Some places impress you.
Others quietly become part of your story.
For us, Bali was one of those places.
From the UK, Bali always felt so far away to me. Not just geographically, but financially too. I honestly thought it was one of those places that only certain people got to visit. The kind of destination I would see in glossy travel photos and assume belonged to somebody else’s life.
Len, on the other hand, was already very well travelled.
When we started talking about taking a proper trip together, he wanted to take me somewhere that would broaden my horizons a little, somewhere that felt completely new to me, but also somewhere that was new to him.
No prior history.
No memories with anybody else.
Just an Amiee and Len adventure.
When he suggested Bali, I genuinely thought he was joking.
He wasn’t.
And that was the beginning of something that has somehow turned into a place we now return to again and again.
Why Nusa Dua?
If you are visiting Bali for the first time, I genuinely think Nusa Dua is one of the easiest introductions to the island.
You get the holiday feeling you might already be familiar with.
Lovely resorts. Pools. Beaches. Amazing hospitality. Somewhere calm to come back to after a long day.
But you still have Bali around you.
Particularly around Tanjung Benoa, there are local warungs, little shops, street food, restaurants, spas and everyday life sitting alongside the hotels.
You don’t have to choose between staying somewhere comfortable and actually experiencing Indonesia.
You can have both.
And that is probably one of the reasons this part of Bali worked so well for me on that first trip.
It was different enough to completely open my eyes, but not so overwhelming that I felt lost.
One thing I would say is that Bali can be deceptive when you look at a map.
You might think you have chosen somewhere central because one attraction looks close, only to discover that something else you want to visit is two hours away.
That is just Bali.
Stay near Ubud and you may be closer to Monkey Forest but much further from Uluwatu.
Stay further south and suddenly other attractions become the long journey.
There is no magical place where absolutely everything is on your doorstep.
Nusa Dua gives you a comfortable base and fairly easy access to a lot of southern Bali, but you should still expect to travel.
And honestly, some of those journeys become part of the experience anyway.
Tanjung Benoa became personal for us
Tanjung Benoa holds a special place in our hearts.
We first arrived there as tourists.
Over repeated visits, we made genuine friendships with people who eventually became family to us.
That is something I try to talk about carefully.
Bali isn’t ours.
We aren’t Balinese, and travelling somewhere regularly doesn’t make you local.
But there are people there who have welcomed us into their lives so genuinely that returning to Tanjung Benoa now feels less like going back on holiday and more like going back to see people we love.
We don’t get the luxury of seeing them throughout the year.
So when we are in Bali, being close to them matters.
And perhaps the biggest indication of how much Bali came to mean to us is that Len and I eventually chose to get married there.
Our wedding itself was held somewhere else, which is definitely a story for another article, but for our wedding trip we chose one particular hotel as our home base.
Which brings me to the first one.
1. The Sakala Resort Bali
The one that became home
The Sakala was the first hotel we ever stayed in when we went to Bali.
And several trips later, it is still my personal favourite.
We have now stayed there four times, including this year.
Len is usually the one who wants to explore somewhere new.
I am the one dragging us back to Sakala.
Some places just earn your loyalty.
When we first arrived, I didn’t really know what to expect.
You know when you look at hotel photos online and wonder whether somebody has worked absolute miracles with the camera angle?
This wasn’t like that.
It genuinely looked like the pictures.
And several years later, it still does.
Of course, hotels age.
You might occasionally spot a bit of tired woodwork or some limescale on exterior surfaces, because Bali is hot, humid and very much alive.
But we have stayed there enough times to see that maintenance is constantly happening.
For the price, the standard has always felt incredibly good to us.
And the biggest thing Sakala gives you is space.
The suites are generous.
When we returned to Bali to get married, that became even more important.
I had dresses.
We had gifts.
We had everything we had brought over for the wedding.
We needed somewhere that could support us through that entire week without us feeling like we were living on top of our suitcases.
Sakala gave us that.
It had the space.
It had the amenities.
And emotionally, it already felt familiar.
That is why we chose it again.
The breakfast
I keep talking about breakfast when I talk about hotels, and there is a reason for that.
Personally, I don’t think you need to stay all inclusive in Bali.
There is too much good food outside the hotels.
Too many restaurants.
Too many warungs.
Too many places you might randomly discover while you are out exploring.
The last thing I want is to be somewhere brilliant and feel like I need to rush back to the hotel just because dinner is included.
Breakfast is different.
A really good breakfast sets you up for the day.
You can eat properly in the morning, head out exploring and then decide what you fancy later without any pressure.
And Sakala’s breakfast buffet is phenomenal.
There is so much choice.
Western food.
Indonesian dishes.
Fresh fruit.
Pastries.
Hot food.
Cold food.
You can pretty much find something no matter what mood you are in.
