Review - Royal Bali Resort
Back in October when I started this website, I just missed out on a number of Second Life Hotels, which had closed for the Winter season. One of those was the Royal Bali Resort, which from the website, looked amazing.
At the time, Royal Bali's owners transferred the reception and spa area onto a much smaller plot of land in a sailable sim, and kept that part open for visitors.
They've now moved again, and recreated and reopened the resort for the Spring and Summer. Muti (Camille Milos) and myself were the first guests, and here's the review.
Overall look and feel
The first impression is a good one, as you land in the reception, which as mentioned is a leftover from the 2020 resort.
This includes a reception, a meditation room, a spa area and a sauna. This part is really nicely decorated and was probably our favourite part of the resort.
When walking down from the reception area though you then see a row of guest huts. To me this layout doesn't make the best impression, it is quite cramped and holiday camp like.
A bigger issue though for me was the use of ban lines. If you are not a guest, you'll find that every hut and villa has one of these.
The result is that when walking in for the first time, you'll be hemmed in by multiple ban lines on either side. This isn't a good experience, and it would be better for the owners to simply close off the main area of the resort for group members.
As well as the rows of huts, there are two cliff side villas and three waterfront villas, of which we rented one.
In the middle there's a small swimming pool with a slide, of the kind you'll find in a North American or European park. It is a little out of character with the theme of the resort.
Next to the pool there are a few small pavilions that businesses can rent.
Finally there is a beach area, and a restaurant, which is welcoming and well put together.
Overall - 3 / 5
The rooms
The Royal Bali rents out the huts and villas per week. The huts cost 800L a week, and the villas of the kind in which we stayed was 2000L a week. However, looking at their Facebook page they did offer some one night stays last Summer, so the chances are they will do the same again in 2021.
The huts are simply decorated with a bed, a bath and a table outside. I guess the thinking is that guests will spend most of their time around the resort.
The villa we had, had the advantage of greater privacy, as it was in a corner of the sim. If staying at the Royal Bali, I do recommend paying more for that reason.
The villas are on two levels with a simple living room with Balinese art work on the wall, and a dining area outside with places for six guests.
Upstairs there is a bedroom, some outside sitting areas and a bath.
Both the huts and villas have a bath....but no actual bathroom, so no WC or sink. For me this is actually a big omission, every single place I've stayed in so far has had proper bathrooms. For a Second Life hotel, it adds a lot into the whole realism aspect.
Overall - 2.5 / 5
The facilities
The facilities include
A spa at reception
A swimming pool
Some shops
A small beach
A Warung traditional restaurant
A zip wire
And an underwater diving area
Our favourite parts were the spa, which as mentioned is a leftover from the 2020 resorts, the beach and the restaurant. The underwater area is also worth a look. It's quite small but well designed, and even includes sharks!
Overall - 3.5 / 5
The animations
Our villa had an EVH Athenas Swingers bed. This, like some of the other furniture we saw, seemed to be optimised both for one couple and (as the name suggests) for multiple couples / swingers.
Overall the anims in the villa and restaurant took a bit of adjusting, no more so than you'll find elsewhere.
Overall - 3 / 5
Other considerations
The Royal Bali has a really good website, but from the pictures, this still seems to show the 2020 resort. It's worth mentioning that the staff are welcoming and friendly and they checked in to see if we needed anything.
Is the resort adult? Yes
Prices - 800 or 2000 a week
Privacy - As mentioned, there are ban lines for non residents. People can still cam in
Lag - I didn't encounter any
Overall
This is somewhere I really wanted to like, especially after having seen the website last year.
Some of the facilities are really nicely done, but the resort goes overboard on ban lines and the villas and huts are quite simply designed. However if staying here I recommend a cliff side or water side villa for the added privacy.
If you are after a Balinese experience, I do recommend taking a look at Asian Dreams, a taste of Bali and Japan (see review)