Novotel Hotel

Visited this hotel with a group of friends with children. The hotel catered well for everyone including our 16 month old baby. The Balinese are fantastic with children & babies. The Tropical Terrace rooms are well worth the money & the breakfast is outstanding, with so much variety. We ate out every night at the local street side restaurants which I would do again. The hotel is very attractive & probably the best hotel I have ever stayed in & one of the cheapest! Serious value for money. We did have problems with not being able to open our safe & someone taking a while to tend to it. It did not cause a major problem though & is far outweighed by the hotels other great factors.

To be honest, I was far from expecting that much from a Novotel (knowing the chain in Europe).

But this is no Novotel. The Pool Villas look more like a place were you would want to spend you honeymoon without getting out of your room.

Well, when I say room, I should say property... the trip begins at the door, sorry, portal, continues when you walk your way on the water, fall in the swimming pool, look at the cushions stylishly thrown under a thatched roof (the sun's high!), then you turn left and discover the couch, surrounded by an open air LG home cinema system (I had my ipod... and the wire... yes!), pursue through the bedroom so astonished that you barely notice the 4 square meters bed, and finaly go back outside and tumble into the jacuzzi.

I really recommend the place for a 5 nights rest, knowing however that the hotel is in Nusa Dua so it's not the best starting point to discover Bali's countryside.

A Fantastic HOTEL!!! I am a regular traveller all over asia and although not the most luxurious hotel I have stayed in it is certainly one of the most laid back and picturesque. The staff are friendly and accommodating nothing is a problem for them. This hotel is perfect for a romantic getaway or a family holiday. Unlike other hotels in the area there are no lifts in the hotel and at about 190 rooms the hotel is not crowded like the 300+ room hotels I have stayed in. It is TRADITIONAL balinese style. The online rates they offer are great and the breakfast is great. You can give the night buffets a miss they are a bit over priced and there is plenty of restaurants within walking distance that are far more affordable.However the casual dining at the beach is great and the pizzas and french style deserts are wonderful as is the room service. I have not had a bad meal at any restaurant within the vicinity of the hotel yet!!! I have stayed more than 100 nights at this hotel in the last 10 years on business and for family holidays. I am staying again in March for 15 days with extended family and friends. We have booked a newly renovated "Tropical Terrace" at this stage these rooms can only be booked through the novotel website. If you are planning a trip to bali stay here. I would not stay anywhere else. I have reccommended this hotel to many friends and business associates and all are now regular visitors. If booking a superior room ask for a ground floor room with a pool view. They are quiet the only downside is you have to cross the road to get to reception and the breakfeast buffet but honestly you get the feeling that you are on your own in the hotel. Happy hour is 5 to 7pm so if you are up for a drink go to the swim up pool bar and order a pina colada (2 for the price of 1). The drink comes in a freshly cut coconut and its the best cocktail I have ever had. Dont have to many you wont make it out for dinner!!! Enough said book the novotel benoa and enjoy. If you book and have a problem look shaun up at the hotel!!! ill be there from the 27th march 2007 for 15 days in a tropical terrace!!!!

It has been a long time since I have been that disapointed about a hotel.

It all started quite good when we were offered a drink for our arrival, I then ask if my 2 year old boy could get milk instead, I was answered there was no milk available(?!).

We then went to see our rooms, in which the smell was really unbearable. When I came back to point out that there was a pb with the sewer to the staff, they explained me that they would sort that out quickly : 10 mns later, we got a spray of perfume.

30 mns after that, we noticed that the aircon was really noisy in one of the rooms, there again the staff told us they would fix the pb: An engineer came and reduced slighlty the level of noise, that increased to original level one hour after.

Overall, the place is small, you have to cross the road to go to the lobby or the beach, the sunken bar swimming pool is untidy (found empty bottles of beer around the pool in the middle of afternoon). The beach front has not got any pathway, unlike for all the other hotels 500 m from there. The buffet dinner was very ordinary and as expensive as other very good buffet we had in bali.

No need to say we left after only one night, even if it meant we would have to pay one night cancellation fee.

I must regretably retract anything positive I have previously said about this Hotel, having stayed there 3 times. This time we were assigned the one Beach Cabana out of the 12 that did not have an outdoor area. We complained and were moved to one that did, unfortunately it was on a noisy pathway with staff starting there at 6am. The Cabanas were not full but we were given the worst of them. After accepting the 2nd cabana we found we were locked in! A call to reception ascertained that they had lost the key (no fancy schmancy hotel like card keys here, just old fashioned metal keys) they were sending out for a locksmith which should take about 1.5 hrs.

Then there was the breakfast buffet, the Novotel has made absolutely no effort to reduce the number of flys swarming over the food. I could only eat the yoghurt as the flys weren't interested in it. This was truly appalling and disgusting.

Management decided to give us a free french buffet one night but the coupon never arrived so we didn't go, not really fancying french food in Bali anyway.

