Four Seasons Sayan

We went there for our 20th Anniversary. Greeting- very warm welcome by staff. Welcome ceremony performed with a flower for each guest placed in your hair, sash, hand washing ritual & a gong. Entrance way is smaller in comparison to other luxury hotels but adequate & exclusive private feeling. After the walk down the stairs, you are greeted & seated with a welcome drink & cold towel. Our drink was watermelon, lime & mint. 😋 Main lobby- very small. 2 counters that do everything for all guests. Very efficient. When we took at tour of our room, I realized it was not the room we booked. Mistake on their part. While they looked into it, we went for dinner. We stayed in a 1 bedroom Villa. Villas- the property is huge so the rooms are very spread out & private. Can take golf cart to your room or walk. Outside by pool the bar area has a ice bucket, complimentary capsules for espresso coffee machine, teas, bottled water, crunchy dry potato sticks ( I didn???t like) & these soft ginger candies which I loved! Amenities- Above Safe: OFF insect repellant, flash light, insect killer spray, straw beach bag for your use. Wish I knew that ahead of time so I didn???t have to pack all this. By bath tub - Insense sticks, candle, bath salts, soap by Etro Milano Water closet: needs a paint job on walls. No fan. Can light incense sticks 😄 By bathroom sinks- after sun gel, body lotion. Inside drawers- Q tips, hair clips, nail file, toothbrushes, toothpaste, face cotton pads, hair dryer with cool temperature button. Desk- 2 seasonal fresh fruits provided daily on a small plate such as Baby bananas, green oranges (sour), snake fruit. Beside the bed: A TV A small vial of mixed oils. You can put a couple of drops on your wrists & behind your ears to ???Sleep like a baby???. How nice! Complimentary bottled water & glass Charger ports on both sides of the bed. They can provide converter chargers if you forgot yours at home. A box of tissues. They have thought of everything! Switches for lights are all over the room. So many light switches. Have to figure it out. Etro Shampoo, conditioner, body wash & lotion are all in refillable ceramic bottles. Bed & pillows are super comfortable. Housekeeping: so thoughtful! I had long charger cords & they tidied it up with a Four Seasons Velcro tie. They put our wet bathing suits on a wooden drying rack to dry. They constantly refilled the candy jar & anything that was used. I wrote a note to housekeeping that we didn???t like the oranges & would prefer snake fruit & they replaced with lots of snake fruit. At turn down, they put romantic ambiance lights on in the room. They are observant & do small things to make it perfect! Sound of river can be heard all day from our Villa. Very relaxing. If you???re from North America, you may be accustomed to 3 ply tissues & toilet paper. It seems that in Bali, this is not possible. It???s all 1 ply. ?????? I???m not sure if it???s because their septic system can???t accommodate thicker toilet paper or that???s the standard in Indonesia. You may want to bring you own. Restaurant- Ayung Terrace. We had the short ribs but it had too much brown sauce. We also ordered something with pork loin, chicken rice & vegetables. It was all mediocre. Disappointing for the Four Seasons. 1st impression of their food was disappointing so it was the last time we dined there. We ate dinner there that 1st night & decided to eat in town for every meal afterwards. Crackers with peanut sauce was the only thing that was delicious. Service is excellent. Pool- small but very nice! Has showers right beside the pool. Cold towels, water & occasional treats provided by the pool staff. We had frozen watermelon when we were there. Concierge- amazing! Shuttle Bus is complimentary to Ubud Centre. Leaves every 2 hours from 9am til 5pm. It can drop to nearby area if there???s only 1-2 people in the shuttle. 😄 Overall: very private, quiet setting. Everyone is so friendly. All staff know your name & greet you by your name throughout the entire resort! Makes you feel so special. A very personalized experience! Would go back in a heartbeat! We went to St.Regis Nusa Dua afterwards & it was an amazing stay as well but very different. See my review on TA as well.

