Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Bali

Shae and I recently got back from our 15th anniversary trip to Bali. We stayed 10 nights at the Hyatt Regency Bali in Sanur which is on the southeast side of the island.

After earning Hyatt Globalist status last year, I used a couple of suite upgrade awards to guarantee a Regency Suite – a one bedroom suite which also gave access to the Regency Club. The suite was beautiful and spacious, the hotel overall was gorgeous and the service was incredible – they helped make both our anniversary and Shae’s birthday extra special.

Here’s a review of the Hyatt Regency Bali which includes photos of our suite, the pools, Regency Club, restaurants and everything else that the hotel has to offer.

How To Get To The Hyatt Regency Bali From Ngurah Rai International Airport

Three days before our arrival in Bali, I received an email from the hotel which included a reminder that transportation from the airport to the hotel isn’t included, but that we could arrange for them to send a car to pick us up.

In theory, we could’ve taken a taxi from Ngurah Rai International Airport to the Hyatt Regency Bali. I’m glad we didn’t choose that option though as the airport was packed when we arrived. Heading outside, I’ve never seen such a busy arrivals area, so I think several flights must’ve arrived at around the same time. Getting a taxi might therefore have been a nightmare, especially after such a long journey and flight issues along the way.

Instead, I took the hotel up on their offer of sending a car for us. The email from the Hyatt Regency included a link to a portal where we could make the reservation. I didn’t think to take screenshots at the time, but there were several options at different price points. The cheapest was IDR 400,000 (~$28), while I think the most expensive one was IDR 2,000,000 (~$141), although I might be misremembering that final price.

We chose the IDR 400,000 option which was for transport in a Toyota Innova. It’s a one way fee and so you have to pay that amount again if you want a ride back to the airport at the end of your stay, but it does take you via a toll road which gets you to the hotel faster (the toll fee is included in the IDR 400,000).

When entering the arrivals area, among the hordes of people we spotted someone holding a sign for the Hyatt Regency Bali. Our name was written on a piece of paper attached to it, but it was far too small to read it from a distance, so we could only see our name once we got close to him.

We walked with our driver over to the parking lot where there were some cold towels…

…and cold bottles of water waiting for us, both of which were appreciated.

While driving along, we chatted to our driver a little and asked for his recommendation of a traditional Balinese meal we should try. Without hesitation, he suggested babi guling which is suckling pig. We tried this towards the end of our trip and it was delicious, so it was a great recommendation. (Side note: Be sure to check out our list of things to do in Bali based on what we experienced and enjoyed which includes eating babi guling: 12 Fun Things To Do In Bali (& 1 To Avoid))

The journey to the hotel only took about 20 minutes once we left the airport, so traffic wasn’t bad – presumably helped by taking the toll road.

Check-In

We were greeted by the bellhops who carried our cases up the steps to the check-in area. While the lobby is covered, it’s open air as there are no walls. There wasn’t a line, so we got checked in straight away.

Axel checked us in and he was very friendly. He confirmed that we were booked in to a Regency Suite. I’d originally booked a standard King room, but used two of my Suite Upgrade Awards from my Globalist status to guarantee a suite. Suite upgrades are a standard benefit of Globalist status when checking in, but only if there’s a suite actually available. Given how much of a steal the hotel was (and still is to a large extent) when booked using points, I was concerned all the suites would already be booked by the time we arrived, so I used the guaranteed upgrades to be safe, especially seeing as we were there to celebrate our 15th anniversary.

While we were being checked in, we enjoyed some traditional Balinese music that was being played in the lobby…

…as well as some iced lychee tea. I’m originally from the UK and so I only like hot English breakfast tea, so I was surprised that this was the first ever iced tea I’ve tried and enjoyed.

Axel informed us that a pre-authorization would be placed on our credit card for incidentals, meals, etc. This came to IDR 5,000,000 (~$351); we were staying 10 nights, so I’ve a feeling they hold IDR 500,000 (~$35) per night.

He also provided a map of the hotel which ended up proving to be helpful as it’s quite a large resort with several restaurants, amenities, etc.

