February 2, 2015

“Absolute paradise!”

Prior to our Bali- trip we spent many hours comparing the (many) beautiful villa’s. We kept coming back to Villa Banjar Beach. And upon arriving, were extremely happy with our choice. No matter how beautiful, the photos don’t do it justice, it is so much better still!

The house is beautifully laid out, in true Balinese style but with every Western comfort. It has a huge, airy living, three spacy bedrooms each with its own beautiful bathroom. There is a huge sitting area outside, very comfy daybeds, and the lovely gazebo at the end of the garden, right on the beach. My very special spot, lay there reading, watching the waves roll in. And all six of us had several wonderful massages there!

The gardens are huge and gorgeous, and so very well kept. The infinity pool is another beautiful feature, and again with those little touches like build-in seats. I must definitelu also mention the staff; consisting of gardener, security and our two lovely ladies Kedak and Desan. They took so very well care of us; kept the villa spotlessly clean, prepared wonderful breakfasts with smoothies, lots of fresh fruit, eggs etc. Some days also asked for lunch, and ate in almost every evening simply because the meals were so wonderful.

The house is build in such a way that you profit from the lovely breeze, and has great airco in the bedrooms. Which, all six of us regularly comented on, had really great beds and a choice of pillows. The whole house is so very tasteful, with an eye for comfort but obviously a great eye for luxury as well. It really felt like a warm and welcoming home, and we had an unforgettable family reunion with our backpacking daughters. All contacts beforehand and during our stay with the owners were quick, efficient and very pleasant. Not an easy one to please, I cannot recommend Villa Banjar Beach highly enough, and would not hesitate to come back. Actually, we so much enjoyed our first encounter with beautiful Bali, and its wonderful population, that we are definitely planning coming back, combining with visit to Java and Lombok and ending with some leisure time at Villa Banjar Beach.
Will separately review our excursions with Emerald Cycling tour (cycling downhill from volcano), Arrows Dive Centre (snorkelling at Menjangan Island), Mahjong Tracking (hike with guide Putu). Hesitated about the dolphinspotting as we’d read some reviews about dozens of boats chasing the poor dolphins. We had arranged it via the Villa, left a little later (7:00), were picked up directly from our own beach, encountered no more than 3 other boats and were surrendered by at least a hundred dolphins!

Marion Engelschman