It was definitely more peaceful this morning than the day before! The girl didn't break out in hives and the hotel's restaurant was more organised. The restaurant staff brought us to newly opened section for our breakfast, which was less crowded.
I managed to enjoy my breakfast in peace 🙂
We checked out after breakfast. Before we left, we had a free photoshoot with Hard Rock Hotel Paparazzi, which was part of our room package. It was the best slot that we could book.
A photographer brought us to different parts of Hard Rock Hotel to take photos. It would have been really enjoyable if not for the heat!
We could choose 1 printed photo per room (total 2) for free and would have to pay for the others. We decided not to buy the rest as we were happy with our complimentary photos!
After our photoshoot, we exchanged our coupons for our complimentary welcome drinks. They were so refreshing!
We decided to put our luggage with the concierge and have lunch at the nearby Dulang restaurant.
They serve a variety of international-fusion food, which was great for all the tourists that frequent the area.
Food was good! 😋
We also admired our mini shopping loot while waiting for our food. We love Bali's handmade bags!
My personal observation is that Kuta offers the best shopping because there are more to chose from and the goods were cheaper due to the vast competition! 😁
After lunch, we boarded a cab to Nusa Dua and bade farewell to Kuta.
While Kuta is located on the southwest side of the island, Nusa Dua is on the southeast side. We travelled via a newly constructed highway over a large body of water to get there. Nevertheless, the journey only took us about 25 minutes due to the new shortcut.
It has been said that the richer folks tend to stay in Nusa Dua as the hotels in this region were mostly 5-star hotels. The area is also typically quieter than Kuta or Seminyak and has a hospital and many golf courses.
We decided to stay at the Westin Resort Nusa Dua because it was family-friendly and had family rooms.
We were warmly greeted on arrival and given a welcome sheet to browse their many offerings. The kids were also given an activity book and a water bottle each.
While the activities seemed like fun, we ended up not participating as the timing was just not right for us.
After checking in, we proceeded to explore our Family Two Bedroom Suite, which we booked via Agoda at S$657 per room per night (inclusive of breakfast). It was definitely the most expensive accommodation of our trip but the suite did nicely accommodate all 4 adults (my teen was considered an adult) and 2 children comfortably.
The generous dining area, where we often sat to chat and eat our snacks, greeted us after we opened the main door. At the end of the dining room were two doors: the left door led to the master bedroom while the right door led to the second bedroom.
The master bedroom contained a king-sized bed and huge open closet.
The usual comforts and amenities as expected of a 5-star hotel were present.
Although the TV was tiny, the very large bathroom and bathtub made up for it!
The layout of the second bedroom was similar to the master bedroom, except that there were twin beds instead.
The sofa was so large and comfortable that we called for the hotel to provide us with more blankets and pillows so that my boy could have his own 'bed' to sleep on.
The hotel sent us a baby cot, which was so basic that my Littlest Girl barely slept in it (probably because it wasn't comfortable). Other than that, we had no complaints of our room.
Tour of our Family 2-bedroom Suite:
There was a complimentary shuttle bus that will pick up guests at specific timings to take them to the nearest shopping mall. Since we had nothing much to do after we had unpacked, we went and checked it out.
We waited at the lobby until we spotted a white mini bus with the words 'Bali Collection' at the side. It was a tight squeeze on the bus as the bus also picked up guests from other hotels in the area.
Bali Collection was more of a shopping village than a mall. As there were nothing much to do at Nusa Dua, we kept going back there to buy souvenirs and get massages (more in the next post).
We bought most of our souvenirs from Sogo departmental store because they carried a lot of high quality items at decent prices.
We had dinner at Kizuna as the sun was setting.
The food was not exactly traditional Japanese but tasted ok.
The best part of our meal was the salmon platter! The kids loved it!
We returned back to the hotel via taxi. After a long day, we were happy to retreat to our rooms and snuggle under the covers. I realised that it was the only day of our trip that we didn't swim! We'll be back to our usual swimming tomorrow!
P.S: Here's the full list of my experience of Hard Rock and Mariott Bonvoys around the world:
Hard Rock
- 2012: Hard Rock Hotel Singapore (Singapore)
- 2012: Hard Rock Cafe Singapore (Singapore)
- 2019: Hard Rock Hotel Desaru Coast (Malaysia)
- 2022: Hard Rock Hotel Bali (Indonesia)
- 2018: Sheraton Tokyo Bay Hotel (Japan)
- 2020: JW Marriott (Singapore)
- 2022: Westin Desaru Coast Resort (Malaysia)