After a few minutes, we had the keys to room 2419. We were taken there by Ferdian who helped with our bags and who also very friendly (as were all staff). Along the way, he explained how the room numbers at the hotel work:

• 2 – This refers to the building number (there are three buildings).
• 4 – This refers to the floor you’re on (there are four floors).
• 19 – Your room number.

After a few minutes, we arrived at our room. Ferdian brought in our bags, highlighted a few key parts of the suite and then left us to it.

Regency Suite

The Hyatt Regency Bali used to be the Hyatt Bali. It then closed in 2013 and was refurbished over the course of five years. It was subsequently rebranded as a Hyatt Regency, reopening in December 2018.

Seeing as we visited less than nine months after the refurbishment was complete, our Regency Suite was beautiful. It was tastefully decorated, comfortable and extremely spacious. The website lists these suites as being 580-840 sq ft and I’d say that our particular suite was on the upper end of that, especially when taking into account the balconies off both the living room and bedroom.

Just after Ferdian left, I did a video walkthrough to give you a good idea of how the suite is laid out.

When entering the suite, the living room is straight ahead, there’s a bathroom on the right, while the bedroom and main bathroom are off to the right further up.

Powder Room

On the immediate right when entering the suite was what they called a powder room, but which is basically a second bathroom containing a walk-in shower.

While I’d initially thought a second bathroom in a one bedroom suite would be overkill, I actually loved having it. Shae usually goes to bed long before I do, so this meant I didn’t have to go through the bedroom to the main bathroom at night while she was sleeping.

Living Room

The living room was a decent size and had a wide couch that was great for napping on. It wasn’t quite so good for sitting on though due to how far back you have to sit on it.

Waiting for us on the coffee table was a welcome amenity for being a Globalist member which consisted of a fruit bowl and some Balinese popcorn. The popcorn was different to regular popcorn, but it was tasty and a little spicy.

The General Manager had also left a note welcoming us to the hotel.

To the side of the couch was a mini bar and mini fridge with an electric kettle, French press and drinking glasses on top.

The mini fridge contained several soft drinks. Everything in the main part of the fridge was part of the mini bar, although the two bottles of water in the door were complimentary. These were refreshed every day, with housekeeping usually leaving half a dozen bottles.

It was nice that not all of the fridge space was taken up by mini bar drinks as it meant we could use that for our own drinks and snacks.

In the drawers on the right were complimentary teas and coffees, as well as a bottle opener.

In the drawer beneath that were some mini bar snacks. As mini bar snacks and drinks go, they were actually reasonably priced. Bottles of mineral water, nuts and candy bars were all IDR 25,000 which is about $1.75.

In a cupboard beneath the drawer with the snacks were some tea cups.

On the opposite side of the room was a dining table and chairs which Shae used as a desk during our stay.

Opposite the couch was a wall-mounted 65″ TV with a storage unit beneath.

There was a good selection of TV channels from around the world. I forgot to take a photo of the other side of the channel guide, but it included half a dozen sports channels, 8-9 HBO and Fox movie channels and a few other channels.

Beneath the TV were several power outlets along with USB ports. The Hyatt Regency Bali has installed universal plugs which is very helpful as it means you don’t have to bring adapters with you. An important thing to note though is that Bali’s power outlets are 220V; it’s fine plugging in your laptop as that automatically converts the power, but plugging in other electronic items like hair straighteners will fry them unless you have an adapter that converts the voltage to 110V (for US visitors that is). The USB ports are fine for charging your phones and tablets though.

As you’ll have noticed from a couple of the photos above, there was a balcony off the living room. This had a table and chairs, as well as a rack on the left hand side to dry your clothes.

The doors leading out to the balcony had a sign requesting that you don’t hang clothes over the railing. The rack wasn’t very big though, so quite a few other guests draped their clothes over the railing which is understandable if you also have kids with you.

The balcony looks out over the garden towards the ocean which you can just about see at times.

If you need anything during your stay, the hotel has what they call a Convenience Collection. This consists of a number of items you can have for free, along with several more that you can borrow.

