Andaz Bali Review Part 1: Why We Didn't Want To Leave This Beautiful Room

The Andaz Bali’s best features include excellent treatment for elites, delicious food, a nice pool, and a fun kids club–what more do you want?

Note: This review of the Andaz Bali will be split into three parts. This first part will explore the resort’s rooms while future installments will get into the activities and dining options.

Booking the Andaz Bali

Official link to hotel: https://www.hyatt.com/andaz/en-US/dpsaz-andaz-bali

Knowing that I wanted to go to Bali, where exactly should this Hyatt Globalist go? Everyone talks about Alila Villas Uluwatu, but do I really want to pay Category 8 prices in Bali for a secluded resort? Maybe sometime in the future, but not on this trip. Instead, I looked at the Andaz Bali, which some said had excellent food. Good food on top of a nice place to stay? Sign me up for that!

The Andaz Bali is currently a Category 6 hotel, with award nights ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 points per night. I originally debated using Hyatt points but instead I changed the reservation to using cash for about $326 per night. Even before the Hyatt devaluation, the pricing with points didn’t make sense.

On top of the cash stay, I used a Suite Upgrade Award on top to book us into an Andaz Suite. However, when we showed up, they further upgraded us into a Garden Pool Villa. The Andaz Suite would have given us swim-up access in a shared pool. But the villa is nicer in that we get a pool just for us.

First impressions of the Andaz Bali

To get to the resort, I debated using the Blacklane credit from my Citi Strata Elite credit card. Ultimately, I did use it but on the return to the airport. Getting to the airport, I just took the transportation option from the hotel itself. That cost 500,000 IDR (~$28 USD). Yes, there are cheaper options like taking Grab (about ~$5 USD for a 6-seater when I checked). But a $20 USD upcharge for hotel transportation didn’t seem bad.

For the record, Blacklane was charging $112 USD for the one-way journey. It made sense after the $100 Blacklane credit, but it’s way too expensive compared to other options. And I don’t think Blacklane is much nicer compared to what the hotel offered.

Anyways, with that out of the way, we made it out of customs and immigration to find an open-air portion of the terminal at the exit.

Practically every hotel has a sign listed along the exit. You can’t miss it. We found the Hyatt sign, which is shared between the Andaz and Alila.

From there, the friendly agent confirmed my name and we were off, riding in style in a van.

Entering the private transportation to the resort

The van was spacious and fit 6 passengers. While technically there are car seat requirements for children, they generally do not apply to taxis and ride share services. And they’re not enforced. Most travel within Bali isn’t going that fast, so we didn’t feel concerned with safety. But if you’re concerned, bring it up with the hotel or bring your own portable car seat.

After less than a 30-minute drive, we were at the resort. The valet attendant took care of our luggage and immediately in front of us was a large koi pond.

Large koi pond at the Andaz Bali entrance

While we were checking in, hotel staff gave the kids some fish food for them to feed the residents of the pond.

While the kids enjoyed the fish, I sat over in the lobby waiting for the staff to get everything ready. Andaz hotels seem to do this kind of thing often where you have an informal check-in desk where you sit on a couch. This one is no different.

During the check-in procedures, we received some cold towels and some cold ginger tea. I also received word that we got further upgraded to a villa and once the kids were done, we were escorted to our room.

The room

Much of the hotel is open-air. If you’re staying in a standard room, you’ll be over in a courtyard area like what’s pictured below. Though we didn’t stay in this room type, the vibe of it feels like what you might expect from a small Hawaiian resort. Stacked rooms on top of each other and it looks pleasant enough.

Meanwhile, if you’re staying in the Andaz Suite, the standard suite at this hotel for the purposes of suite upgrades and points stays, you’d stay in a more secluded area. Privacy is better but still not perfect. I mean… I could just walk up and take a picture like this.

Zooming in, you can see the swim-up nature of the ground floor rooms. There is a small sign that says “Private”, but the small swimming area does appear to be shared with others. And, of course, others can look at you from above.

The 1-bedroom villa that we got further upgraded to? That’s what the check-in agent below is taking us to. These villas are a bit more isolated from all the other rooms at the Andaz Bali.

Our room for this stay is 12. There is a large door that blocks others from entering and it’s a little tough to push open and close.

The entryway

Once inside, you’re not actually indoors yet. Instead, you’re in a private outdoor area. The first thing you might notice is immediately on your left when entering, which is a door that leads to a bathroom.

It’s a nice bathroom, with a fancy toilet and few bugs (more on that later).