The Cabanas are really dark, all brown wood, not very appealing, very dated and really in need of a refurbishment. Oh, and the beds ... our aching backs - sleeping on the floor couldn't be much more uncomfortable. Spare pillow out of the wardrobe anyone? Would you like that with mould? yuck yuck yuck

Having stayed here for New Year's Eve before we decided to return again as the Gala dinner is great. On the menu were half lobsters, fresh sucked oysters, venison, fois gras and many more to mention.

This year we stayed in both the Tropical terrace rooms and the 1 bedroom villa, both brand new and spotlessly clean with the fluffiest nicest smelling towels i've ever found in any hotel. Despite it being the New Year period and the hotel being 100% full you wouldn't have known it. Service was speedy and any requests were met promptly and with the famous Balinese smile. The breakfast was great with a large variety and nothing was left to run low, staff were refilling constantly. The Balinese buffet dinner was great and probably the most authentic i've had in a hotel. We had a couple of days of rain but the staff were great, setting up tvs in the lobby and games for the kids and moving lunch from Coco's on the beach up to the main undercover restaurant. Nothing was too much trouble. The only problem was the water down at the beach was not the best but once the rain stopped it was crystal clear again.

My wife and I have stayed at the Novotel Benoa several times over the last few years and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves each time.

Our accommodation preference is the "beach cabana" - a larger than normal room with sitting area, outside bath/garden and its own little sandy lounge area. Very private as they are constructed as a separate Bali villa/bale type building - 2 rooms per villa, scattered along the beach side/front of the hotel.

This time, however, we were upgraded on arrival to one of the new (2006) "pool villas". Unbelievable - the Novotel have surpassed themselves.

The pool villa (and yes it does have it's own pool) is a freestanding single story house that is surrounded by a high wall. You enter through a courtyard door, over the carp pond, via a little bridge, past your pool, through your outdoor bale (with lounge, fridge, bar, TV, stereo, espresso machine) until finally you reach your villa front door. Through the door is the most fabulous take on modern Bali architecture and design. It is simply wonderful.

Do I have anything negative to say about it? Well, yes actually. Once you've spent time in a pool villa, nothing else will do. You are completely ruined for anything else. The problem is that the Novotel is keeping the villas a state secret. You can't book it online, via a travel agent (in Aus anyway) or even directly with the hotel - Emails pleading for reservations go unanswered, phone calls to hotel reception don't get anywhere.

We tried and tried and tried to book one for Xmas this year to no avail - Oh well, beach cabana it is. (Mind you when we're there we're going to stalk the hotel manager - we know where you live monsieur/madame - until we're deemed villa worthy for our visit next May)

For the rest of you, the brand new deluxe rooms look very nice. really.

Anyhoo, whenever we ventured out into the hotel proper (after remembering to put clothes back on) it was our usual Novotel Benoa experience. Breakfasts are wonderful and huge, the gym has a new treadmill (see previous) , the beauty and massage services are still very reasonably priced and the calm, languid atmosphere we've come to love still encompasses the hotel.

Right outside the hotel there is a strip of restaurants that range from the usual European (please! why would you bother?) to what can only be described as superb - in particular Kecak and Bumbu of Bumbo Cooking School fame. Bumbu is expensive by local standards ~$80 - $100 AUD for 2 but definitely worth it if your budget can stretch to it.

Interestingly, since we were last in Bali the local council (or whatever) has laid a paved walkway right on the beach at the Novotel property line. This means that you can meander down the beach side (rather than the take-your-life-in-your-hands-oh-dear-I've-fallen-in-a-drain-again main road side). You can safely walk/jog for miles along the beach side pathway. It gives a different perspective of Benoa - before all the local hotels were pretty much hidden or set back from the road - now it feels much more "connected". Makes for a fun "happy hour" as all the other hotels beach front bars are only a short walk from each other along the path.

Finally, my wife would like to point out that the pool villa doesn't have a TV in the bedroom - it's outside in the open air bale which means you share the "experience" with the mozzies at night. Wonder why she needs a TV in the bedroom though...

Arrived at 2pm aftre long 12 hr flight via Singapore from South Africa to be taken straight away to a ready and cool room. Remeber humidity at this time of year runs at 70%. Ask to be placed in the newer Garden Terrace Section. Rooms and bathroom are great. Staff are extremely freindly and there hotel is on the beach. Restaurants at hotel are excellent although there are plenty eating places on street outside hotel. Since we were part of a tour group, we ate elsewhere on the island so we cany comment on these outside eateries. As we went on many tours, we tended to spend 1/2 a day on every alternate day at the hotel which was perfect in that spent our other time doing actvities such as scuba diving (excellent water clarity), river rafting (gentle grade 1 rapids) and shopping (fakes and compulsory sometimes irritating bargaining) Service at the poolside and on the beach was excellent. We left our kids at home and were thankful as the hotel is not geared for a family stay.