The hotel is on WhatsApp, so you can send them a message through there requesting any of these items rather than having to call or stop by the front desk. When checking in, keep an eye out for a small sign at the front desk which provides a QR code to connect with them on WhatsApp; that pre-populates a message to them which starts “Hi! I would like some assistance. My room number is…”

If you’re after items like a curling iron or hair straightener, it’s best to request them ASAP as they were all taken by other guests the day Shae wanted to borrow one.

Bedroom

A door from the living room led through to the bedroom. This contained a king bed with a small bedside table on one side and a long bedside table on the other.

When taking the photo, I hadn’t noticed that Shae’s J-pillow from the flight was sitting on the bed, so that’s not some weird looking towel animal.

Both sides of the bed had universal plugs and USB ports, while the right side table also had a speaker and traditional clock.

Opposite the bed was another TV and storage unit.

The bedroom had its own balcony with a couple of lounging chairs.

Both the bedroom and living room balconies had wooden double sliding doors to block out the sunlight which worked pretty well.

Back by the door between the living room and bedroom was a large walk-in wardrobe. This had a long bench which was useful as a luggage rack.

There were drawers beneath the bench containing slippers, a laundry bag, shoe mitt, etc.

Also inside the wardrobe was an iron, ironing board and a bathrobe (there was another bathrobe in the main bathroom).

Bathroom

The bathroom was through some double sliding doors from the bedroom. It was beautifully designed and was very spacious.

On the left were double sinks with an additional couple of bottles of complimentary water that were replenished each day.

In the drawers were several amenity kits containing items like a toothbrush and toothpaste, razor and shaving cream, comb, sanitary bag, etc.

Another drawer contained a hairdryer.

On the right side of the bathroom was a bathtub that Shae enjoyed using the day we arrived.

To the side of the bath was a walk-in toilet room which had a frosted glass door for privacy.

To the left of that was a separate walk-in shower which featured both a rainfall shower head and a handheld shower head. While this rainfall shower wasn’t anywhere near as spectacular as the one at the Park Hyatt New York, it was very nice nonetheless.

On a shelf in the shower room were shampoo, conditioner and shower gel dispensers.

The shower controls have a couple of knobs. As the instructions mention in the photo below, you have to pull both knobs out to turn on the shower.

The handle at the bottom then controls the temperature, while turning the small handle at the top counter-clockwise changes it to using the rainfall shower head.

Thoughts On The Regency Suite

Shae and I loved the Regency Suite we stayed in. The decor was beautiful, the suite was clean, comfortable and quiet, while it was also great having a separate living room and two bathrooms.

If you have Suite Upgrade Awards from Globalist status or Milestone Rewards, this could be a very good use of them. Like I mentioned earlier in the review though, Globalist members should be upgraded to a Regency Suite automatically, but that’s reliant on there being some available when checking in.

Regency Club

In addition to suite upgrades, one of the benefits of Globalist status is lounge access. That comes automatically with the Regency Suite too, so if you book that room type directly then you’ll also have lounge access.

The Hyatt Regency Bali has non-suite rooms that include Regency Club access, plus the World of Hyatt loyalty program offers members two Club Access awards after staying 20 nights in a year, plus another two after staying an additional 10 nights.

The Regency Club lounge at the Hyatt Regency Bali can be found between buildings 1 and 2.

The club lounge is hidden back from the rest of the hotel, so it’s a relaxing place to hang out. You cross a short bridge over a pond and follow the path…

…whereupon you’ll see the covered open air lounge. There’s an additional uncovered deck, although it does have netting over it to prevent large leaves landing on you and your food.

The Regency Club is open for breakfast from 6:30am-11am, then again for an evening happy hour from 5pm-7pm.

Easy listening music is played in the lounge for the first hour of the evening happy hour, then there’s live Balinese music for the second hour.

Regency Club – Breakfast

Breakfast is served from 6:30am until 11am which was a great timeframe for us. When we first arrived in Bali we were jetlagged and so were often awake at 4am, while later in the trip we appreciated being able to have a late breakfast.