We have been extensively travelling around Bali trying out Hotel Pool Villas. Each place has offered something different, but the Four Seasons in Sayan is something else again. You can read the blog at smalltravels dot blog Located in the Sayan valley, with the Ayung river weaving through it, this is a mystical setting for a unique hotel. You arrive to an ordinary entrance - just off an ordinary road, in what appears to be the middle of nowhere and wind your way down a steep drive way. Once there access to the hotel itself is by walking across a large wooden bridge to a stunning huge lily pond suspended above a valley of trees. The entrance is a staircase that descends from the middle of the pond to a lobby below. It is gob smacking. I have never arrived at a hotel like it. You are skimming above the trees, at least 4 stories high with a stunning outlook over water lilies, across the valley. Under the lily pond is the main building. Here you will find a treetop bar, restaurant and the spa. All the hotel rooms are also located in this building. The villas are scattered around the rest of the resorts park like gardens. More on those later. You can meander through rice paddies to the main pool area and River Side cafe, or visit the outdoor cooking school or one of the many yoga platforms. The main pool is spilt across two levels as the river meanders below. It is not a large space but it was never crowded, even though the hotel was full when we stayed. All villas have their own pool so I suspect many people choose to stay there instead. The riverside pool is well worth visiting. You can swim up to the edge and watch river rafting groups squeal and splash through the gentle rapids directly below you. At first this hotel seems like a perfectly pleasant, green jungle type place, but within an hour or so, you feel an incredible sense of calm. The jungle noises, the gently running water feeding the gardens, the river sounds, the bird and insect life, the stunning flowers, the terraced rice paddies, all start to culminate and you realise you are in a sacred and special place. A complimentary guided walk, takes you through the jungle to a local house, where you are welcomed inside and can see close up how the Balinese people in Ubud live. They were incredibly welcoming and kind. It also gives you an insight into how the hotel has helped its community, paying rent, providing jobs and supporting their way of life. Along with the guided walk there are also numerous complimentary yoga classes, cycle tours and paid activities on offer every day - like river rafting, secret temple tours and a Balinese cooking school. In the evenings there is traditional music and dance in the lobby bar. A complimentary shuttle every two hours means accessing Ubud is easy and pain free. Having just had two treatments at the previous hotel, I didn't used the spa itself, but we did enjoy the various hot and cold plunge pools located next to the gym (which I didn't use either - I was too busy eating breakfast and getting fat!) Speaking of breakfast - the food is world class - exactly what you would expect from the Four Seasons brand. Served al la carte in the main restaurant, there was no end to options, from healthy chai and berry smoothy bowls to chocolate pancakes and ice-cream. It was beautifully done and a highlight. Lunch and dinner at the Riverside cafe was also stunning. Room service was also quick and good. The pool villas themselves are incredible. You access each via a lotus pond on the roof top, where you can sit and read, do yoga or meditate. Then you descend the spiral staircase into your new home. This is not a hotel for the disabled, although they do have a couple of rooms that you can access without stairs. The lounge area is outside, kept cool by fans and gives you direct access to your pool and outdoor shower. Butterflies dance across the water, birds bathe on its edge and the jungle comes right in close. Cleverly built into the cascading hillside, the outdoor room is cool and the indoor bedroom air-conditioned, so we spent more time outside in this villa than in any other. I loved watching the day end, by candlelight, with incense burning from the deck. The villas are 20 years old but they don't feel tired. They feel like a tree house should, with lots of wood and windows. The villa pool is deep and perfectly big enough, but the riverside main pool was outstanding so we swam there each day. The villa pool was perfect for a quick dip to cool off if you needed to. Once again it is incredibly private. It has been a very different experience and one I would absolutely recommend. No visit to Bali is complete without some time spent in Ubud. It is worth the hassle to get here and if budget allows, definitely worth staying a few nights at this resort. The hotel rooms (as opposed to the villas) are very reasonably priced and you would experience almost everything that the hotel offers. It is the one hotel so far, where I would say the Pool Villa - while amazing, is not necessary, if your budget won't stretch that far. The Four Seasons service was, as expected, flawless. They know your name, the General Manager went out of his way to welcome us, and followed up during our stay to ensure we were happy. Nothing is a problem, service is excellent and requests are a followed up on promptly. It is a hotel I would come back to with friends, family or even on my own. Each would offer up different experiences and a different feel. Is it worthy of the travel and leisure magazine award - best hotel in the world? I'm not sure - there are so many wonderful places to stay - but this one is right up there and it is certainly unique. I will leave a piece of my heart behind in this very special place.