Sol Beach House Bali Benoa

Our stay was good at a 3.5-4 star resort. The staff in the restaurant at breakfast were very cheerful and friendly and very efficient.

We arrived at 2pm and we werent able to check in until 4pm, but they gave us access to the El Patio Restaurant and we had a lovely meal and drink whilst we waited. We chose the Gold Package and were thrilled that we did. The booking of the sunbeds on the beach (or poolside) were a huge advantage. We stayed in the Suite, top floor and were very happy with our room .. spacious, a little dated but very comfortable. With the Gold Package you have Room Service included, which was fantastic! The laundry service was a big plus too! Pool Area and Bar is great .. again, a little dated, but its very comfortable. We were worried on the 1st night we arrived, as there was Aussie Ockers in the pool, yelling and shouting, as they were drunk and obviously had no respect for other guests. We were so happy to see them leave that same night - late checkout, and after that it was smooth sailing. Sometimes with the 'all inclusive' package, you get twits like that, but every other guest was happy, respectful and displayed common sense and common courtesy towards everyone, so that was lovely to see. We were able to access Standup Paddleboards, Kayaks and bikes which we used to ride to the Bali Collection Shopping Ctr (waaaaay expensive - certainly no bargains here .. the prices were about the same, if not slightly more than Australia - couldnt believe it). The markets next door, and the 6 shops on Level 1 in the hotel were great for little gifts, souvenirs, caps, dresses etc.

The hotel itself is lovely and the room is nice and spacious. The hotel is an all inclusive hotel (which when booked via hotels.com it did not say this and therefore we booked for breakfast only). If you have not booked all inclusive you end up being looked down upon, they have one card machine In the whole resort at reception and we had to keep going to reception for every single thing we bought. They would chase us down for every single transaction, why not just put it on our room number and we pay it all at check out? You have copies of our passports, we wouldn’t run off without paying. One staff member was particularly annoyed with having to go to reception with my fiancé to pay for our meal. Although one of the waiters was lovely. On our first morning housekeeping kept knocking on our door at 8am to clean our room, I’ve never experienced this before in all the hotels I’ve stayed in. I told them we were still sleeping and an hour later they came knocking again. We made sure to put the do not disturb sign up for the remaining days. We stayed in 3 different locations and Benoa/ Nusa Dua was the worst - too commercial and geared towards tourists in a horrible manner. You’ll pay the English rate for everything with 21% resort tax added on to any transaction. If you want to experience Bali then go to Ubud or further north of Bali.

100,000 Rph (10 dollars) for ONE SMALL BINTANG - that was our welcome at the pool bar after arriving to spend one last night on the beach. They might as well say “we think you’re an idiot and are going to make sure you know it” with a smile, or course. We knew straight away we had made a terrible choice - a hotel who wants to treat its customers like morons who are happy to pay 5x what something costs is not a place where I want to spend my money or my time. After of 3 weeks of an incredible adventure in Indo - (3 rd time here) stayed in hip and cool villas, hotels and private residence - are happy with paying a bit more for little luxuries - we unfortunately made a terrible decision and ended up at this cheesy resort (the CanCun of Bali) and were told that a beer, which we had never once paid more than 38k for - at the top end - was 80k plus 21 percent service. We immediately choose to have our massages and our dinner elsewhere. It’s not about the money - it’s about a company gouging beyond belief, customers who choose them. After leaving this dump to go to Jari Menari die amazing massages and BoBs for ribs, we came back feeling better - my partner ordered us a nightcap (knowing we would pay extra ) of 2 jack Daniels doubles (the bottle is 100 dollars in the bottle shop here) - and we were charged just that ... he made the mistake of not asking the price and then got the bill after the drinks were poured. 100 dollars - for 4 single shots of Jack Danials. stay away

Terimakasih for everything!