Soori Bali - A Review

Joanne Woolley is a travel junkie and member of our Cleveland Collection Sales Team. She visited Soori Bali and was kind enough to share her travel blog with us.

90 minutes from Denpasar airport, a very scenic drive through several local villages and along some very small bumpy country roads as so remote. The resort is set in a very peaceful location on the Southwest coast with a combination of soft powdery black sand beach on one side and rice paddy fields the other. At the end of the beach, there is a bluff that has a local Hindu temple built on it. This area caters for private parties, weddings, and also chilled out sunset cocktails on bean bags with lit lanterns so it’s very relaxing with amazing sunset views. This hotel comes recommended for 3- 4 nights to rest and unwind, you cannot swim in the sea as the waves are too strong. In the morning's local fishermen come down to the beach and local tour companies offer horse riding. Tanah Lot temple is only 20 minutes away by car. The hotel is built in Asian style with water courtyards and gardens throughout. There is WIFI throughout the resort, a library and daily yoga classes.

There are two restaurants, Cotta offers Western and Ombak offers Asian, the food was very good and famous chefs visit the hotel once a year to work. This year is was the UK chef Tom Kerridge. The spa was large with experienced therapists mainly from Thailand and Mauritius. Prices were reasonable and the organic spa products are located throughout in the restrooms, villas, beach and pool areas and gift shop (good if you get down to the beach and realised you had forgotten something).

The hotel offers Segways as well as golf buggies to get around the local villages as well as down to breakfast etc, the beach and ocean villas are located down by the beach and pool area. These villas are not an individual or single storey, the Beach Villa’s are more popular with the Asian market as they are on the ground floor and their pools are shaded. The Terrace Villas are single storey and individual and these over look the rice paddy fields. They are set at the rear of the resort higher up on land away from the beach. The pools in these rooms are larger than the beach villas with sun and the bathrooms have an outdoor shower. The Ocean Villas are built on top of the Beach Villas and have lots of sun and a larger pool. The view from the bed when you wake up each morning is a direct sea view and these rooms are more private as they are elevated. The three bedroom villas are at the back of the resort with partial sea view from the pool and rice paddy view from the rooms. They consist of a master suite with a bathroom, a walk in dresser, a lounge area and direct access to the pool. The second and third bedrooms are separate with their own entrance and bathrooms. Downstairs there is an open plan living room in the basement with a diner/kitchen area. There is also a 10 bedroom villa.

This resort offers day trips including rice plantations, local markets to buy produce for cookery lessons, eco tours and visits to Ubud. I really liked the Rice Terrace villas for a contrast to the beach and worth upgrading from Beach Villa to Ocean to be able to sunbathe around the pool, have better views and get more privacy.

For more information contact our travel experts, or call 020 7843 3531.