Review: Villa Soori Bali — small luxury hotel in the middle of nowhere and a tsunami evacuation
After experiencing the well groomed south in Nusa Dua and the busy cities of Kuta and Seminyak on our last visit to Bali, this time we wanted something else. A quiet refuge after a few busy months of work. And we found it in the Villa Soori in Tabanan. On the 1 1/2 hour drive you feel the population density and traffic on the streets reduce with every kilometer you diverge from Bali central.
The first thing you see of the hotel are blissful green rice paddies and a perfectly manicured driveway leading to the open air lobby overlooking the ocean from above. We sat down on a plush sofa and received cold towels and an ice tea. Within 5 minutes we were escorted to ocean view villa 201 by our villa butler. She would be our host for the upcoming days and answer all our requests.
Our first room, the Ocean View villa
The resort has Mountain Villas facing the rice paddies, Beach Villas on the lower floor facing the ocean and Ocean Villas on the upper floor with a perfect ocean view. Villa 201 is right next to the main facilities. As the hotel was far from fully booked, I am sure we could have chosen another villa, but given the low number of rooms and barely anyone using the central facilities, I did not object. My wife prefers the short walk and I can put up with 3 hours of Balinesian music during dinner time alright. They could have asked for our preference though.
Our bags were brought in while the villa butler explained all the features. The villa has three sections, the living room with a big sofa and a TV towards the pool, a king size bedroom in the middle and a bathroom with indoor and outdoor showers, his and hers sinks and a huge bathtub. You can jump directly into the pool from the living room. Outside there is also a covered couch and dining table.
As the weather was bad and we were a bit sick, we didn’t plan any activities and spent our days outside just listening to and watching the waves, reading and sleeping. We only ventured out for lunch and dinner to the restaurant next door.
We also tried to watch TV, but the waves provide a constant white noise, which seriously affects the sound quality. But then again we don’t really need TV, when we have such a gorgeous view. The TV is also behind a sleek glas panel, which looks great, but further reduces sound and image quality. The live TV stations were of an especially low picture quality. So we resorted to the provided Plex Movie Library. We started a film, which was described as a comedy but turned out to be a wrongly labeled horror flick. In the end we only used the built in Youtube channel to watch some German news.
In the bathroom we had plenty of storage space, a beach bag and straw hats to use for our stay and to buy as a souvenir. Paired with his and hers sink were different amenity kits. The main difference being a shaving kit for men and a nail kit for women.
In the minibar we found a Nespresso machine with different local coffees, which were all great and a tea pot with three different loose teas. They also had complementary snacks — cookies, dried fruits and savory nuts — replenished daily. In the fridge you could find the usual paid drinks and there were a few paid snacks. The prices were quite fair, except for the alcohol. We were also provided with different fresh local fruits everyday, paired with a little explanation.
Shelter for a night in the Mountain Villa amidst tsunami warnings
While watching the prime time news in our villa, suddenly everything started shaking for about 10 seconds. Our first earthquake. We immediately thought of the Tsunami danger, being so close to the ocean. So we picked up our phones and left the villa for the higher up lobby. On our way we met panicking local staff, while trying to remain calm ourselves. The earthquake made the lobby pond overflow and water came our way down the stairs. From the lobby we were directed to the assembly point. Still met by panicking local staff everywhere. We suspected to be somewhat safe as we were already a bit higher up, but there was no official information until the French manager arrived a few minutes later. He did a good job calming everybody down. He informed us that the lobby is already 25 m above sea level and I had read before, that you are safe from the worst Tsunamis above 30 m. They also handed out blankets and water. The staff was given the opportunity to leave early to check on their family or to finish their shifts.
We also checked Twitter and were slowly calming down, as the earthquake was on neighboring Lombok and east to Bali. Villa Soori is in the South West of the island. But it had a 7.0 magnitude, just 100 km away and there was still an official tsunami warning for Bali. We didn’t want to take chances. As the hotel was not fully booked, we could stay in a Mountain Villa for the night. The first time we asked for an downgrade.. We quickly gathered the most important belongings from our Ocean Villa. The manager wanted to send some staff to assist us, but they were very reluctant and seriously frightened and we happily declined the offer.
