TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
A luxury resort built upon Sanur’s personal style
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Andaz Bali takes inspiration from traditional Balinese traditions and aesthetic.
Sanur, Bali, welcomed a new resort in the middle of 2021, Andaz Bali, and extended an invitation to The Jakarta Post to experience the resort firsthand. Andaz is part of the Hyatt hospitality brand, and this is its first property in Asia. Its name gives away how Andaz is positioned within the mega hospitality group: it translates to “personal style” in Hindi. The promise is that each Andaz hotel around the world has its personal style. This is in contrast with the Hyatt Regency brand (Hyatt Regency Bali sits right next door to Andaz Bali), which is more about similarity and familiarity of offerings within all properties around the world. Living up to its name, Andaz Bali draws from its surrounding Sanur neighborhood: the sights, sounds and aesthetic. The overarching theme of the resort is Andaz’s reinterpretation of a traditional Balinese village and its way of life.
Borderless tradition
Any 5-star accommodation goes above and beyond to make the check-in process seamless. This is after all, a guest’s first experience with the hotel, and usually a guest comes after a long flight going through the airport feeling tired. To win this first impression, Andaz Bali designed its lobby and check in booths differently. Instead of approaching the check-in booth, we were escorted to sit on the lobby sofas and later approached by a front desk officer for check-in. In this main lobby we did not see the typical guest-facing front desk officers and reception booths. There is, however, a square reception booth placed roughly in the middle of the lobby, but it is designed with front desk officers facing inward toward each other, with their backs to guests. This seamless design in the lobby eliminates the sense of a “border" between staff and guests – all inspired by the traditional Balinese bale banjar (community hall).
Lighting up the lobby are lights designed with traditional fishing bamboo net covers; Sanur after all is still an active fishing village. The hotel staff also wear a variety of colorful modern batik uniforms – there is no color uniformity each day as each staff member gets to choose to wear what they please from a selection made available.
Village square
Stepping outside the lobby we were immediately in the open air “Village Square'' about half the size of a football field. Similar to its purpose in traditional villages, the Village Square in Andaz Bali serves as a venue for people to gather for celebrations. This area is also where the hotel’s restaurants, function rooms and lounge are centralized.
Aside from four restaurants in the bale banjar, Andaz Bali has the Fisherman’s Club beachfront restaurant. We had dinner here during a full moon, with the sea lighting up in front of us accompanied by a gentle sea breeze throughout the night. We were recommended the Fisherman’s Fish and Seafood Platter which came with the freshest grilled seafood perfect for two patrons.
From the hotel lobby the resort sprawls in three directions, and our favorite was the east, in the direction of the beach! In each direction there is also a path to access the variety of accommodation at Andaz Bali. Should you head south you will end up in the Garden Villas area, designed to be set apart from everything that is happening with the resort, as the focus here is privacy. There are 18 Garden Villas available here, each 234-square-meter villa having a private pool and able to be connected to the adjacent Garden Villa for even more space.
The rooms
Heading either north or east from the lobby you will be taken to the Andaz Bali rooms and suites. The property has several buildings for the guestrooms, and we stayed in the “Daja” ("north" in Balinese) building. The guestrooms are designed with a contemporary Balinese style, using locally sourced materials such as bamboo, andesite stone, marble and teakwood. For an entry level room category, our room was quite big at 66 sq m – double the size of a typical 5-star resort guestroom.
Another big detail was the 65-inch TV in the room, which was surrounded by Balinese wood carvings. Opposite the TV was a king size bed with the headboard above designed with different batik patterns from different parts of Indonesia. The back door opens up to a sofa daybed, and a short walk takes you to the swimming pool. To keep the borderless feel, the bathtub is placed close to the bed with no wall, just woven sliding doors that are kept open for the most part. From the bed, the bathroom just looks like an extension of the bedroom, not its separate space. And yes, the toilet is made separate in its own little room near the entrance to the room. Last but not least, the property has several pool, with the main pool located steps away from the soft sandy Sanur beach.
