Thought I’d add a report I wrote from a trip to NW Bali back in 2018.
I was unsure whether to post this or not as the place we spent the majority of our time was so nice, I’d hate to boost its popularity and see it get ‘spoilt’, but I found it fairly hard to find info about this particular part of Bali before I went, so hoping I can help someone else with a few ideas!
We bought a Luxury Escapes Voucher about a year ago for a week’s stay at the Menjangan Dynasty Glamping Resort in NW Bali, and finally got round to booking our trip. The voucher included return airport transfers, but having read that the transfer took about 4.5 hours, I decided to break the travel up after the flight with a couple of nights in Sanur, and the Resort kindly re-routed our transfers to and from there.
We stayed at the Parigata Resort in Sanur – good location, rooms nice – clean if a little dated – and over three floors, access to the beach by a short pedestrian path. The pool area was nice and the public areas have a lot of water features which is very relaxing. The massages we had were good. breakfast was a little disappointing in the hotel so we found a place on the beach to eat instead on our first stay, and then the Mona Lisa on our return visit which did excellent breakfasts and great dinners and lunches. We also ate at the Warung Little Bird one night – good food, great prices, good atmosphere. Hardy’s is great for souvenirs.
Our transfer across the centre of Bali to the Menjangan Dynasty was very interesting – I’m really glad we did it during daylight hours so we could enjoy all the sights along the way. The inland lakes looked beautiful, and our driver stopped at a Luwak Coffee place – we tried the (in)famous civet cat-poo coffee, but then read afterwards about the less than kind ways the cats are sometimes treated, and wished we hadn’t. If you suffer from car sickness, you may need meds before doing the trip as it’s very twisty turny, and we were glad to have a driver that obviously knew the roads well.
The Menjangan Dynasty Resort is lovely, and the ‘tents’ are very upmarket. Views over the bay are lovely and the Resort has one of the few silver sand beaches in the area. Those off the nearest town of Pemuteran are more black and sparkly. Food and drink in the Resort are nice, they have their own onsite spa (great massages with the sea lapping at the beach to listen to as you are looked after) and their own onsite dive shop. Many guests – pretty much all adults when we were there – seem happy to stay in and around the resort for their whole trip, and the prices are a little higher in resort as a result of this captive audience. The staff at the Resort are lovely, always smiling and willing to go out of their way to assist with any requests. They managed to organise us the hire of a moped, which I got the impression wasn’t something they normally do, so we were able to explore a little further afield.
Pemuteran is about 10-15 minutes by moped away. Nearer to the Resort (just at the end of its entrance drive) is a nice restaurant with accommodation and a small pool called the Bananaleaf. In Pemuteran there are several small warungs offering food and accommodation, as well as larger hotels. Lots of dive shops too. My OH dived through YOS Divers – one day out to Menjangan Island the the other off the shore at Pemuteran at the Bio Reefs. You can also reach some of these snorkelling off the beach and are quite likely to see turtles and loads of fish on these.
We ate at the Suki Sari Warung in Pemuteran – lovely food and looked like great accommodation too. Also the Warung Ganesh. We also explored by moped west of the Resort as far as Gilimantok and then managed to find a track off the main road (very rocky and bumpy) that gave us access to the National Park that is across the bay from the Glamping Resort. We had lunch at the amazing Bali Tower Restaurant – nice food and great views – and then spent the afternoon on the beach near the Octagon Hotel, snorkeling off the jetty there. Were also lucky enough to see a couple of the wild deer that live in the park.
We loved this part of Bali – we had previously visited Lombok on another trip which we were told was like Bali ‘used to be’ – but found that there were a lot of people – adults and children – trying to sell us bracelets and sarongs all the time there, at all times of the day and night. There was none of that here, and the only children we saw were either playing football in the cow fields, or at school during the day which is at it should be I think! 🙂
This part of Bali seems to attract more european travellers than Australians – many having come over from Java as part of a longer trip. The local people seem to have other income sources (agriculture, industry, fishing) so tourism is not their be-all and end-all, which shows I think in their more laid back attitude.
It ticked all the boxes for me of what I look for in this type of holiday – I’d definitely go back, although would probably stay somewhere in Pemuteran rather than at the Resort. If you want somewhere special for an anniversary or honeymoon though it’s a great choice. If you like diving and snorkelling, and just generally relaxing in a beautiful part of Bali, with great people and nice food, and don’t mind a bit of a car trip to get there, have a look for yourself!
Wining Poms 