Of course, no real bathroom is complete without a sink and mirror, which this room has. I have to admit we never used the outdoor bathroom but it was nice to have just in case.

Around the corner is a lovely sitting area if you want to enjoy some time outdoors. The fan overhead makes it so the hot weather isn’t unbearable.

Next to this is a lovely daybed. Nice that you don’t need to pay to reserve one as is common in Las Vegas or other resorts.

But the real star of the outdoor area is the private pool. We’ve had private pools at other hotels and I’d rate this one favorable well. It’s not as gorgeous as the one at the Ritz-Carlton Maldives, but it is better than what we’ve had at other hotels like the Conrad Maldives, the St. Regis Bora Bora, and the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach. You might be able to guess who loved the pool the most. The pool is not heated but it doesn’t need to be.

Next to the pool is the entrance to the room, which requires another scan of your keycard.

Entrance to the living area of the villa

The bedroom

Inside the second door is the bedroom, which has a beautiful design and is quite spacious. This version of the 1-bedroom villa has a single king bed in the room, but housekeeping converted the sofa into a second bed. Not pictured is the large fan suspended above to help boost the cooling effect from the A/C.

This bed was pretty comfortable. It’s both firm and inviting with plush pillows. At night, the room is intimately lit up by the bed, but there is enough lighting elsewhere to not make it feel so dark.

Next to the bed are lighting controls for the room, a universal electrical outlet, and some USB charging ports.

The couch has an extra mattress on top, and looks pretty cute as a bed. A bed this size isn’t going to work too well for multiple adults, but multiple kids? Both kids fit on this bed lengthwise, thankfully.

The view from the room was of the private plunge pool outside.

You could also fully open the windows and jump into the pool from the room. However, we didn’t do that out of concern of letting bugs into the room.

Kitchen

Next up in the villa is what I’ll call the kitchen. There isn’t a stove in here but there is a microwave. It might be more accurate to call it a pantry, but let’s just roll with kitchen. Inside here is also a sink, coffee maker, toaster, and glassware.

In the other corner is a large refrigerator.

Inside the refrigerator is plenty of water, some sodas, coconut water, apple tea, a vitamin C drink, and some beer. In true Andaz fashion, everything but the beer is complimentary and replenished once daily. The freezer (not shown) is underneath.

Next to the fridge in the drawers are some tea bags…

…and plenty of snacks. There is plenty of dried fruit, some chocolate peanut popcorn, and a bar of chocolate. As with the non-alcoholic drinks, these are also replenished once daily.

Across the hallway is a walk-in closet. There are some drawers here to help it so you’re not living out of your suitcase.

The bathroom

The final area of the villa is the bathroom, which is beautiful too and almost felt as large as the bedroom. As the walls surrounding the villa are tall enough, you have plenty of natural lighting in the bathroom around the tub. There are actually doors around the tub in case you want to exit on the backside. I didn’t get a photo of it, but there’s not much on the back of the villas aside from some koi swimming in a pond.

The tub itself is large enough to fit two people in it. The kids always enjoy a nice dip in a bathtub at the end of the day.

In the room are two adult robes. We didn’t ask if they have children’s robes and they didn’t proactively supply them to us.

Across from the robes are two sinks. There is plenty of lighting in here at night, more than just the soft lighting around the circle mirrors.

Inside the drawers are plenty of amenities in case you forgot anything.

And on the opposite side of the bathroom from the tub is the large shower with both a hand wand and an overhead rain shower.

These controls aren’t going to get you drenched with cold water when you use them and the shower has a door to keep the warmth inside. It’s a good, spacious shower.

Soap, shampoo, and conditioner are from Byredo Eleventh Hour, a great brand.

Welcome gifts for being a Globalist

Hyatt Globalist status is the highest status most of us can achieve (Courtesy Card is higher, but qualifications are not published). Hyatt’s Guest of Honor award also can mimic the Globalist status on a single stay. On top of just receiving things like free parking on award stays and free breakfast for up to 4, you also get better treatment. You could easily count this extra upgrade to a villa as part of the Globalist benefits as I don’t believe I would have received it without this status. But there are other soft benefits you get here.

Waiting for us on the center of the table is a variety of gifts.

First up is a letter from the hotel welcoming us to Bali and letting us know to reach out if we need anything.

Inside the frog’s head (or I’m assuming it’s a frog) is some Balinese rice cake made with berries or pineapple.

Next to that is a container of roasted cashew nuts and some chocolate.

On the other side of the frog are some passionfruit. These were ripe and delicious. Tropical fruit is always so much better when you eat them locally.

