The Club @ Legian & FS Sayan
 

Hello All,

We are going to Bali for our honeymoon in Jan. flying from NYC. We are thinking of staying @ The Four Seasons Sayan for the first 5 nights and then staying at The Club @ The Legian for 4 nights. Does this sound like a good plan? Has anyone stayed at this hotels? Should we stay @ Aman resorts instead? Begwan Giri sounds like you could be stuck with other guests if you dont book the whole space for 10k a night.

Thank you in advance for all your advice!!!

JB

Funny you ask this question as we just returned from Bali 2 weeks ago and stayed at 5 nights at The Legian and 5 nights at FS Sayan. We did not stay at The Club because it doesn't have an ocean room as they are across the street from the main Legian hotel, but if this is not important to you, I say go for it. The service, food, accomodations were all excellent. It is in the perfect location. It is withing walking distance to a few really good restaurants. We ate at KuDeTa, The Living Room, and La Lucciola-all excellent. The hotel is far enough away from Kuta but close enough if you want to there. The beach at The Legian is really clean and quiet. There are 2 life guards on duty all day. I highly recommend staying here.

As for the FS Sayan, words cannot describe this place. I would return here in a heartbeat. Again, the hotel is about a 10 minute taxi drive into the main town of Ubud. So far enough away from the traffic. We did not stay in a river villa (but if we were to return, I would splurge and stay in one-I recommend this)but our villa was still amazing. We had a view of rice paddies. The plunge pool was wonderful and make sure you get the bed and breakfast package where breakfast is included in the rate. This is how we did it and they allow room service to be included. Nothing beats having breakfast in your own villa each morning. If we were to have paid for breakfast each morning it would have been $50 each day (and we didn't have anything special to eat eg. omlette, bagel, fruit...)

We did not stay at an Aman resort in Bali but did stay at Amanjiwo in Java and this is something I definately recommend. Java is completely different and Pramandan and Borobadur are amazing. If this does't fit into your plan, then I would say you couldn't go wrong with an Aman in Bali. The service is unbelievable. We were never asked our names or room number. We were never required to sign for dinner/drinks etc. The stall already knew who we were. Incredible.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions fell free to ask.

Interested to know what rates you paid for these places.

We paid $400 per night (for a deluxe oceanview, corner suite including breakfast)at The Legian. To be honest, I have no idea what we paid for the FS Sayan because we had the rest of the trip packaged through Asian Affair Holidays.

That package included round trip airfare from Chicago to Bali (Executive economy class on Singapore airlines from Newark to Singapore and vice versa), all transfers from airports to hotels, 5 nights in villa at FS Sayan, airfare from Bali to Java, 2 nights at Amanjiwo, airfare back to Bali, 2 nights Oriental Singapore, and 3 tours. Breakfast was also included at the FS and Oriental. The total for 2 people through Asian Affair Holidays was $9700 for both of us.

Hello again,

Does anyone (24Lisa wink wink) have any pictures of either of these hotels?

Thanks,

JB

jbb524, if you want to e-mail me I could send you pictures. My email is [email protected].

I think that would be the easiest way.

If you are thinking of splurging for an Aman on Bali, Amankila is generally considered the best - especially if you can get an ocean view room. We really enjoyed the private black sand beach and it is in such a secluded spot on the island. Amankila combines well with the FS Sayan so that you get a bit of the interior of the island and a bit of the ocean. :-)

The service at all of the Amans is as 24Lisa describes it.

1. Legian
I'm a long time fan of the Legian. I prefer the regular resort to the Club (villas) because I think the ocean view from the rooms and balconies is incomparable. I've stayed many resorts in Bali and the Legian is the one that I keep coming back to because of the design, the location, the service, the food -- and that incomparable view! It's not perfect, but for a beach resort in South Bali I don't think there's anything even close.

The Club villas are also well designed and you still get to use all the Legian facilities plus the Club pool, but unless seclusion is your top priority, I'd opt for the ocean front.

PS A note on the Lisa's comments on the beach at the Legian. The beach is clean and quiet, but the surf is very aggressive. I always like to tell people that as it's not what I would consider a good swimming beach -- unless you're a strong swimmer. We swim in it and it's great fun for body boarding, but it's not for the faint at heart as you can get some serious surfing-size waves.

Website:
http://www.ghmhotels.com/hotels/hote...p;section=home

2. In the Ubud area I would give the Amandari a slight edge over the Four Seasons. This is purely personal; I've never heard of anyone who didn't like the FS. For villas the new Kayumanis is really lovely. (Same river, same views as the Aman and the FS.)

I've never stayed at Begawan, but people who have say that "sharing" the suite facilities isn't an issue. This is also a spectacularly beautiful resort.

Website Kayumanis: http://www.kayumanis.com/kayumanis-villas-ubud.php

3. I just spent a few days at the Amankila on Bali's east coast and this is my new favorite! (Just what I need is another expensive choice.:)) It's perched on a cliff overlooking a spectacularly blue ocean. It's a short walk down to a lovely swimming beach -- or they'll drive you. The swimming pools are out of this world, one one the cliff, one in a cocoanut grove. The rooms are elegant and very private, same architect as the Amanjiwo. The service perfect. Can you tell I liked it?

I wouldn't really put it in the same category as the Legian, however, as Seminyak beach is a lively shopping and restaurant area and the Amankila is totally secluded. Two different end uses.
Since you have 9 nights you could do three places: South, Ubud and Amankila

Website:http://www.amanresorts.com/

4. Rates
Bali is quiet now and I expect it will be in January as well. Rates vary widely, but this is a very good time to negotiate as reservation levels have dropped off considerably after the holiday season.

A side note on the rates at Amankila. Since we were traveling to Bali less than 1 month after the bombings, we considered moving from The Legian to Amankila so I tried to negociate a better rate than what was advertised. What they were willing to do was upgrade us to a ocean view room from garden view (a savings of 150 per night) and include breakfast. The nightly rate was still 650 plus 21% tax and this would have put me above my budget. In retrospect, we may have split our time up between 3 places as Marmot suggested. Maybe 3 nights at The Legian, 4-5 nights FS Sayan, and 2-3 nights Amankila. We did not go to east Bali and I wish we would have.

$786/night!!!!!!!!! Yikes tell them you only want to say there not buy equity in the place! Honestly (I know I'll catch flack for saying this)is any hotel worth almost $800 per night? if you are Donald Trump maybe I suppose.

24Lisa, when were you in Bali? My husband and I honeymooned there 11/7-11/16 (trip report coming). We stayed four nights at the Legian resort 11-12-11/16. We also flew to Bali from Chicago on Singapore Airlines thru Newark, NJ. Were we there at the same time? That would have been wild.

We were at The Legian from Oct 28-Nov2, Java Nov 2-4, and FS Sayan Nov 4-9, Singapore Nov 9-11 then home, so it looks like we just missed each other. That would have been crazy if we would have been there the exact same time.