Review of Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Bali

3 years ago

A Slice of Heaven

A Slice of Heaven
We stayed 3 nights at Holiday Inn Baruna during a recent 5 night break in Bali. Originally I booked a family suite (with the themed kids room), but on check-in we were given a free upgrade to a Studio Garden View Room. The room was lovely, although I was actually a little bit disappointed because the kids were really looking forward to their special room. Having ground floor access straight out into the garden was fantastic though and our room (#1143) was in a nice quite part of the resort (rather that near the pool which is the busiest area).

I was a little worried when I saw the resort was so close to the airport, but I was pleasantly surprise on the 2nd day when I realised that I hadn t heard a single plane. The only time I saw or heard one was when we took a walk on the beach and even then we only really heard it when it touched down.

The resort grounds are beautiful, lots of big palms, green grassy areas gardens. All of the staff were so lovely too. The pool area is beautiful but competition for sun lounges and cabana s can be fierce!

One of the main reasons I booked here was it catered well for families with kids. There is a kids club, but I think it may have been being revamped (there was a sign saying sorry we don t normally look like this ). In the end the kids just wanted to play in the pool anyway!

The Palms restaurant has a great kids menu that my kids loved (and they are pretty fussy). Kids also get their meal free if an adult is having a main meal. I was really impressed with the variety of the menu and the number of vegetarian options (often hard to find in Kuta). The serves were not huge, but still enough and everything was fresh and really tasty. The prices were very affordable too (drinks were a little pricey though, pretty much the same as home). We were also really impressed with their breakfast buffet. We ate one night in their fancier restaurant Envy, but actually I much preferred Palms.

Tea Tree Day Spa is a little on the expensive side for Bali, although still much cheaper than Australia. It was absolutely beautify though and I would say probably the best spa experience I ve ever had. Each treatment room is its own separate little hut so you feel like you re the only one there. Everything was so clean and beautifully presented. My massage with Asih was absolutely perfect in every way, from the perfectly prepared foot washing ritual to how quietly she moved around the room. I was drifting in and out of a dream the whole time!

There were 3 or 4 spas/salons on the main road just up from the resort that looked promising and were about a 1/4 of the price. I didn t get the chance to try them out though, and it would have been pretty hard to beat Tea Tree.

The resort is also easy walking distance to several mini-marts, a little laundry and other little shops where you can stock up on water etc. It s also walking distance or short taxi ride to Lippo Mall and Discovery Plaza.

The only things I was disappointed with were a couple of things in the room itself:
The air con was really loud and not all that effective. It took a good day to cool the room right down and it was actually hard to sleep because of the sound.
The kids had bunk beds are tucked away in a small room next to the main room, but the sliding door and vents in the top of the wall to let air through meant it wasn t completely separate and the light and noise coming through from the main room made it a bit hard for them to fall asleep to begin with. It didn t get good airflow either as it didn t have its own air con vent.
The shower was a kind of open plan set up, but the floor wasn t graded quite right to drain the water away fully. This meant the floor stayed wet and slippery and most of the time there was a puddle right in front of the bath. One of my kids slipped over trying to get in.

Having said that, I really enjoyed our stay at Holiday Inn Baruna. I would definitely consider returning and I was sad when it was time to leave. In hind sight I wish we had stayed there for our whole trip.