Conrad Bali Resort and Spa

We have just returned from our second visit to Conrad Bali. It’s our favourite hotel in the world. Great location, beautiful gardens, amazing pools, incredible breakfast (almost everything is homemade), stylish rooms, superb kids club and the most attentive and brilliant team of staff, who do everything they can to make you feel welcome, relaxed and looked after. A special mention to Fikri, who looked after us by the pool every day and to all the staff in kids’ club. We really hope to visit again, thank you for giving us the perfect end stay to our family trip to Indonesia.

My family and I had an excellent time at the Conrad Bali. It’s probably one of the best resorts we have been to in the world.

The good:

• the grounds are so beautiful and the ground staff work very hard to keep it impeccable. The pools and lagoons connect and are wonderful to paddle in. There’s a large kids pool which is very shallow. I just wish less adults use it to play endangering the younger kids and toddlers which the pool was intended for. Staff should be more vigilant.
• The staff in the resort are super friendly and super helpful, even to the many guests who were (unfortunately) very rude, disrespectful and entitled towards them. The staff still treated them with respect and patience even though those guests didn’t deserve it. The staff made staying at the Conrad a wonderful experience, from check in, the restaurants, housekeeping, pool staff and ice cream lady (Jennifer).
• The food - heaven! The Conrad has 3 main restaurants with various theme nights and buffets. The food was high quality throughout, delicious and plentiful. The staff were equally welcoming and friendly. My kids loved talking to them and the staff would take the time to teach them about local Bali cuisine and culture. So thank you to the staff again!

The not so good:

• not enough sun beds. In my experience having been to many resorts around the world, this is a universal problem. However Conrad - admitted knowing they are 100% capacity during high season - should have a more reasonable amount of sun beds. You can reserve cabanas but otherwise you have to sit on a sun bed early before breakfast to reserve your spot for the day
• I think the hotel should charge people for food wastage. Some guests take piles and piles of food from the buffets and don’t eat it. Why take it? Leave some for others and don’t waste food. Staff are clearing plates and plates of untouched food. It’s horrible. This should be discouraged.
• There are lots of small maintainence issues around. For example broken sockets, sockets coming off walls, sockets and switches with no power. Broken tiles around the pools. Broken light switches. Peeling wall paper etc
• The beach is ok but not idyllic. Bali has an island has a major rubbish problem where tourists are throwing plastics and bottles (full of urine) into the sea. The rubbish gets washed onto shores which is horrible to swim in or walk on the beach with. We didn’t let the kids on the beach for that reason but it’s a first world problem compared to the what the marine life suffer from the rubbish thrown. Bali is such a beautiful place and just wish guests respect the island instead of treating it as a dumping ground.
• We stayed in a Conrad Suite room as a family of 4. Beware - they face the main road. God knows why they put the suites there and the cheaper rooms get a better view of the beach. the Conrad Suites are amazing inside but are very noisy at night as the main road outside are full of motorbikes all night and start again early morning. The suites are not sound proof.