Review: The Balé Hotel Bali ~ Few vs Many Few vs Many

Review: The Balé Hotel Bali

After 4 nights in Seminyak it’s time to move on. We’re leaving the crowded tourist area and head for Nusa Dua to stay at The Balé Hotel Bali. Nusa Dua is one of the strangest ‘neighborhoods’ of Bali. This is where all the ‘big’ hotels are. And with big, we mean really big. Luckily for us, there a small gem besides them called The Balé, and they’re willing to host us for a few nights.

During our visit there’s this huge conference in Bali. All the big world leaders are coming, including Barack Obama. All of these big officials stay in Nusa Dua. Why? Because it’s a compound. The area can be shut off completely. Every vehicle get checked for explosives. They want to know who’s inside? What’s it carrying? We’ve heard the stories, so when we tell our cab driver to take us there, he’s a bit hesitant. Not that he’s not willing to go, but we don’t really look like expensive government officials.

So after we say we mean business, we’re on our way to the resort. At the gate of Nusa Dua we – just like every other car – are checked and asked where we’re going. It’s all good.
When entering, we Immediately feel like we’re in a completely different world. We’ve seen these kind of ‘neighborhoods’ on television. Everything is super green and well thought off – infrastructure wise. There are nu bums on the street and hardly any stray animals. It’s a bit unreal after staying in Seminyak.

But hey, we’re here for the resort, kinda. And when we arrive, we know we made the right decision of coming to this place. The Balé not as big as the other hotels around. It only has 29 ‘pavilions’ and it’s square meters doesn’t even come close to it’s neighbor The Mulia. The entrance is a bit hidden, but that has something to do with contemporary architecture. After walking trough a few tall white pillars we enter the lobby. We can see the reception, but on our left hand starts a huge staircase which most definitely leads to the center (pool/restaurant) of the resort. The place looks amazing.

Of course we want to check out the resort as soon as possible but as usual we first need to check in. They seem to know who we are and are sorry to tell us our villa isn’t ready yet. A bummer? Not really because it seems like we’ve been upgraded so it’s probably worth the wait. So we have some time to kill. What better to do then check the place out? We climb the big staircase that grabbed our attention some minutes ago and it seems like with each step we take, the place gets more beautiful. All the staff is friendly and they’re all smiling (some of them even know our names). The architecture is awesome. All of the buildings are white but there’s so much green that you sometimes forget it’s a white resort.

After some strolling around and releasing some ‘Oooh’s’ and ‘aaaah’s’ we check back at the reception if the room is ready. Not yet. What else is there to do we ask. Well, it seems like they have this private beach. It’s within walking distance but the hotel driver want to bring us if we don’t mind. Of course we don’t. It’s 35 degrees outside. We don’t really feel like walking in this weather ;).

The private beach is amazing. The beds are perfect, there’s free sunscreen. The drinks you order at the bar will be put on your room number and there’s this stand where you can hire all kinds of different water sports equipment. Then this guy comes to us with his phone saying it’s for ‘us’. The reception is on the other side of the line telling us our room is ready.

Once we get back to the reception, we’re taken to our villa. It’s only a 5 minute walk from the lobby. Inside the villa there’s the swimming pool which you can enter from the inside, there’s the green grass with outside beds. The inside is spacious and the decoration is typical Bali – just like the rest of the resort – which we like a lot. We can describe all we want but pictures tell you more than a thousands words, we’ve heard.

So, let’s conclude 2 wonderful nights at The Balé The resort is amazing. The food at the restaurant is perfect. People are friendly. Weather is fine. Private beach is super luxurious. Downside is the location of the hotel. It’s remote, which could appeal to certain people, but we like to get out and do/see stuff. This is not the right hotel for these kind of travelers. Also, the hotel has this huge mosquito problem. I know, they can’t help it. They do whatever they can to stop it, but it’s like carrying water to the ocean.