There’s a good breakfast spread in the Regency Club lounge every morning, with lots of options regardless of what kind of food you like to eat for breakfast. Shae and I never ate breakfast at Omang Omang (the restaurant where breakfast is served for other guests), but we walked through Omang Omang one morning and it looked like their buffet had exactly the same options as the Regency Club. I therefore don’t think you’ll be missing out by sticking to the free breakfast in the lounge.

When you enter the lounge in the morning, you’ll usually be greeted by a staff member and you’ll pick your table. They’ll then get your drinks; sodas aren’t stocked in the fridge at breakfast (only in the evenings), but they’re happy to get you one at breakfast if you’re like us and enjoy a diet Coke first thing.

As for food, there are lots of breads and pastries available. Some of these rotate each day and so some days the muffins were blueberry and other days they were coconut. They had apple Danish pastries some days, pineapple ones on other days and coconut ones other days.

There are a couple of fridges which contain small bowls of salad, fish (tuna some days, smoked marlin on others), cheese, cold cuts, etc.

Those options are on one side of the fridges; fresh fruit is on the other side. The fruits changed each day, with pineapple, papaya, dragonfruit, watermelon, passion fruit and others appearing.

There were several hot options each day; sausage, bacon and baked beans were available every day, with another option changing every day. Sometimes it was roasted potatoes, other days it was pan-fried tomatoes.

On the other side of where the hot options were served was an egg station where you could order scrambled eggs, fried eggs, omelets, etc. Service was always quick here, so I enjoyed several omelets during our stay. There were a number of fillings for omelets including peppers, cheese, mushrooms, onions and more.

Those weren’t the only hot options though. To the right of that was a noodle bar…

…along with a few other options. There was what seemed to be some kind of rice soup each day, with the other two options rotating. There would be either fried rice or noodles each day, along with some kind of meat (usually some kind of spicy sausage).

There was also an island containing cereals, preserves, nuts and dried fruit.

For drinks, there was a coffee and tea station, but the Regency Club staff usually took care of that.

There was an additional fridge containing a variety of fruit juices, milk, yogurt drinks, yogurts and bircher muesli.

Regency Club – Happy Hour

Happy Hour was served in the Regency Club from 5pm-7pm and also offered a good spread of food and drinks. If you’re trying to stay on a budget during your stay at the Hyatt Regency Bali, you could have a late breakfast and then eat at the Happy Hour in the evening which should be more than enough food.

Drinks-wise, there’s a fridge containing soft drinks, cold beers and white wines, as well as chilled glasses to help keep your drinks cold.

There’s also a station with red wines, sparkling wine and a few different spirits.

There are several other soft drink options, bottles of water, milk and fruit juices available, in addition to the coffee and tea station shown in the breakfast section earlier.

As for food, there was a noodle bar with three different types of noodle each night, two types of broth (which changed each day), a few meat, fish or tofu options and a selection of toppings.

There were also a couple of other hot options which rotated each day. Sometimes it was beef on lemongrass sticks, other times there was bacon and egg quiche (which was surprisingly flavorful), chicken or pork satay, chicken quesadilla and more.

There were numerous different breads. I highly recommend their sourdough bread – I don’t tend to eat bread much, but I had a slice of this every day as it was so delicious.

I miss prawn crackers from when I grew up in the UK, so it was nice getting to have those every day in Bali too.

The two food fridges always had some kind of cold cuts and crudités…

…as well as some other kind of chilled options. This was sometimes Hawaiian chicken salad, other times there was some kind of tasty Asian salad and dips and more.

The Regency Club Happy Hour offered several desserts each evening. Be sure to check both food fridges as there were sometimes different desserts in each fridge.

There were always a few fruit choices too.

One other thing I should mention is that the service was always fantastic in the Regency Club. In particular, Benny, Anike and Tika were amazing – so friendly and welcoming each day.

They were incredibly good with names too, despite there being so many guests with lounge access. Anike was working the evening we arrived and then again the next morning – she remembered our names the next morning without us having to provide them or our room number.

It was interesting though – none of those three happened to be working on our final morning at the hotel and the service during breakfast didn’t run as smoothly. At times there were no drinking glasses, only a couple of plates, drink orders weren’t taken, etc. It certainly wasn’t terrible, but it was noticeable how hard they must work normally.

