Bali Ayu - Our Seminyak Hotel

For the first two days of our adventure, Kirsten and I decided to stay in Seminyak. It’s close to the airport and beach – unlike Ubud where we planned on heading to next.

Seminyak is full of boutique, new and beautiful hotels. Nonetheless, we wanted something that made us feel like we’re actually in Bali and not a resort in Spain etc. Balinese architecture is mesmerizing, so we wanted to stay somewhere that hasn’t forgotten about it, we didn’t mind it wasn’t brand new, as long as it was clean.

Finally, we settled for the Bali Ayu Hotel & Villas

Bali Ayu Hotel & Villas are set in still quite modern buildings with Balinese flourishes. Looking at the pictures, the place looked very interesting, surrounded with greenery, based in a good location and was affordable at just under £30 per night (£15 each) including breakfast. It seemed quite perfect.

Read my first post on Bali here : Hello Bali

After our long journey from London to Bali, the taxi driver dropped us just outside Bali Ayu. The road that it’s on seemed pretty busy with a buzzing bar next door, I thought to myself ‘so much for us getting a good nigh’t sleep tonight’..

Turns out – as soon as you step on the hotel’s premises, it couldn’t feel more undisturbed. No sounds of noisy mopeds or cars, no music coming from the bar, nothing – just peace and quiet.

We checked in and got taken to our room, it was part of a villa – we had the ground floor. Walking through the small private garden and into the room, put a smile on our tired faces. The room was huge and much bigger than we’ve expected, it was simple but had everything you could possibly need.

Next : checking out the bathroom, which shocked us slightly. What is this place? Half of the bathroom was in an almost garden, surrounded by greenery and missing some parts of the roof (just like at the airport, if you read my previous post). The showers base was layered with little pebbles, making it quite a magical place.

The hotel is well equipt with aircon, minibar / mini fridge, we had a bottle of water each provided daily and the staff was super nice and helpful. There is also a swimming pool, little restaurant and bar which seemed pretty empty as we visited just before the season was starting – perfect for relaxing.

The location, in my opinion was very good – 20 mins walk from the beach, many shops and restaurants on the same street or just around the corner, it felt much nicer than the very centre that was just over 2.5km away. The hotel is very close to the Potato Head Beach Bar and many incredible food places, which I will be writing about next, so stay tuned 😉

I loved this hotel and think it was a great start to our adventure. If you are expecting a sleek, brand new apartment with infinity pools and incredible views – then this place might not be your cup of tea. However, if you want an apartment that makes you feel like you’re actually on another continent, allows you to relax and has a good location – then this will be perfect for you 🙂

The hotel mostly has excellent reviews, however, some people mentioned it being slightly worn etc. Compared to the neverending number of brand new hotels – of course it will be slightly less fancy but it’s clean and beautiful!