It was a scary experience, but enabled us to see quite a different villa type. The Mountain Villa overlooks the wonderfully green rice paddies. Compared to the Ocean Villa with the constant wave sound, it’s totally quiet at night and you are woken up by chirping birds in the morning. The villa has one combined bed and living room and a big bathroom. The features are quite similar, but in a different arrangement.
After learning a bit more about the Tsunami dangers and a good night sleep, we moved back to our Ocean Villa the next morning.
Food
The hotel has two restaurants. Cotta is the main restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner, specialized in Indonesian food. Ombok is a fine dining western food restaurant. As we love Indonesian food we only went to Cotta three times a day. We could also have ordered food into our villa, but the room service menu was a bit limited. Food prices were quite high for Bali standards, but comparable to a mid range restaurant in any western metropolis. Around $AU 20-$AU 40 for main courses including tax. The quality was top notch though. We did not reserve a table, despite them asking and never had a problem finding one in the front. In fact there were barely more than 3 tables in use. Could be a different story if the hotel is fully booked though.
Breakfast consists of 16 different small plates and there were 5 different breakfast menus, changing daily. It was a good mix of western favorites, local dishes and asian options. The portion sizes were small and you were encouraged to taste different dishes. In addition they had varying fresh jams and custards and a good quality bread basket.
For lunch and dinner we opted for Indonesian dishes. These options were arranged by region. I tried the Chef’s Favorite every day, a special meat or seafood dish. Service always began with some kind of amuse geule, like peanut crackers with varying dips or a bread roll with home made spice butter.
As we were both a bit sick, when we arrived and have had a few drinks on the flight already, we did not have a drink here. We had a look at the wine list though and as expected you can find relatively cheap local wines and some seriously overpriced international ones. The wine list is not very well curated though. If we would have a drink, we would opt for the local Bintang beer or fresh cocktails. We tasted some of their Mocktails and they were fantastic.
Between 6 and 9 PM two musicians play Balinesian tunes on some traditional wood instruments. While it adds to the Bali atmosphere, it can get quite annoying after a while and a bit more variation would be great.
Facilities and Activities
Not much to write about here, as we did not use any of them. There is the main pool, which was not used by a single guest during our three day stay. A well equipped gym overlooking the ocean. A nice looking spa, which is again quite expensive for Bali, but reasonable compared to any western metropolis -e.g. $AU 130 for a one hour Balinese massage. As we already had a few dramatically cheaper and still good massages in Sanur and will have some in Ubud, we skipped it here. There is also the Reading Room, which is good for… reading.
You can rent bikes in three sizes for free to go to the local village and there are also a few free activities daily, like yoga or a walking tour. They also offer journeys, which are paid tours of local landmarks or culinary experiences.
Conclusion
It’s perfect for a three day stay, if you just want to relax and enjoy your villa. We stayed in Sanur and Ubud for activities before and after Villa Soori. It’s a long drive to all the sights. Only Tanah Lot, the famous water temple, is kind of close by with only 40 minutes drive.
The staff is super friendly and attentive. On the second day we were not asked for our room number, but instead directly addressed by name. They also asked for our preferred name for them to use. I asked for some fresh chili for my soup and now they always check, if everything is spicy enough. I guess this level of worry free personal service is the biggest advantage over bigger and more anonymous chain hotels. The morning after the Tsunami evacuation, both managers checked if we are alright at breakfast.
We paid $US 600 per night for the villa including breakfast via Roomers Travel. I didn’t fully understand their concept. According to their marketing they buy booked hotel rooms from other people and resell them online. The rate we got was fully flexible though and could have easily been cancelled free of charge. Indeed we changed our stay from 4 nights to 3 nights, as we needed one more night in Sanur.
Speaking of Sanur. We were just glad to be in Villa Soori, further away from the most vunerable area of Bali when a Tsunami coming from Lombok would have hit. We had just left Sanur one day earlier. If I can believe Twitter, we would have experienced panicking masses and spent a few very uncertain and unpleasant hours on the street.
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