If you are travelling on a tighter budget, you could easily eat a proper breakfast and then just grab something small later in the day.
For us, that flexibility is perfect.
The pools
There are two main pool experiences.
The beach club is across the road and gives you the pool, bar and private beach experience.
It is lovely for those days when you decide you are not doing anything productive.
And you should absolutely have those days.
You don’t need to see a temple, waterfall, beach club and rice terrace every twenty four hours just because you have flown all the way to Bali.
Sometimes you need to sit beside a pool and do absolutely nothing.
The main pool within the hotel complex itself is huge.
We have very rarely found it so busy that swimming is uncomfortable.
There have been one or two occasions where sunbeds were harder to find, but that has always been the exception rather than the rule.
And thankfully, it has never had that strange European resort situation where everybody appears at dawn to put towels on forty sunbeds and then disappears for six hours.
If that happens at Sakala, I have never witnessed it.
They also have pool access suites, which give you that extra little slice of luxury without necessarily reaching completely ridiculous prices.
The downside
I do want to be fair because I hate reviews that pretend everything is perfect.
Sakala is further down Tanjung Benoa.
That means there are fewer things immediately outside the hotel.
There is a small convenience shop within walking distance and a chicken takeaway nearby that we have eaten from before and enjoyed.
But if your dream is to leave the hotel in the evening and casually stroll between lots of bars, restaurants and shops, Sakala probably isn’t the strongest of these three options.
You will likely need a taxi.
For us, that is absolutely fine.
Bluebird taxis are easy to get and the hotel can call one for you.
And realistically, when you are in Bali, there is a good chance you are going to use taxis or drivers anyway.
So the real question is not whether Sakala is well located.
It is whether you personally want lots of amenities directly outside your hotel.
If you do, one of the other hotels in this article might suit you better.
If you don’t mind hopping into a cab when you want to go somewhere, Sakala is still my number one.
A small wedding confession
You might now be wondering something.
If Sakala is our favourite, why didn’t we recommend that all our wedding guests stay there too?
Because I was gatekeeping.
There. I said it.
We loved having everybody in Bali with us, but it was still our wedding.
We wanted somewhere that could remain our little retreat.
Somewhere we could return to and have a bit of privacy, rather than accidentally spending every waking second of our wedding trip with friends and family.
So while I absolutely would recommend Sakala to people we love, on that particular occasion I selfishly wanted to keep a little piece of it for ourselves.
And I am completely comfortable admitting that.
Who I think Sakala suits
Sakala is my pick if you want spacious accommodation, excellent amenities, a brilliant breakfast and a calm base to return to.
It is especially good if you are staying for more than a few nights and want somewhere that feels comfortable enough to properly unpack and settle into.
For us, it is more than a hotel now.
It is where our Bali story started.
And it became our home base for one of the biggest moments of our lives.
2. Bali Tropic Resort & Spa
The one that immediately feels like Bali
We chose Bali Tropic because we wanted to try somewhere different.
And one of the first things that attracted us was the architecture.
The traditional Balinese woodwork.
The carvings.
The gardens.
The buildings.
The whole place has a much more obvious Balinese feel to it.
And that matters to me.
I personally don’t want to travel to the opposite side of the world only to stay somewhere that could be almost anywhere.
There is nothing wrong with modern international luxury.
Sakala has more of that polished feel and I clearly love it.
But Bali Tropic gives you something different.
It immediately reminds you where you are.
The grounds are beautifully manicured and the whole place feels tropical in a way that is difficult to fake.
It is lovely to just walk around.
The private beach is also a big plus.
And the pool area is beautiful.
The breakfast
Now, this is where personal preference comes into it.
For me, Sakala wins on breakfast.
But that absolutely does not mean Bali Tropic has a bad breakfast.
Far from it.
In fact, I think Bali Tropic would probably suit a lot of British travellers even better.
There are plenty of familiar Western options.
Eggs.
Sausages.
Breakfast staples.
You are not being forced into nasi goreng at eight in the morning if that is not your thing.
They also have a refrigerated area for the yoghurts, fruit and other chilled items, which I really liked because Bali is hot.
It keeps everything fresh and protected.
So while Sakala wins for me personally on variety, Bali Tropic still does breakfast incredibly well.
Location is where Bali Tropic really shines
This is probably where Bali Tropic has an edge over Sakala.
You are closer to central Nusa Dua and you have more practical things around you.
Pepito supermarket is opposite, which is incredibly useful.
If you have forgotten toiletries, want snacks, need drinks, fancy buying some local bits or just need something practical, you can simply walk over.
That sounds like a tiny detail when you are planning a holiday from home.
It is not a tiny detail when you are actually there.
The Bali Collection and central parts of Nusa Dua are more accessible too.
