Ahh Bali. You either love it or you hate it. For a while now I avoided coming back to it, as it basically became another Australian capital, but once you start working in travel and booking people at hotels like these, you can’t say no any longer. It was also fate that we went to Bali as Cody’s VISA was ending and Jetstar had a huge sale. We went for a total of 10 nights and started off at Nusa Dua, Seminyak and lastly Ubud. I’ve decided to break this up into 3 sections so that they don’t become too lengthy but I wanted to give you all a quick glimpse of my trip and my thoughts on the hotels. I was a travel agent after all so please feel free to ask me any questions! This also gives me a great reason to practice editing on Lightroom as I am still trying to wrap my head around it.
NUSA DUA
I have always been drawn towards the Mulia in Nusa Dua mainly because it was where the celebs decided to chill, including my all time fav Shay Mitchell. The more customers came in to book it the more I was forced to stare at its beautiful photos and the more I wanted the holiday to be mine! The most important thing you need to know about booking a stay in the Nusa Dua area is that it is a flop and drop destination. This means that you literally just flop and drop by the poolside, chill, relax, have a couple drinks, eat and repeat. If you walk out the street there is practically nothing for you to do. This is why all the Nusa Dua accomodations are huge resort style hotels with heaps of different restaurants and things for you to do. Check for the pricing of an all inclusive package because I promise you all you will do is eat and drink there.
For 5 nights, Cody and I stayed in a Mulia Signature room with lagoon access and it was definitely worth the upgrade! You share the lagoon with roughly 5 other rooms but majority of the time no one else is using it the same time you are! This means that for the price of just a lagoon access, not a villa, you get a much longer pool to swim around in at half the cost. The rooms are ridiculously huge and the bathroom is even bigger. The massive king sized bed literally feels like you’re sleeping on clouds. I have been to many different 5 star hotels across Asia but nothing has ever screamed decadence and luxury like the Mulia has.
There are 9 different restaurants and bars (including swim up bars) which means you are absolutely spoilt for choice, even for a 5 night stay. They also give you coupons to redeem free drinks at most of them as well to encourage you to check them all out (Clearly, Cody and I redeemed all of them haha). They are super vegetarian and vegan friendly with some restaurants even having mock meat! I’m pretty sure all we did was eat there but what else do you do on holiday? We would start the day with a buffet breakfast, laze by the pool and order some drinks and fries, have some lunch, grab a coffee from the cafe (which is basically a decadent french patisserie), and then find a restaurant for dinner (or room service if we felt lazy). You’d usually find as chilling at the beach bar which sometimes has live music but there are plenty different bars scattered around. They even have their own night club if you feel like continuing on through the night!
They have a huge state of the art gym and also a tennis court (you realise how massive the grounds are when you try to walk here instead of taking a cart). The best part though was the amazing huge blue pools they had scattered all over the resort, with the best being the oceanfront pool. You don't have to fight to find an empty sun lounger (with built in shade so no need for a hat or sunnies) and the pool and bar attendants are amazing, remembering you by name and remembering your orders but also just fun to chat to! They were probably the highlight for us and are definitely why the Mulia has a 5 star rating.
You can probably tell by now that I would more than recommend a stay at the Mulia if you are looking to get away to somewhere a little indulgent. As I mentioned before, I have stayed at many 5 star hotels in Asia but none of surpassed the Mulia in terms of beauty, facilities, service, rooms, everything! There is absolutely nothing that I could fault them with as their attention to detail is amazing. Not to mention that everything I have described here has only been for the Mulia resort side, not even inclusive of the Mulia Villas! You can definitely see why they are constantly voted as the Top 50 Hotels in the World and the number 1 Beach Resort in the world! If you are in deep need of some rest and relaxation then start your trip here as we did to prepare yourself for the next part of the journey:
Seminyak!
I hope you found this useful if you're planning to go to Bali soon! Stay tuned for my next post on Seminyak where we do a lot more than just chill at our hotel :)
