W Retreat & Spa Bali - Seminyak. Welcome in our Spectacular Ocean Facing Retreat.

Look e.g. at how the room numbers are displayed: carved out of large pebbles and with green beads.

The door handles of the cupboard in our room light up in the dark.

A bed spread with sewn-on green leafs.

Pretty, right?!

After staying at the W’s in Taipei, Hong Kong and multiple visits to the W Singapore, we now went to the W in Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia.

We had points from our previous 37 nights and even Suite Nights, so we hoped there would be a suite available for us, but alas….
They did give us an upgrade though, from a Garden View room to a Spectacular Ocean Facing room, which was great, of course.

View from our balcony. Look at those lush gardens with a flowy, curved pool meandering through.

The beach here is pretty empty, the waves are huge and loud and there is a dangerous undercurrent.

In the week before leaving for Bali, I tried to establish personal contact with the W Bali’s Insider, since I had had such wonderful experiences with HongKong’s W Insider Charlie, Hong Kong’s W Welcome Agent Maggie and Singapore’s W Insider Cara.

I stumbled upon Insider Dino on Instagram and asked him via email and IG wether he was able and willing to give me a grand tour of the hotel for my blog. I also mentioned to him that this small vacation was to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

Upon arrival we had a brief meeting with Dino, who turned out not to be W Bali’s only Insider; they have in fact three!
The next day we met Rika, one of the other Insiders. I had more and better contact with her during our stay.

We were brought to our room where there were some lovely surprises waiting for us.

It rained business cards and welcome messages.

On the bed was a large, colorful heart laid out, made out of smaller hearts. There was a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a music DVD and the ingredients for a cocktail for two were there, ready to be mixed. How sweet!

Lip cushions and heart of hearts; sweet!

The bellboy offered to mix our drinks, but that did not work out that well. He did not succeed to remove the lid of the shaker and when he did, he accidentally spilled half of the sweet, sticky liquid over the floor and the table.

But hey, the intent was good and the cocktail tasted delicious after a day of traveling.

The popsicles gave the drink a festive and playful look!

Hey, I finished my drink, but I still have my popsicle;-).

OK, so I am gonna dip in my popsicle….

…there it goes…

…now I lick of the Martini….

Nah, too complicated, I’ll just drink it…

Since there were no suites available, we considered opting for a One Bedroom Pool Villa. We would have to fork out more money for it, but we were willing to pay, since we had such great private villa experiences at two different Banyan Tree Resorts.
More about the One Bedroom Pool Villa in another post, coming up soon.

In the end we decided to stay in our Ocean Facing room, since we loved the view and all the facilities around us on the grounds of the W Bali.
More about the garden, pool and other facilities of the W Bali in another post soon!

Besides the view of our Spectacular Ocean Facing Retreat, as our room type is named, we loved that it comes with a balcony with comfy seats. Inside the room there is comfortable space to sit as well. The bathroom is spacious with an open lay-out. We used both the huge bath, big enough for two persons;-), and the rain shower. The skylight above the bathing area, that you can open and close by remote control, is a nice touch!

Our balcony…

…and all the other similar balconies;-).

Frits has not discovered the corner sofa yet and is instead sitting on the footstool, already doing his work emails. Poor guy!

Bathroom with bath, two showers and skylight.

Another quirky surprise.

Skylight that you can open and close with remote control.

Selfie in the bathroom mirror. I am trying to remind myself to make more selfies for my blog. I tend to never be in any of my pictures, but I am starting to get that people actually enjoy seeing the blogger in person (on the pictures that is) from time to time, so I want to make it more of a habit. It’s not in my system yet, but I am getting there;-).

Thumbs up for the design of the room, the spacious lay-out, the ocean view, the balcony and the good bed. Very pretty and comfortable!

Thumbs down for the noise; we were not able to sleep without ear plugs. Which noises bothered us? Well, this may sound strange, but the sound of the rolling waves is very loud. We are not used to it and it sounded pretty stormy to us. More disturbing are the sounds coming from the garden, in particular music, coming from the WOO Bar, from the restaurants or from groups singing happy birthday and such. Worst are other hotel guests. Somehow the acoustics in the hallways amplify every word other guests say when passing by your room. And then there were our neighbors who came home around 3 or 4 in the night, turning up the music volume to the max. Two nights in a row. Crazy!
But… our ear plugs did the job! So just bring ear plugs or ask for a quieter room.

The real attraction of the W Bali though, lies in it’s indoor and outdoor facilities and lay-out, like it’s landscaped garden and WET pool.
More about the common areas of the W Bali in some upcoming posts.

Have you stayed in a W Hotel? Did you like it? Did you ever visit Bali? Do you love it as much as I do? (a lot!) Are you a good sleeper or do you sometimes need ear plugs, like me?