Sol by Meliá Benoa Bali - All Inclusive

Location - good. Atmosphere - lovely. The empty stores in the lower level were a little bit creepy though. Staff - were very responsive and friendly. Rooms - spacious and clean and the bed was SO comfortable. Gym was very good. Spa was nice, but it would’ve been much better value to go somewhere down the street. The bad stuff….. - the entertainment was mostly bad, and sometimes cringeworthy. - there were only a few hours in the afternoon where there was any shade in the pool. - I had termites in my bed. Lots of them. I understand termite problems are common in Bali with the humidity and lots of wood. And yes, the staff was very responsive in sending the cleaning staff down immediately and cleaning everything up, but there was no follow up from management about how I felt about sleeping in the room (dreaming of termites crawling into my ears). Nothing. - the tour desk tried to be helpful but I didn’t understand why they wanted me to drive to Ubud for the yoga and classes that I wanted. Surely there was something closer to where we were.?! - the housekeeping staff washed my coffee cups and water glasses in the bathroom sink! Tap water. Their bare hands. Luke warm water and no detergent. The fact that he did it in front of me suggests he doesn’t even realize that it’s a problem. Fortunately there was a kettle so I was able to disinfect everything after he left, but that’s seriously concerning for a resort. The absolute worst and most disappointing part was the food and drink. Restaurant - At best - edible. I was absolutely stunned that the à la carte food menu was consistently bad, even for the Indonesian food. The wine and cocktails were terrible. I literally could not drink some of the cocktails. Most of them are made with a local spirit called Arak, which is kind of like a rum. The cocktails were watered down and just generally bad. Buffet breakfast was pretty good. Buffet lunch and dinner were ok at worst and good at best. Cocktail lounge near reception had better cocktails. Not great, but better. Pool bar had a good diversity of cocktails and the bartenders were very cool :) It was really disappointing to see the lack of recycling at the hotel. Even something is basic as the egg shells at the omelette station. Those eggshells were going straight in the regular bin. Massively overpriced for what I got. I won’t be back.

It was the first time Bali had been, it was interesting to see the island, which is so much written about. But they were too tired to live in the style of most holidaymakers on the island: traveling by bike, changing their place of residence, looking for interesting places to eat. So for the first trip we decided to choose a nice hotel with "All Inclusive". That's how this hotel was found. The description and the few islands he suited us, the price tag was also one of the lowest, and we only have to wait for the trip. Spoiler alert: the hotel not only satisfied us, but completely exceeded our expectations! We flew in towards the evening, so we checked in immediately. At the reception, without even handing over our passports, we were immediately handed a delicious refreshing cocktail. Live music was playing in the lobby, sweet Balinese smiled and the mood immediately went up. The room was good, it was working, it was clean, there was a little fruit basket waiting on the table. It's great that the All Inclusive includes a minibar (and it has beer, juices, cookies, chips, chocolate, etc.), which was replenished daily. The room is quite large: huge double bed, sofa, long table, original bedside tables made of wood. Everything you needed to stay was also: slippers, bathrobes, hairdryer, kettle, water, on the balcony clothes dryer, for which a special thank you. The room even had bug spray (but the smell is creepy). We lived on the second floor, about in the middle of the building, and the balcony overlooked the garden, but a piece of ocean was visible and you could see a stunning dawn in the morning in good weather. When we checked in, we said we had come to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and a couple of days later we were pleasantly surprised by the delicious cake in the room and the bed decorated with petals! In the ocean, we hardly swam, dipped in strength twice. It was low tide, it was strong waves. We didn't keep track of when it was best to go, just sometimes went to the beach, lay with ice cream on the sunbeds (which is enough here) and get some sea air. Mostly came in the afternoon when the pool was too hot and the beach was breezy and the heat was easier to handle. Most of the time was spent in the central pool, the boon inside was a bar with a huge selection of cocktails and cocktails! The same bar also had the best coffee in the hotel, so when we found out, at the end of the holiday we'd been coming here all morning. It's a little harder by the pool with the sunbeds, but there's always room. Considering we were mostly in the water, sun or shade wasn't as fundamental. Interestingly, the pool is arranged in such a way that it consists of different parts: in the middle part you can stand on your feet, in the parts on the sides the depth is such that you cannot reach the bottom. The property is small, but very beautiful and green! Sometimes you can observe the animals: squirrels were found in trees, carp swim in a pond, and a turtle lives in a separate enclosure. Hotel animation is not intrusive at all, but responsive. Even if it was just the two of them who were going to the event, they were doing it. Taken home to remember hand-painted bags )) Separately, I want to celebrate nutrition. If you have All Inclusive, you can eat fully in the restaurant on a menu 24 hours a day (!). And it's so delicious! As a result, we were there almost constantly and had lunch and dinner, only a couple of times for a vacation went to lunch by the pool with a buffet. For dinner, they often set tables right on the lawn by the sea. We used to come to see the show for a cocktail, and then we'd still go to our favorite restaurant to eat. There's also the possibility of dining at an Italian restaurant by appointment. And lastly, of course, I'll mention the staff. All employees are in the heart forever! These are the nicest and most friendly guys we've ever met in any country! Maybe not everyone knows English, not everyone is good at making cocktails, but everyone definitely wants to help you and make your holiday even better! Thank you, Sol by Melia, for a wonderful holiday! We very much hope to come to you ))

My wife and I visited Benoa for 4 nights to end our Balinese holiday. From start to finish, we were very impressed by how friendly every single member of staff were; whether they were at the front desk, working in the restaurant or keeping the resort tidy. There is a walkway by the beach to walk down to the Bali Collection which are a group of shops if that interests you too. The hotel had a lovely atmosphere of mixed ages. There was a rota of evening entertainment, which included fire dancing, but noise levels were low at night. We opted for the all inclusive package which gave us access to almost the whole menu for both food and drink. Menu in the main restaurant was a la carte and there were plenty of different food choices to keep everyone catered for. There was a buffet style lunch at offer by the pool-side restaurant which was a little more limited, but we still ate well there. There is a specialist mediterranean restaurant, where the service was great but the food was no better than the main restaurant. The pizza at the buffet lunch was actually better than the main restaurants as they had a pizza oven with fresh dough and the others looked/tasted pre-made. There is plenty to do to keep you busy through the day. An aspect to be aware of is there are limited sun loungers around the pool and those which are to the left hand side are in shade from around 1pm. We were two of very few British tourists and other European guests had the sun loungers reserved before breakfast opened at 7am, so if you do want the best loungers, you have to get in very early! There are loungers on the beach which we opted for. We would not hesitate to return to the Benoa resort.