Bali Trip - hotel/resort review and recommendation: Ayana Resort and Spa Bali Review

I planned to spend 5 days in Bali over the Easter Holiday. However, all the villas and resort rooms were so pricy over this period of time, so my bf and I decided to spend 2 nights in a resort room and 2 nights in a villa in another hotel to save a little bit of money. Ayana Resort and Spa was surprisingly good so we ended up booking another two days in a different room after we checked out !!!!!!!! Can you imagine how good it is? 

Ayana Resort and Spa Bali ★★★★★

We chose Ayana Resort and Spa Bali because the hotel claimed to have a large variety of public pools and dinning choices in it's website. If we stay there, it seems that it is not necessary to stay in our room at all. So we booked an Ocean View Club Room through hotels.com a month ago. At that time, the room was around USD$390 each night. 

It is a hotel that I will definitely recommend to anybody who likes great views and have a lot of entertainment during the stay. 

Clean and beautiful rooms with traditional and modern design

We were not expecting so much from a simple resort room. But we both gave it a WOW when we walked into the beautiful room with plenty of sunlight and beautiful traditional design instead of old and dark like some of the hotel rooms with traditional design in Bali.

Huge Huge and comfortable bed

Comfy round sofa

Balcony area

View from the balcony

After we checked out, we were not able to book the Ocean View Room again so we booked the cheaper Resort Room. It is slightly less beautiful but we still love it!

3 beautiful public pools + 1 in villa area + 2 in Rimba hotel area + Kubu Beach

Main pool

Ocean Beach Pool

Kubu Beach right beside the resort area
Shuttle bus travels between the hotel and beach
every 15 minutes

main pool in the villa area

Fun beds beside the pool in Rimba hotel

Great Service - friendly and helpful staff

Through the hotel, we booked a car to pick us up from the airport very early in the morning because  we were slightly worrying about the security of taking taxi on our own. The staff who picked us up was dressed in their hotel uniform so it was easy to recognise. We were both trying to be very careful at the airport but this staff gave us a really warm welcoming. He was professional and friendly. We were guided to our car, our luggages were put in the car for us and the ride was safe and enjoyable. 

Once we arrived the hotel, a staff opened our door for us and gave us flowers and ice tea while the others picked up our luggages and guide us into the lobby. The checked in procedure was quick and easy while we were enjoying the refreshing ice tea. 

House keeping was done twice each day in both mornings and the evenings. The room was kept very clean and tidy every day.

No matter where we went in the resort, all the staff greeted us and smiled to us in the warmest way. SERIOUSLY - THE Warmest! They gave us such a warm and welcoming feeling that we felt so safe and comfortable to stay in the resort. 

For example, the staff at the swimming pool came to us once we arrived, they leaded us to the empty beds and introduced us the ones with better views and they even gave us dry towels once they found that our towels were wet already. 

Even staff who were driving in their vans or riding a motorbike home after work gave us a smile or greeted us when they saw us. It was soooo impressive !!! How does this hotel make every staff do all these from the bottom of their heart? 

Their friendly and welcoming attitude really did create a HOME-LIKE resort for us.

Breathtaking Views Everywhere

A lot of places in this resort gave us a WOW. Whether you are lying on the grass or beside a swimming pool or sitting on the shuttle bus, there were great views everywhere. 

First thing you see when you step into
the lobby area  

The lobby area

Corridor - lobby to rooms

View from my bed beside the ocean beach pool

From the famous Rock Bar 

From Ocean Beach Pool

view from grassland outside the church

You won't be able to get bored if you stay here. There are so many places to go. You can visit any of these beautiful places and stay there for half of the day.

Overview

Honestly, this is the best hotel I have ever stayed in. You can literally spend one whole week in the resort areas and doing a lot of relaxing activities and enjoying all the magnificent and breathtaking views. There are so many places to hang around and so many views and landscapes to explore and see. There are also great variety of restaurants each serviced great quality food. We did not even go out for meals over the staying. The famous Rock Bar is also in this resort area. 

My schedule in Ayana Resort:

Day One:  Yoga and spa package including Yoga, sea water pool therapy, lunch, massage and spa (6 hours), dinner under the sunset - Sami Sami Restaurant

Day Two:  Main pool, Kubu Beach (free shuttle), Rock Bar, Dinner (Villa area free shuttle)

Day Three: Villa pool, Ocean Beach Pool

Day Four: Kubu Beach, Ocean Beach Pool, Rimba Pool, Roof Top Bar 

Day Five: Ocean Beach Pool, Main Pool, Spa Cafe, Main Pool, Spa Shower , check out

Mini Haul II - traveling packing cubes from Eagle Creek VS packing cubes from Muji

I went SHOPPING~ Yes I know I said the same thing only a week ago. But this time I picked up something that I have been wanting to buy for the longest time which is the packing cubes from Eagle Creek and Muji. 

I am going to Bali in around 10 days. (I am so excited!!!!!) As I know that I will not have enough time to pack because I will be too busy with my work in the next 5 days and it is spring time in Hong Kong while I need to pack mainly summer clothing for my Bali trip.  So I decided to start packing earlier. Before this trip, I mainly use pretty plastic bags that I got from shopping to keep my clothes, slippers and bikinis clean and separate different things in the luggage. Shops like Peach John and Uniqlo give out really pretty plastic bags which I usually save for packing or to simply keep my scarf clean in my hand bag when I go to work. 

However, I started to forget what I put in each plastic bag... slippers?...clean clothes?...dirty clothes?...shose??? Also, the bags torn out easily. So I decided that it is worth the money to invest in some good traveling packing cubes because my bf and I go traveling at least once a year. I believe that I am going to use packing cubes a lot. 

In order to invest in some really good quality packing cubes I have done some research myself. I am very interested in Eagle Creek and Muji's packing cubes. These are the comparisons that I have made:

Muji packing cubes - can be folded in bags

It comes in a 3 colours with light and thin material

Eagle Creek Packing Cubes

Eagle Creek Water-proof Pack it Spector cubes

Overall, I personally think that the Eagle Creek packing cubes are going to last longer because they have thicker materials. Although I really like the design of the Muji packing cubes and their materials are very light, they look very breakable to me. 

If I hope to invest in long lasting cubes, I guess Eagle Creek packing cubes should be my choice. They also provide this instrumental video on their site which tells people what each cube is designed for.

I ended up buying a set of Eagle Cubes in red because I want more colours in my luggage. I chose the two sided ones so that dirty clothes can be separated from clean ones. 

I also picked up a Tube cube which is convenient for hair drier, mobile chargers and camera chargers. I chose a black one so that it won't become dirty easily. 

However, I still picked up one toiletry packing cube from Muji because it is so pinky soft and fluffy! It is too cute to ignore. I can put all of my little bottles inside this cute cube. Then when I walked pass Victoria's Secrets in Times square, I got this little make up bag which I have been waiting to buy for the longest time, too. I am going to enjoy packing so much this time!!!!