Swimming Pools

OK, on to the rest of the hotel and its amenities. The hotel has a few different swimming pools which includes a shallow children’s pool. The children’s pool had a small slide (inside the structure below that looks like a shrubby Cousin It), but that was closed off during our entire stay.

The other pools were a pretty good size and never felt too crowded, with one of them having a waterfall feature.

There was also a whirlpool that was large enough to fit several people.

There’s an additional swimming pool at the Hyatt Regency which I don’t think most guests knew about as we never saw more than two people in it. It’s over by the Shankha Spa and fitness room; those are hidden away on the resort down a long-ish path, so that pool is a great option if you’d like to do laps in peace and quiet.

Back by the main pool area there’s a towel cart, so there’s no need to bring down towels from your room.

There are toilets as well as a couple of shower areas.

If you’re hungry or thirsty, there’s a food and drink menu at each set of sun loungers – just get the attention of one of the pool attendants to place an order.

There’s also a gelato stand that costs IDR 35,000 (~$2.50) per scoop.

Beach

To be honest, the beach was one of the least impressive parts of the Hyatt Regency Bali. The beach itself was fine I guess, with yellow sand and several sun loungers with shades.

The issue is more with the ocean as you can’t go swimming in it. Not because it’s dirty or polluted, but because it’s too shallow and there’s seaweed. At low tide, you could walk out several hundred yards and still have the water level be below your knee.

Even when the tide is in, it barely rises above your knee. It’s also full of seaweed that’s attached to the ocean floor. If you look in the photo below, for the first few feet of the water you can see the sandy bottom, then everything darker is seaweed. There are a few patches where there’s no seaweed, so that can be a good spot to wade out to as those sections are slightly deeper (i.e. waist deep).

Here’s a closer look at the seaweed reeds to see what I’m talking about. The good thing is that they’re soft and so it was comfortable to walk over them barefoot to get to the non-seaweed sections.

Grounds

The grounds of the Hyatt Regency Bali are beautiful both day and night, with lush gardens and courtyards throughout the property and nice lighting at night.

Special Occasions

Shae and I had gone to Bali to celebrate our 15th anniversary, but I also timed our dates to ensure we’d be there during her birthday too as that’s a few days later.

Shae arranged a trip for our anniversary to visit some waterfalls and other attractions, mentioning to the front desk before we left that it was our anniversary. When we returned that evening, we were greeted with a Happy Anniversary cake, some flowers, a card and towel swans.

The night before Shae’s birthday, I messaged the front desk through WhatsApp to mention that it was her birthday and asked if they’d be able to leave another cake and towel animals again.

Upon our return that evening after a day at the Bali Zoo, sure enough a cake, flowers, card and towel animals were waiting for us.

In addition to towel swans, there was also a towel elephant which was perfect seeing as we’d just been with elephants that day.

Hyatt Regency Bali’s Restaurants

In addition to the Regency Club, the Hyatt Regency Bali has two restaurants and a bar. We visited all three of them during our stay, so here’s what you can expect.

Omang Omang

Omang Omang is the hotel’s main restaurant which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast is available from 6:30am-11am, lunch is from 11am-6pm and dinner is 6pm-10:30pm.

We didn’t eat at Omang Omang for breakfast, but like I mentioned earlier in the review breakfast seemed to be buffet style with the same options that they had in the Regency Club. Having said that, it might be that Omang Omang has additional breakfast items you can order, but I’m not sure if that’s the case.

Due to jetlag, the first few days we were there Shae and I ate breakfast in the Regency Club first thing, so we were hungry by midday. We therefore ate at Omang Omang for lunch a couple of days and I’m glad we did as for the first few days of our stay they had the chef from the Grand Hyatt Singapore visiting. As a result, they had a special menu you could order from.

Our first afternoon there I ordered the Laksa which was a noodle bowl that came with a spicy paste on the side to add to taste. I ended up adding all of it – it was very spicy but delicious.

