathDOTorg

Our best of Bali 2000: Kuta – Amed - Pemuteran (north coast) - Ubud

Here are some notes about the favorite places of a 40-something couple during our three-week visit to Bali in March 2000. Because it was the rainy season and due to the previous political troubles in Timor, Lombok, and other parts of Indonesia, tourism was down. It was bad for the businesspeople but great for us since we could bargain for everything, especially hotel rooms and rental cars! You should know that there were no serious problems on Bali…it’s a different place altogether.

The exchange rate was about 7,330 rupees to US $1.

You can get a private, aircon car with driver to take you almost anywhere on the island. If you want to drive yourself, you’ll need an international driver’s license, which I understand is not too hard to get.

You can stay in Kuta, Sanur, etc. if you arrive in the evening. Alternately you could go straight to Ubud your first night. Ubud is only 45-60 minutes from the airport. If you arrive early in the day, you could go to the north coast (4-5 hours).

Kuta

Kuta is the very touristy area close to the airport. It has the best surfing beaches (and wave action) on Bali and also has beautiful, long white sand beaches. Body surfing was a blast! The biggest waves I’ve ever been abused by! You can find better exchange rates here. You will also find ATMs that honor your Plus or Cirrus system cards and which tend to give decent rates (you can also find ATMs in Ubud and Singaraja in the north, perhaps in other large towns as well). There is good shopping and this is the place to pick up beach clothes, sunscreen, etc. There are lots of bars and clubs. The problems with Kuta are overcrowding and obnoxious beach hustlers selling sarongs, watches, massage – you name it! This is also the place with the most cyber-cafes, though you’ll see plenty in Ubud and Lovina too. If you want to do parasailing, snorkeling, “big banana-ing”, or jetskiing, go to Nusa Dua (near Kuta). But the snorkeling is much better on the North coast, Amed, or Lembongan Island (near Nusa Penida).

Pemuteran

Pemuteran is a small village one hour west of Lovina, 1.5 hours west of Singaraja. The main reason to go there is to relax at a quiet beach resort with diving and snorkeling offshore. You are also just 17 km. From the national marine park (for the best snorkeling you’ve ever done)! It is very quiet in Pemuteran and there is nothing going on at night (not even videos), so bring some books!

Fantastic snorkeling and diving: There is no need to book with a dive shop to go snorkeling at Pulao Menjangan (Deer Island). To get to the park entrance, catch a “bemo” (local mini-bus, costs 1K) outside of Pondok Sari. It will take you the 17 km. to Labuan Lalang, the entrance to the park (it is not on most maps – but is well before Cekik). Don’t worry, it’s a common destination. At the park you will have to pay for a boat and guide (about 217K whether you have one person or six, so try to arrange a group) and rent equipment if you need it. The guides are good and necessary. Our guide was Suparno (nickname No-No) and he was great. You can get box lunches, drinks, or snacks at the small restaurants in the park. The boat fee is for about 3 hours. You can add $$ to stay longer and visit more sites around the island. In 1996 we snorkeled at 5 sites in two days (it was well worth it); but it would have been cheaper to do it in one. Unfortunately, due to reef dynamiting, in 2000 there were only 3 snorkeling spots left. Go soon before they all disappear! One caution if using bemo: they can be harder to catch in the late afternoon, so it’s best to finish by 2 or 3 pm if possible.

Things to do:

You can go to a cultural show every night of the week in Ubud and they are generally worth it. Tickets are about 20K. We saw a wonderful Kecak dance in a small town near Ubud. They performed in front of a marvelous split temple gate, lighting by oil lamp! It was great and the people were extremely gracious.

Ask a driver, waiter, bellboy, or friend if there are any upcoming temple festivals. The festivals are a mix of praying, eating, shopping, seeing and being seen, and gambling. Be sure to take a sarong and sash to wear inside the temple. It’s nice to get a headscarf too – you’ll feel well-dressed. Get a copy of “Have You Been In Bali?” if you can. It’s a local guide full of practical, interesting information on religion and culture (including how to tie a headscarf!)

The Museum Neka is a good art museum – visit it on one of your first days in town to get oriented to Balinese painting. It is next door to Villa Bukit. The Puri Lukisan museum downtown is also very good. The grounds are downright spectacular!

Since we hadn’t gotten quite enough snorkeling yet, we booked with Bali View Dive Center (Tel. 062 0361 753441) for a day trip to Lembongan Island (next to Nusa Penida, off of Sanur). For $40 each they picked us up at our hotel in Ubud at 7 am, took us in a speedboat to the island (about 45 minutes or an hour), let us snorkel in two different spots, gave a box lunch, and got us back home by 3 pm). Nice, professional bunch and one of the cheaper options for that trip. You can pick up their brochures at the reception area in Vila Bukit and probably at many other hotels as well.

Have a great time in Bali!

[motormouth]

Welcome to the forum Sam, wow ,war and peace. For a first timer to Bali this would be a good read. One minor point, Kuta isn't the best spot on Bali for surfing..but hey, if you had a great time there ,what the heck :D :D Sure your not a travel writer in disguise :D

[spicyayam]

That's quite a first post! Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you have a great time in Bali.