Ayu Duwur Beji

Wow! We thoroughly enjoyed our short stay here, the room and facilities were very clean and tidy. We were able to enjoy a delicious selection of breakfasts on the balcony every morning and a dip in the pool to cool off after a busy day exploring. The hosts were lovely, so helpful in advising us of places to visit and amazing restaurants to try! I couldn’t recommend this little hiddden gem enough - well worth a visit.

Firstly, I found this place to be very overrated and overpriced, to be honest, I’m sorry to say. I cannot believe that it’s a called a 3-star hotel – I had just come from another one of those in Ubud, and that one was almost twice as expensive but at least 4 times nicer. I’ve added photos of this place so you can see what the official photos don’t show: the broken and/or poorly kept aspects of the room and grounds, the unappealing building just next door, the many, many steep steps up to the road, etc. All of this would have been fine with me if this had been represented and priced honestly, but it looked so nice online that I was planning on coming here for our honeymoon, and I’m SO glad I tried it out in time to cancel that. The other important thing to be aware of is that if you have any issues at all during your stay, you’ll be treated like an adversary! This happened to me twice during my two-night stay, and I was extremely uncomfortable – I was very eager to leave. First, when my laptop couldn’t access the internet via their wifi (but could on my phone’s hotspot), I asked them if they could just reset the modem. Wayan was bizarrely combative about this simple thing – he kept saying his internet is excellent and I obviously needed to go get my laptop repaired, etc. (Their network was not secure, which my laptop had flagged, and in the end installing a VPN via my hotspot did help for most of the rest of the time.) But his attitude was basically ‘how dare you!’ and it all felt quite unnecessarily adversarial. The other major issue was that Wayan took *great* personal offense to the fact that I still wear a mask in certain settings (people I know keep getting Covid these days, and I’d just like to stay healthy in general during my travels -- especially as Wayan was coughing repeatedly the day I arrived). He lectured me about how Covid is over all over the world and especially in Bali, and we know this because the president had reopened the airports. He asserted that if Covid were to return, the airports would automatically close again. I tried to explain that I had seen many tourists coughing a lot on line for immigration, but he flatly ignored me and just kept repeating the same things over and over no matter what I said. Then, just before I went to bed, I started getting a string of nasty messages from Wayan via his wife, Ayu, on WhatsApp. They said that I was engaging in “defamation of Bali” by not believing that Covid is 100% gone from the planet, and that they were very offended. They sounded very angry and vaguely threatening, with language like “we might snap at you,” and saying that they would not help me to take my luggage up the (very many, very steep) stairs when I left in the morning. I honestly felt pretty afraid, and extremely unwelcome. I have traveled a lot, but never experienced anything remotely like this anywhere else. Even if we were to assume that my laptop was at fault and my Covid precautions were unreasonable, it’s

EVERYTHING!! If you are wondering if you should book this place...do it. I really really loved everything about my stay here. The guesthouse belongs to a wonderful Balinese family who are friendly and will go out of their way to help you. They are really lovely people. Ayu and Wayan made me feel like I've known them for long. The minute you walk into the compound after the tasking stairs you find yourself surrounded by nature. If you want a quiet place, your own privacy, a nice lovely pool, and nothing but the sound of nature, then definitely choose this place. Your bedroom view will be looking out into a bamboo and palm tree forest and you will always hear the sound of water flowing nearby. The bed is super comfortable. It's just the right firmness with comfy pillows and the rooms were kept clean every day. The bathroom was HUGE. I was here on holiday but also had work to do and their internet always worked for me. Their breakfast is always fresh and delicious. I actually miss it now thinking about it. They can also organize excursions for you as well as rent you a scooter, they have several of these there. At sunset, the rays filter through the trees in front of the balcony. But I was there when it rained and that was quite a treat too. Listening to rain hitting leaves from bed is something special. I only had 2 issues with the place. The stairs to the home are not too far but the home is downhill so can be tasking. The bathroom was always a bit damp but is expected in a hot humid place like Bali. Our room was on the lower level, I don't think bathrooms in the upper area would be as damp. This is definitely my go-to home when I come back to Bali.