Shae decided to go all out and ordered the Chili Crab. This apparently had a delicious sauce with it, but was quite possibly the most messy thing she’s ever eaten.

It didn’t come with the small crab forks you get in the US, so it was quite hard getting everything out of it.

The end result were hands covered in sauce. Her T-shirt also ended up with quite a bit of sauce on it which was unfortunate as Cathay Pacific had delayed our bags and so this was her only T-shirt!

We ate there another time before the visiting chef left, so I ordered the fried kway teow. This was also delicious, so I now want to visit Singapore seeing as they apparently have amazing food.

This probably isn’t too helpful though seeing as it’s unlikely the special Singapore menu will be there when you visit, so here’s the regular Omang Omang menu. Prices were reasonable as most dishes were less than $10.

There was a separate drinks menu, but apparently I didn’t take photos of it, so apologies for that. I think the drink prices were the same as the poolside drink prices though, so check that photo earlier in the review if you’re interested.

Basically, cocktails are IDR 140,000 (~$10)…

…while a large beer (and it’s large) was something like IDR 85,000 (~$6).

The only Omang Omang menu item we ordered while there was the chicken quesadilla as other days we ate out elsewhere, or only had a small snack we’d gotten from a nearby grocery store due to a large breakfast.

Omang Omang offers a BBQ night on Wednesday nights from 6:30pm-10pm. This costs IDR 360,000 per person, so about $25. We didn’t eat at Backyard Wednesday, although we did walk past while it was on and it smelled delicious.

Pizzaria

Pizzaria seemed to be a slightly more upscale restaurant, but it was still nice and relaxed when we had dinner there to celebrate our anniversary.

Here’s the Pizzaria menu:

For drinks, I ordered a whiskey and Shae got a Cosmopolitan.

I also ordered a coconut water which came in its original coconut and was branded in both senses of the word.

We started off with braised clams which were in a tomato, white wine, garlic and chili sauce and came with a side of focaccia bread.

I wasn’t feeling pasta or pizza having shared an appetizer, so I ordered the barramundi (Asian sea bass). This turned out to be a great choice as it was delicious and wasn’t too filling.

Shae ordered the margarita pizza which was apparently very good too. She only ate half, so saved the rest for lunch the next day thanks to the fridge in our room.

For dessert we shared some chocolate gelato which was also excellent.

We returned a few nights later for dessert. Shae got the chocolate gelato again, while I ordered the berries, mango and cream.

Something to note regarding service at both Pizzaria and Omang Omang. The servers we had were attentive up until our food was served, but not so much after that. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as it means they’re not interrupting your dinner, but it meant it took forever to be able to order more drinks, dessert and to get our check whenever we ate at those restaurants.

Pizzaria also serves a Sunday brunch from 11:30am-3pm. This costs IDR 450,000 per person, so about $31.50.

Piano Lounge

In addition to those two restaurants, the hotel has a bar next to the lobby called the Piano Lounge.

There was hardly ever anyone there whenever we walked by, so it’s a good place to go if you want a quiet drink. They offer a happy hour from 5pm-7pm, with someone playing the piano between those hours (and possibly other times too).

The happy hour drinks were reasonably priced, with the signature cocktail prices matching the drink prices at Omang Omang and poolside.

If you order drinks, they also provide complimentary snacks. These were some kind of flavored pea (very nice) and what seemed to be some kind of super-crunchy unleavened bread or cracker.

We went down there for drinks on Shae’s birthday, taking the cake the hotel had left her. When she blew out the candles, the coconut on the cake blew all over the table; as soon as the bartender noticed this, he came right over and cleared it up which we felt a little bad about.

Shankha Spa

The Shankha Spa treatments were a little pricey for our budget, so we didn’t end up using their services. Thankfully this didn’t require an awkward conversation at the spa as our hotel room had a treatment menu listing all the prices.

As I mentioned earlier when talking about the lap pool, the Shankha Spa is hidden away at the Hyatt Regency Bali. To get there, go to the lobby and head towards the hotel entrance. Rather than going straight out though, head down a path to the right.

You’ll see a sign along the way so you’ll know you’re on the right path.

