After a day spent at Kuta beach, we moved to quieter part of Bali at Sanur.

Sanur is some 15-20 km North East of Kuta, in anywhere else that would be a pretty short distance, but at Bali it means a good 30-45 minutes on a taxi, the traffic was that bad.

get pass the cow before you get to tropical bali hotel
you must get pass the cow before you get to Tropical Bali hotel

There were 2 reasons we moved to Sanur.First,  the dive center for the dive trip is located at Sanur (tho they will pick you up from Kuta too), and secondly, it is a quieter part of Bali. While Kuta is a very vibrant tourist laden area, Sanur is a lot more laid back and mainly occupied by locals.

the swimming pool at Tropical Bali Hotel
the beautiful little pool at Tropical Bali hotel

We spent two nights at Tropical Bali hotel at Sanur, a very small home stay style hotel that is run by a French couple who were used to be in the restaurant business. The hotel had only 10 rooms, two blocks of four rooms arranged in an L shape facing the pool, and another two in the same block as the reception area where the couple lives.

The hotel is located some 100 meters or so off Jalan Padang Galak via a dirt road that is next to a corn farm complete with cows and chicken. These are the real farmers and not those make-pretend type that is there to beautify a resort.

our hotel room
our very tastefully done hotel room

The room was tastefully done, with high ceiling, air conditioning, hot shower, and everything was almost brand new too.

Every room also has a balcony to itself where breakfast is served every morning. You get a choice of local breakfast, English breakfast, or international breakfast. The photo below is our English breakfast on the day just before we went off to Nusa Penida. The operator was kind enough to make breakfast for us by 6:30 am knowing that our pick up was at 7 am.

hotel breakfast, served individually
hotel breakfast, served individually

For other meals, the hotel provide delivery service (complete with the menu) and only charge another 10% on top of the bill. We ordered take out for dinner once and they served it with hotel’s plates & cutleries on the same table at the balcony, it didn’t feel like take-out at all. A very nice touch.

Other than the remote location (which is actually a plus point if you like to just chill & zen) and slowish WIFI, I can’t say enough good things about Tropical Bali Hotel. If I go to Bali again, I’d like to stay there again for sure.

We found Tropical Bali via Agoda and paid $52.47 per night, a steal for this kinda service and quality.

ikan bakar pencar at Sanur, Bali
ikan bakar pencar at Jalan Padang Galak

On the first night at Sanur, we walked some 15 minutes on Jalan Padang Galak to have dinner at Ikan Bakar Warong Pencar. The journey itself was quite scary, the street was mostly unlit and all you can see is the occasional motorcycle headlights as they come close and swung by.

We would have been totally chilled with that if not for the incident where we got mugged just over a year ago. In retrospect, it might have been a better idea to call a cab instead.

smashed eggplant, prawn skewer, bbq clams
smashed eggplant, prawn skewer, bbq clams

At Warong Pencar we had half a duck (ducks in Bali is always very small), smashed eggplant, prawn skewer, and bbq clams.

The duck was a flavorful but a tad chewy, eggplant came with the standard “ayam penyet” sauce which I love, and prawn was quite delightful too. The clams though, came with some sort of soya sauce which kinda made it taste a bit too fishy for our liking.

Overall it was still a decent meal and cost us only some 100,000 IDR. There’s even a facebook page for Warong Pencar!

KY travels – The Charm of Tropical Bali Hotel, Sanur
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14 thoughts on “KY travels – The Charm of Tropical Bali Hotel, Sanur

  • October 13, 2011 at 8:43 pm
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    The smashed eggplant looks very promising!

    Tropical Bali looks like a very cosy place to stay, it’s awesome that all the rooms are facing the pool. 🙂

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    • October 14, 2011 at 9:17 am
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      Huai Bin: ya, a nice little cozy hotel best for relaxing that’s for sure

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    • October 14, 2011 at 3:35 pm
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      kampungboycitygal: ya those are the quieter place, i’d also recommend the volcano. hehe

      Reply
  • October 14, 2011 at 1:04 pm
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    I second huai bin. The smashed eggplant looks really really nice.

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    • October 14, 2011 at 3:35 pm
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      Michelle: yaaa it’s in my head nowww

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  • October 14, 2011 at 5:38 pm
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    Really nice looking hotel! Would really love to go there again since it’s our honeymoon spot!

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  • October 15, 2011 at 3:27 pm
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    i like the pool! nice!

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    • October 16, 2011 at 5:49 pm
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      eiling: yaaa very nice 😀

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  • October 18, 2011 at 9:54 am
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    Welcome back to the land of the walking, Haze.. oh, and did she Judo kick the cow into oblivion?! hehe 😛
    A great place for a holiday and dive trip for sure.. !

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    • October 18, 2011 at 11:10 am
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      ciki: hahaha not enough power to kick them cows yet!

      Reply

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