zainib

For our upcoming Indonesia trip, we are planning to spend 6 or 7 of our 15 days in Bali. We're not really interested in going to the beach, so the plan is to base ourselves in Ubud and do day trips. I've looked into rentals and have found one that's described as 5 km from the center of Ubud in Lodtunduh. The rent for the week is very reasonable and it looks like it's possible to have a driver on call for the entire week for something like $200 (although I may be wrong about that amount). An alternative is a "family suite" at the Alam Sari, (a hotel I know others have recommended here) at more than double the cost of the villa. The Alam Sari is, I know, also out of town and runs a shuttle back and forth 3 times a day.

Any thoughts on villa versus hotel? On being in town versus out? How much of a pain is it to have to travel into town for restaurants, etc? Should we split our time and stay a few days in town and a few days out?

rhkkmk

if the villa is that cheap, i would want to know a lot more about it before i went there....first hand reports and pictures...

kuluk

Private cars and drivers are the one single most easily obtained commodity in Bali, so don't let that be a consideration for you. A full day of driving around should be from rp 300,000 up to rp 600,000 depending on where you are going and how long it takes..(say, up over the mountains to Munduk and back) This translates to US 33 to 66 a day, full-time driving. If you just need pick up and transport to downtown for dance performance and dinner, for example, the cost for round trip may be something like rp 100,000 (US 11). If having dinner in downtown Ubud is a major goal for you, or to be able to stroll out for a coffee or quick shop without calling a driver, then by all means staying downtown Ubud will work for you.

If you will be spending most of your time doing sightseeing, or out and about, as I hope you will, then Lodtunduh is an ok location. There seem to be a million houses for rent popping up in Lodtunduh, probably because the cost of land is (or was) so much cheaper.

You actually can't go much wrong with either. BTW, if you are talking about the Alam Sari in Keliki, I can personally vouch for what a lovely place that is, very small and inviting, great location. But it's not walking distance to Ubud restaurants either.

I personally would prefer a hotel like Alam Sari because of the range of services and management and staff on site they can offer.

kuluk

Sorry, just realized you already know Alam Sari is out of downtown. And also, Ubud is a district, so both are in Ubud, just not in downtown Ubud. Location wise, Keliki versus Lodtunduh, I would pick Keliki.

marmot

I think there are several separate, but related, comparisons here: the choice between Alam Sari and the specific villa that you’ve identified in Lodtunduh, the choice between a private villa and a hotel/resort, and the choice between in town and out of town.

In villa rentals Lodtunduh refers, I believe, both to a specific village and to a larger area bordering on Ubud and extending throughout several communities. Because of increased development in the area, it could be considered part of “greater” Ubud and would be within walking distance to the town’s attractions or could be farther out. I would need to know the name and location of the specific villa to comment further on its amenities.

Alam Sari on the other hand is really in the countryside.

The quality – management, housekeeping and aesthetics – varies WIDELY from villa to villa. And even with on-line feedback it’s hard to get a clear impression of what the actual house and its surroundings will be like until you’re there.

Overall, the Alam Sari offers a pleasant environment, friendly competent management with a heartfelt understanding of Balinese culture. The only complaint I’ve ever heard is that at night you get the noise of trucks downshifting as they accelerate up the rise.

As for the decision between a private villa and a resort: again, it’s hard to generalize as there’s so much variation. To me, a private villa within a resort complex is the best of both worlds. You get privacy and you get resort hotel facilities and consistency.

I’ve never stayed at Alam Sari, but I’ve visited several times. If by family suite you get the owners’ personal villa, Villa Saraswati, then I can tell you that it’s a wonderful house. Simple but gracious, with lovely views of the valley. If you mean a one or two bedroom suite within the resort itself, then the fact that it’s twice the price of the Lodtunduh villa, not including transportation, would be a serious discrepancy.

This, then, begs the question of why is the Lodtunduh villa so cheap? If the “includings” and facilities are equal – e.g., pool, breakfast, airport transport – I would expect the villa to be more. Maybe I don’t have the comparative figures right?

Car & driver for a week @ $200 would be a good deal.

I’m not a great fan of the town Ubud – lesser or greater – but I acknowledge that it’s nice to walk out of your door to meals, shops, spas etc. [Actually, that’s why I like Seminyak.] Wherever you are in the Ubud area you end up driving a good deal, either from town to the attractions in the countryside or the reverse. Alam Sari has a nice restaurant, but for variety you’d need to commute and that 20-30 minute drive might wear on you after a while.

I would note that there are plenty of restaurants located outside of Ubud too, in the various villages and resorts, and new places are popping up every day all over the place. For example, if you had a meal at one of the resorts along the Ayung River valley the travel time would be about the same whether you came from Ubud or Keliki.