It is still a walk, but it is doable, and there are shuttle options as well.
So if you are someone who likes having more around you without constantly getting into taxis, Bali Tropic is probably the strongest all rounder of these three.
We trusted it with our wedding guests
When we got married, this was one of the places we were happy to recommend to our guests.
Price.
Comfort.
Location.
Character.
It ticked all the boxes.
And we knew we were recommending somewhere we would happily stay ourselves.
One of our wedding guests liked it enough that they later chose to go back and stay there again for their own honeymoon.
Which, to be honest, probably says more than anything I could write here.
Who I think Bali Tropic suits
If you want somewhere that feels unmistakably Balinese, has beautiful grounds, good facilities and a really practical location, this one is such a good choice.
It is probably the hotel I would recommend most confidently to somebody who said:
“I want somewhere lovely, but I also want to feel like I am actually in Bali.”
3. Sadara Resort
The intimate one
Sadara is different again.
Smaller.
Quieter.
More intimate.
And it also carries a very particular memory for us because it was the first place we stayed when we returned to Bali after the pandemic.
We were among that earlier wave of tourists returning as the world started opening back up.
So naturally, the whole experience felt slightly different.
Bali was quieter.
Travel felt new again.
And Sadara suited that moment perfectly.
It does not have the scale of Sakala.
It does not have the same strong traditional styling as Bali Tropic.
But it has its own charm.
It feels personal.
And calm.
Breakfast here is completely different
There is no buffet.
You sit down and you are served.
And I loved that.
You choose your breakfast from the menu, with both Western options and Indonesian options available.
Naturally, I was straight onto the nasi goreng.
And if I asked for it spicy, they made it spicy.
Perfect.
But the meal did not just stop there.
Without you even needing to ask, they would also bring out fresh fruit.
Juice.
A hot drink if you wanted one.
And pastries.
It felt indulgent without being over the top.
More like somebody had actually thought about your breakfast rather than simply pointing you towards a buffet.
That smaller restaurant experience really suited the hotel.
The unexpected little extras
Our stay also included afternoon tea, which I had not even realised was part of our booking.
Every day, if we were around to enjoy it, we could have tea or coffee alongside traditional Balinese treats.
You could sit by the pool or in the restaurant.
It was such a simple thing.
But those are often the things you remember.
Not necessarily the biggest pool.
Not the fanciest lobby.
Sometimes it is somebody bringing you a little plate of something you did not expect while you are sitting there thinking, this is ridiculous, how is this my life?
And I do think about that.
I did not grow up travelling.
I did not grow up around this kind of luxury.
So even now, there are moments where I look around and think how completely wild it is that I get to experience these places.
I never want that to become normal to me.
Our room
Our room was lovely.
I would describe it as less traditional than Bali Tropic and probably less overtly luxurious than Sakala.
But that comparison is almost unfair because we had already completely spoiled ourselves by then.
Sadara is still a beautiful hotel.
And what we loved most about our particular room was how close we were to the pool.
It was not quite a pool access room in the formal sense.
We were just basically right there.
You could leave the room and be in the pool almost immediately.
Forgot something?
Walk back.
Need to change?
Walk back.
Want to grab your book?
Two minutes.
It made the whole stay incredibly easy.
Who I think Sadara suits
I would recommend Sadara to somebody who wants something smaller and more intimate.
Somewhere that feels calm rather than enormous.
Somewhere where breakfast feels like an experience rather than a feeding operation.
And somewhere that gives you those little thoughtful touches.
It is indulgent in a quieter way.
So, which one would I choose?
If you ask me personally?
Sakala.
Every time.
But that answer comes with years of history attached to it.
It was our first Bali hotel.
We have stayed there repeatedly.
We chose it as our wedding base.
Our family is nearby.
It has become wrapped up in our own story.
That does not automatically make it the best hotel for you.
If you want the most traditional Balinese feel, I would look very seriously at Bali Tropic.
If you want something smaller, quieter and more intimate, Sadara might be perfect.
If you want space, big amenities and somewhere that really works as a home base, Sakala is incredibly hard to beat.
The point is not to find the hotel that somebody on the internet has declared “the best”.
Find the one that matches the holiday you actually want.
That is always the better choice.
One last thing
Bali is not one experience.
And Indonesia is definitely not just Bali.
There are so many islands, places, cultures and experiences that deserve their own stories.
We will get to those.
For now, if this is your first time heading to Bali and you are feeling slightly overwhelmed by where to begin, Nusa Dua is a lovely place to find your feet.
Drop your bags.
Eat a ridiculous breakfast.
Go exploring.
Meet people.
Try something you have never tried before.
And give yourself permission to do absolutely nothing beside the pool occasionally too.
You are on holiday after all.
And sometimes the best discoveries happen when you stop trying quite so hard to find them.