Keep following the path and you’ll soon reach the spa.

As with all parts of the hotel, the landscaping and design was beautiful.

The Shankha Spa seemed to have different zones with treatment rooms, several outdoor whirlpools and more.

Fitness Room

Next to the Shankha Spa was the hotel’s fitness room which is open 24 hours a day. It had several pieces of equipment, although it wasn’t a particularly large fitness room given the hotel’s size.

If using their treadmills, be aware that the speeds and distances are measured in kilometers per hour, rather than miles per hour. I’d set it to what I thought was 5.7mph and was confused why it had me walking and didn’t reach a proper speed until I had it up at 9.7. It was only when mentioning it to Shae afterwards that she said it would’ve been in kmh!

I didn’t take a photo of it, but the fitness room had a mini fridge stocked with bottles of water.

Other Amenities

I’ve covered most of what the hotel has to offer already, but there were a few other amenities on site.

There were some bikes next to one of the pools, so those are presumably available for rental. I didn’t notice them until our final day though, so I’ve no idea if you have to register to use them or if they’re just first come, first serve.

We were especially disappointed that we hadn’t realized there was a tandem bike as it meant we could have recreated our adventure in Savannah, Georgia last year, albeit without Truffles in her doggy backpack.

The hotel apparently runs an Indonesian-style night market on Friday evenings from 6:30pm-10pm. However, we went looking for it on the Friday night we were there and couldn’t find it, so I don’t know if it’s as well-hidden as the spa or if it just wasn’t running that night.

On the floor beneath the lobby there are several tour desks where you can book activities and day trips. We didn’t use their services, so I’ve no idea if they’re any good, what their prices are, etc.

If you’re visiting the Hyatt Regency Bali with kids, you might be interested in their kids camp called Camp Sanur.

They offered the camp for different lengths of time each day – two hours, half a day and a full day. The prices were IDR170,000 (~$12), IDR 300,000 (~$21) and IDR 480,000 (~$34) respectively.

Surrounding Area

The Hyatt Regency isn’t isolated, so there are lots of shops, restaurants and bars within walking distance. There’s a path between the back of the hotel and the beach that you can take to the left or right to explore restaurants and bars.

If you walk along the beachside path, you’ll see what initially appears to be a lot of stray dogs. It turns out that very few of them are strays; they actually belong to restaurant/shop owners, but they roam about during the day – you can tell they’re owned by the ribbon or collar around their necks. All the ones we saw were friendly and well fed; there were even large communal food and water bowls for the dogs, which presumably helps ensure they don’t go bothering restaurant customers and hotel guests for food.

If you want to go shopping, you’ll need to head to the front of the hotel, although you can head left or right to find shops, restaurants and bars.

It’s a nice walk along the beach path at night, with some seating areas along the way to enjoy the ocean air.

Currency Exchange

When we arrived in Bali, we changed some money into Indonesian rupiah at the airport. We knew this wouldn’t be a very good rate, but we weren’t sure what our currency exchange options would be at the hotel and didn’t want to be stuck without any cash.

The rate we got at the airport was IDR 13,400 per $1. I’d recommend not changing money at the airport though as there are tons of currency exchange places within walking distance from the hotel, most of which offered better rates of IDR 14,100 per $1. Within a 5 minute drive of the hotel, I also spotted a couple of places offering IDR 14,795 per $1 – 10% more than the rate we received at the airport. We’d only changed over a couple of hundred bucks though, so it’s not like we missed out on a lot.

The good thing about the exchange rate is that you’ll be a millionaire (in rupiah) when changing $75 or more, so you can feel like a real baller 😉

Parking

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, we booked a car through the hotel to pick us up from the airport. If you’re renting a car in Bali though, the hotel has a parking lot and offers complimentary valet parking.

Service

Service at the Hyatt Regency Bali was excellent across the board. From the front desk staff to the Regency Club staff to housekeeping staff to pool attendants and more, everyone was unfailingly friendly and helpful. Every member of staff always greeted us with a warm smile – even when just walking past in the hallway – so that definitely helped elevate our experience there.

