Sol Benoa Bali All Inclusive

Love the hotel, the facilities are great staff are great. Feels more personal compared the the other large resorts.

This hotel was perfectly decent. It wasn't luxurious or memorable, but it served its purpose. The room was clean, the bed was comfortable, and the staff were polite. The decor is a bit dated, but everything functioned as it should. If you need a no-frills place to sleep and shower, this will do the job just fine. I wouldn't seek it out for a special occasion, but for a business trip or a night on the road, it's an okay choice.

Stayed here for just 2 night as hadn’t been to the area before and wanted to see what it was like. Beautiful place and gorgeous room and gardens. Clean and very well maintained. Only issues were minor-  anytime we tried to phone for room service or reception you’d have to call 2-3 times before anyone picked up. I think there were 3 or 4 restaurants on the premises but they pretty much all had the same menu and it was nothing to blow your socks off. I had a late night sweet tooth this trip and was very disappointed with the room service deserts. We had cheesecake with no flavour at all and a very tiny brownie that came with a very small scoop of ice cream that I think was sitting on a small piece of bread. I think it was meant to be sponge cake but it looked and tasted like bread. Also had 3 small old strawberries and a smidge of chocolate sauce that was not very nice. The menu said it came with a maracuya sauce (passion fruit) which it didn’t- there was no mention of the strawberries which could be an issue if anyone had an allergy. I ordered iced lattes which were quite nice but a very small glass for the size. I asked for a bit of ice cream to be added and was charged for a whole serve of icecream which made it about $12AU which was double what I’ve payed anywhere else in Bali. I did mention this to staff who deducted the cost of the ice cream which I appreciated. Any Bali hotel we’ve stayed at, you can pop your dirty cups/dishes outside the door and they will be collected. Ours sat there for 24 hours even when we had staff come to the room to deliver room service. Travelled with a smoker and while you couldn’t smoke at the pool bar you were allowed to smoke on balconies and around the pool. Asked at the pool bar for an ashtray who didn’t have any and told us to go to the towel bar who didn’t have any and didn’t know where you could get one. Was then directed to a different area to ask and they gave us a plate to use. I saw people putting their cigarettes in the garden and spare bottles as there were no ashtrays available. We gave up asking for one for use on our balcony. Beautiful grounds and if smoking is allowed they should provide what’s needed or some people may just throw them on the floor which would be disappointing. If relaxing by the beach you had to walk back to the pool bar to get a drink which was a pain.  Our room had very good aircon, was very spacious and beautiful and had comfy beds. Probably the best maintained room I’ve stayed at in Bali. A good amount of PowerPoints and it was the first Bali resort I’ve stayed at that had adequate power points that our plugs didn’t keep slipping out of. I did request twin beds and to be close to the pool which other hotels didn’t even try to accommodate but Sol by Melia provided this immediately. A few families there with small children and while the resort was kid friendly to an extent, it’s maybe not the ideal place for small children. Many people trying to read by the pool and relax with small kids yelling and crying. I didn’t see any obvious play area for kids, nothing significant anyway. There’s one pool with one shallow area for kids but it’s just a little kid pool which meant they were not very entertained and were getting frustrated. If ours were still little we’d probably go somewhere tailored to kids. All in all a good stay but we did get a good deal on the room. $165AU a night with Trip.com which was significantly less than some booking sites and still cheaper than booking direct. It was nice but I wouldn’t pay the regular rate. Would I recommend- yes I think I would. Just the room alone was worth it and we had the most basic room which was very large