The Samaya Ubud

I don’t want to discount another reviewers experience, but I cannot match their experience with ours, as we are currently staying at the hotel. It is a totally magically blissful place. The complex of villas is situated on the side of a steep gorge, with the sounds of water and the tropics everywhere, but otherwise quiet. Our villa is huge, with a beautiful private garden and a large deep pool and pergola to rest in when the sun is too strong. It is spotlessly clean, and the staff make up the room as often as we want. The breakfast can be taken in the top restaurant which overlooks the paddy fields and towards the volcano, or in your villa. You can have any type of breakfast you wish, and it is delicious, you won’t need any lunch. Dinner is in the riverside restaurant. We ate there every night, the chef has designed outstanding variations on Indonesian cuisine, but also prepared us a simple dinner when we arrived a bit lagged. We have really enjoyed the food, and although there are many super restaurants nearby, we didn't see the need to leave. I need to tell you about the staff. They are grace and kindness personified, giving an unbeatable level of service. The manager sought us out to ensure we we having a nice time. Congratulations to them all on what they are doing. We enjoyed the couples spa ritual, also totally wonderful. The hotel is very well sited for touring and we have had 2 full days of the north, east and centre of Bali; staying here cuts about 2 hours of the drive and return to the top spots compared with coastal hotels as traffic in Bali is heavy and so slow. This one of the very best hotels we have stayed in. Yesterday we did see some lizards and some frogs and birds in the garden, but they live here, I’m just visiting!

I booked this property after reading reviews on Tripadvisor. And tripadvisor has never been so wrong. We booked the two bedroom family villa and it was filthy. It seemed like it had not been cleaned for ages. The pool was so dirty even after having it cleaned twice you could still not see the bottom of the pool. There we frogs everywhere. Lizards in room. The rooms are very dated and there was seepage on the walls. The gym had very poor equipment. The entire upkeep of the property was very poor. Talked to Mr. Puttu, hotel manager who was very apologetic. We had planned to stay for 5 nights but left after 3 nights. The food at the swept away restaurant was also very poor. This property does not deserve the number one rating in Sayan.