Check-In & Check-Out Times

The check-in time at the Hyatt Regency Bali was 2pm, with check-out at 12pm. One of the benefits of Globalist status is 4pm checkout, so we took advantage of that on our last day seeing as our flight out of Bali didn’t leave until just after midnight.

Wi-Fi

The Wi-Fi at the hotel was pretty good overall. It wasn’t the fastest Wi-Fi we’ve ever experienced, but there was a pretty solid connection. It was certainly better than the Wi-Fi we had at most of our hotels in Connecticut a few months ago.

Location

The Hyatt Regency is in a fairly good location, although how good will depend on what you’re looking for from a Bali vacation. If you just want to rest and relax and check out a couple of restaurants, it’s great. It’s also relatively close to the airport, so getting to the hotel isn’t too long of a journey.

If you want to explore the island though, it’s not necessarily the best location. We hired a driver on a couple of days for 10 hours a day and  only had time to do a few activities both of those days due to how far everything was and how long it took to get to them on 30/35mph roads.

Cost

When we booked our stay at the Hyatt Regency Bali, it cost us 5,000 points per night which was an absolute steal. Thanks to Hyatt’s summer promotion for credit cardholders, we’ll be getting a 10% rebate on those redeemed points, so our net cost was 4,500 points per night.

Since we booked our stay, the hotel has increased from being category 1 to category 2 which means it now costs 8,000 points per night. While not as amazing a value as 5,000 points per night, 8,000 points is still a pretty solid redemption for such a nice hotel.

If we’d paid cash for the standard king room we’d originally booked, it would’ve cost us $223.25 per night. That means we got 4.96cpp (cents per point) of value which is excellent for World of Hyatt points.

In reality, we got even more value than that seeing as we were upgraded to the more expensive Regency Suite. That would’ve cost us $597.44 per night, so getting that for 4,500 points thanks to my Globalist suite upgrades meant we got 13.28cpp of value – pretty incredible for a 10 night stay.

Final Thoughts

To be honest, when Shae and I first arrived at the Hyatt Regency Bali, we were a teensy bit underwhelmed. The main reason was the beach – we’d been expecting something a little more tropical. The tide was out when we arrived and so all we saw was an empty ocean and seaweed everywhere.

Over the course of 10 nights though, we fell in love with the hotel. It’s a beautiful property with incredible service from all members of staff. Having Regency Club access is definitely recommended for free breakfast and evening meals and drinks, while it was nice having several different pools available. The food in the restaurants was very good and our Regency Suite was tastefully decorated and spacious.

Even the beach grew on us. Once the tide was in, it was nice wading out to the small patches of ocean with no seaweed, sitting around in the warm pools of water.

I’d highly recommend the hotel if you’re looking for somewhere to relax on the island, especially if you’ll book a room with Regency Club access. If you’re wanting to spend your entire time in Bali exploring the island, it might not be situated too conveniently, but it’s a fairly good location if you’re looking to just take a couple of day trips somewhere.

Our Rating

Room = 4.9 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.8 / 5
Food = 4.8 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.9 / 5
Overall Value = 4.8 / 5

Total = 4.73 / 5

Address

Hyatt Regency Bali, Jalan Danau Tamblingan 89, Sanur, Bali, Indonesia, 80228

Bali Trip Report

You can check out all our posts from our 15th anniversary trip to Bali below:

• We’re Going To Bali For 10 Nights For (Almost) Free – Here’s How
• Flight Antics On The Way To Bali – Here’s What Happened
• Flight Review: Cathay Pacific Economy – Washington Dulles (IAD) To Hong Kong (HKG)
• Review: Cathay Pacific The Pier Business Class Lounge, Hong Kong Airport
• 12 Fun Things To Do In Bali (& 1 To Avoid)
• Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Bali
• Hiring A Driver In Bali – Is It Worth It?
• Having Elephant Mud Fun At The Bali Zoo
• Flight Review: Garuda Indonesia Economy – Denpasar (DPS) To Tokyo Narita (NRT)
• Flight Review: Delta Economy – Tokyo Narita (NRT) To Atlanta (ATL)