Shortly after we settled into the room, someone came by to drop off two Andaz pale ale beers. It’s unclear if they actually brew them on site, but they’re tasty.

Map of the property and surrounding area

In case it aids with understanding the layout of the Andaz Bali grounds (and the connected Hyatt Regency Bali), here is the map. Our villa was in the cluster of Dukuh Villas in the center-bottom of the map, near the connecting path between the properties.

The bug situation

I want to spend a moment talking about the bugs in and around the resort, and around Bali itself. If you’re thinking of coming to Bali, you’ll want to do yourself a favor and bring mosquito spray. While the resort sprays the foliage and greenery around the property at least once daily, it’s obviously not going to help you if and when you go off-property. Walking around the resort, we didn’t encounter too many problems with mosquitoes. Still, it wasn’t perfect as the mosquitoes could always fly in from somewhere else. The spraying really only helps make sure there are none breeding here.

Inside the room within the closet is a mosquito repellent. Plug it in and it’s supposed to help repel mosquitoes. I can’t comment on how effective it is because we generally had no mosquitoes in the room with us anyways. Perhaps if we left the villa windows open to jump in the pool the effect would be more noticeable.

Drawer with slippers and mosquito repellent

What we did see around the room was a gecko, a creature that likes to feast on bugs. When we see one–and this one remained outside near the pool–we feel some marginal extra protection from bugs.

The only pests we saw in the living areas of the villa was a line of giant ants. They marched in via the bathroom and I took care of them myself. That said, they were huge compared to ants back at home. And they even seemed to break away from the normal line they walked in to hide from me as I hunted them down. Have to say that was a first for me dealing with ants.

Ultimately, in and around the resort, the mosquito problem wasn’t bad. But you should still spray repellent on you just in case. They sell bottles of repellant in the gift shop at the hotel if you forget yours.

The Andaz Bali is only a short walk from Sanur

This is worth a separate discussion another day, but one of the benefits staying at the Andaz Bali is being able to walk into town. The Andaz Bali might not look close to civilization when you look at the pictures below, but you’ll have most likely driven right through town on your way in. Just exit the resort through the pedestrian entrance and head left.

As an aside, isn’t it interesting that when you drive into the hotel the vehicle needs to be inspected for bombs, but there is no security check for pedestrians? The vehicle bomb check thing is a standard Bali thing–it could be unsettling at first but think of it as standard procedure for a vehicle to enter/exit.

Heading along this path, you should see the Hyatt Regency entrance. Technically, both directions will lead you into town, but it’s a little closer to head to the left than to the right.

And sure enough, no more than a 5 minute walk from the entrance of the Andaz, you’re in Sanur Beach. Want to get ice cream? It’s more expensive at the Andaz than it is here locally. Or, do your laundry, grab a bite to eat, get a massage, or go shopping. There’s added convenience if you can just walk to town. Some might not like that it’s this close to civilization but we found it a benefit.

The map below shows how relatively close it is. The Andaz is in the center of the map, and you can head in either direction once you exit the hotel to reach civilization.

Recommendation: Yes, it’s surprisingly relaxing despite being so close to the city

The Andaz Bali has some pretty big things going for it, some of which we’ll talk about in future installments:

Globalist (or Guest of Honor) benefits are excellent, including additional upgrades beyond the minimum requirement of an entry-level suite.
The property feels like a true resort and is perfectly relaxing despite proximity to the city.
Food is arguably the best thing about the hotel, with each restaurant serving up excellent dishes.
The kids club is enjoyable though you only get 2 hours for free per day.

Yes, there are bugs here but they do their best to control the population and you’re on a tropical island, so stop thinking it will be bug-free. The only other downsides I can reference are two I didn’t mention until now. I love using the Hyatt app to check my charges mid-stay to know if there is a problem before checking out. However, this is the only Hyatt I’ve been to thus far where I had no ability to check charges. Not ideal, but ultimately it’s a slight annoyance.

The other thing? The Andaz Bali advertises butler service for those staying in the room type we were in. Aside from an escort to our room, nothing felt different about this stay compared to any other hotel. No one introduced themselves as a butler or even checked in with us after the initial check in. Is it because we got upgraded to the room or is it simply just an empty advertisement? That’s unclear.

But if those are the only real problems with this resort, we’ll still take it any day of the week.

food.wada.travel

experiencing the world via gastronomy with our children

Andaz Bali Review Part 1: Why We Didn’t Want To Leave This Beautiful Room