Sydney, Australia

Review: The Royal Beach Seminyak

Our family stayed at the Royal Beach Seminyak for 10 nights in July 2012. The Royal Beach is one of the first hotels along the beach in Seminyak to have direct beach frontage. That is, without a street between the hotel and the beach. We were a group of 6; aged 15 – 50. The trip was a special occasion family trip to celebrate the end of a difficult year of bad health for one of us and our stay at the Royal beach was a wonderful way to do so.

We had stayed at this hotel some years ago when it traded as The Sofitel. My more recent searching of Bali accommodation though returned advice to stay at The Oberoi. I had even made reservations at the Oberoi for two beach front Lanai rooms but switched to the Royal Beach when our numbers swelled somewhat. Whilst The Oberoi is indeed a lovely hotel, The Royal Beach, which is almost next door, was a much better choice for our family trip. My husband and I did go up to The Oberoi and inspected the grounds and rooms. The Oberoi commands a large expanse of beach front location but the hotel is almost too spread out, the setting a bit austere and the mood was very quiet. This quiet and tranquillity would appeal to many holiday makers but, for this trip of ours, with a 15 yr old and some in their mid 20s, the buzz and lively atmosphere at the Royal beach was much more appealing.

The Royal Beach does not have as wide a beach frontage as some of the other hotels in this area but the setting, for my thinking, is better than all of them. The walk up from the beach brings you to a well maintained and undulating garden area with lots of day beds and lounges. This leads up to the large pool and bar area with dining tables, lounges and chairs and further plentiful day beds. The pool is one of the best features of the hotel. It is large, irregular shaped and surrounded by beautiful Frangipani tress making for many cosy, private and shaded nooks where you can laze away the hours whilst gazing out over the beach.

The open air hotel restaurant, ‘Husk’, is set up behind the pool and this is where breakfast is also served. So, dining at breakfast affords one the most beautiful views out and over the garden, pool and beach and with the luxury of a most extensive buffet selection of fine food. We dined at Husk for dinner as well and the evening meal and wine selection was delicious and most reasonably priced. The dining experience at Husk restaurant was one of our best on this trip and I would highly recommend a visit here, even if you weren’t staying at the hotel!

Another advantage that The Royal Beach Hotel has over the likes of The Oberoi, The Seminyak and The Legian is its location. The Royal Beach is just that much closer to the many reasonably priced beach front bars and restaurants that exist heading south down the beach, back towards, Kuta. Many of these bars and eateries offer more authentic Bali experiences and food compared to some of the more pretentious venues further north up the beach.

The rooms of the hotel were large, comfortable, well maintained and serviced each day. We inspected the Villas as well and these were quite amazing. The Royal Beach currently has 5 x 2 b/r villas and 13 x 1 b/r villas. You would be well pampered if you chose to stay in one of these!

All members of the staff of the Royal Beach Hotel were polite, good natured, cheerful and friendly and this made for a most pleasant stay in Bali.

I would highly recommend this hotel to any Bali holiday maker.