NoFlyZone

We rented Villa Dhyan for a week several years ago and it was absolutely terrific. I cannot remember the website but the photos looked excellent and they did not do it justice. We had a staff of 5 (or was it 6) including dirver and car for the week and a private chef.

Check it out, along with its current price, and if your selected villa is similar it will probably exceed your expectations.

zainib

thank you kuluk & marmot for your informative responses

The villa is called Villa Joglo (it's listed on VRBO as #22395) and owned by a friend of a friend. It looks nice, but it does lack such things as a pool (though it is near Bumi Ubud Resort where they say one can swim for a nominal fee) and, as you point out, there is no management on site like at a hotel to help with making various arrangements. No breakfast, but it comes with staff including a house woman who cleans and will cook for an extra charge. It's also apparently one of two villas on site and it's not clear how much interaction between the two there is. The driver costs $250 to be "on call" for the week to drive to downtown or on day trips in the Ubud area. Trips to other parts of Bali would be extra.

The "family suite" at Alam Sari is described as being part of their 3-bedroom villa. I believe that is the owner's villa you describe Marmot. The entire villa (as opposed to just the 2 bedrooms making up the "family suite" is also available to rent, of course at a higher price.

Villa Joglo is $450/week. The Alam Sari family suite works out to $980 for the week, the whole villa is $1,925

We do plan to be out and about most of the time. Being able to pop out the door to walk around town is appealing, although I'm told that strolling around downtown Ubud in the evening may not be all that appealing. So, I think I'm okay with being out of town and assuming that we're going to be in a car a lot.

Any further insight you can give would be greatly appreciated. Our departure date is a little more than a month away and I've got to start making some decisions!

KimJapan

If you don't get use of the villa living/kitchen/sitting room area at Alam Sari when you use the two bedrooms which are on the the opposite side of the villa building from the master bedroom, I'd prefer one of the family rooms (or connecting rooms, which is really what they are) that are in the area around the pool...right near the restaurant anded pool as opposed to separate and uphill.

The villa at Alam Sari is indeed lovely. It is set up the hillside from the rooms and therefore may have less noticeable road noise. When we stayed at Alam Sari, we could hear road noise on occasion, like when trucks downshift, but it didn't at all bother us.

The very best thing about Alam Sari is the experiences they can arrange for you. We did batik, wood carving, music, dance, village walk, cooking...we saw a whole different Bali than we had seen on a previous "typical tourist" trip. We very much enjoyed the pool, restaurant and spa between activities, stayed 10 nights and could have stayed longer.

As far as price, the Villa Joglo has lots of things that are extra cost, so it doesn't seem like it is really so cheap. Not having its own pool would be a big negative for me.

I'm not clear if you are traveling with kids or not. But if so, I can honestly say that our time at Alam Sari is one of our daughter's top 3 experiences ever...from a kid who has ridden elephants on her own, ridden horses on the beach, taught in Cambodia, learned trapeze and other circus activities, camped on a deserted island, been arm's distance from wild dolphins, ridden the bamboo train, etc. etc. etc...she's hard to impress and she loved Alam Sari. We did too, and hope to return one day.

zainib

KimJapan--Thanks for your thoughts. We will have our 14-year old son with us. And, by the way, you provided him (and us) with a top travel experience when, based on your report about the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, we took both our kids (then ages 16 and 11) there. So, your assessment of the Alam Sari carries great weight with us!

The regular family suites are apparently fully booked and so, what we would be getting is, I think, exactly what you've identified--the 2 bedrooms of the villa without access to the rest of the villa. Access to the rest of the villa costs quite a bit more.

kuluk

Sort of a coincidence, I just had friends stay at Villa Joglo last week. They had expected a lot more from the description on the website, and were underwhelmed when they were there. They did use the villa driver as they thought it would be a good deal from the way it was described. After a few fruitless days of less than satisfactory sightseeing and shopping, they switched to another driver. Also, the massages that were offered were full of high-pressure sales pitches to buy massage oils and so forth. And $250 just for a car and driver to be on standby??? I have drivers standing by for me all the time and they are free to stand by) A 2 mile trip costs about rp 30,000 - 50,000 (3 to 5 dollars.) Also, they brought me some food for a party they attended at my house and it was just ok, not on a level with a restaurant or take-out shop here in Ubud.

My thoughts about on-site management of hotels versus stand-alone villas is not about what experiences they can arrange for you, like classes, walks, dances, etc. Everyone can do that, as it's very normal here in Ubud. My thought was what happens when you get a blackout, or the water shuts off, or a snake wanders in, etc. (Life in Bali..haha)

These are hard decisions to make from afar. I'm a hotel and travel junkie and am constantly booking flights and hotels for my next trip, and am always wondering the same things! But half the fun is in the planning, right?

zainib

kuluk--yes, half the fun, at least until "analysis paralysis" sets in!

I've just figured out that we may be able to simply book 2 (non-adjoining) rooms at Alam Sari, which may be the way to go.