Kastara Resort and Spa, Ubud — Hotel in Pulau Bali

TripAdvisor review Kastara Resort and Spa 13/17 Sept||The Kastara is as charming as it looks advertised. The rooms are bigger than we thought and very comfortable. The bed is large and the mattress comfy with 2 very large pillows each. One of which is softer so gives you plenty of sleep preference. The rock bath is an amazing feature - it is large and plenty room for 2 of you and it does not take as long to fill as you think. So don’t be put off! I brought out our own bath salts and used them. Very pleased we did too. The toiletries come in rocks! So you won't want to take those home with you! They provide hand soap, shampoo / conditioner and lotion. The shower gel is nice - didn’t think much of the lotion. Jus sayin! So you know what to bring yourself. We appreciated the view out of the balcony but be mindful you can be over looked. We would have booked the pool rooms but we knew from previous reviews they were overlooked and thought our room was perfectly adequate. We did notice one of the pool rooms had gone ahead with a flower bath and we can appreciate why they charge their fee as it looked amazing but the clean up job afterwards is where they really make their money. The room itself is larger than expected and comfortable as said. Plenty of plugs to keep your devices charged. The internet is free and good. We use Holafly as well. The hotel itself is on several floors which it would have to be given its cut into rock. The breakfast was plentiful and the choice more than adequate. The food generally was very good. We opted for the cultural dinner on our first night which we both enjoyed: 4 Balinese dances and the 2 girls did a great job what with their costumes, make up and the classic eye movements. A very intricate and well choreographed performance. On the second night we did the Kawa Hibachi - the chef was very entertaining but be warned there was alot of food of which most I simply could not finish. The rice dish in itself was enough for 4 if not 6 people. We loved it and it was worth all the effort. The 3rd night we eat at the restaurant as we did for our 4th. Normally we would have ventured out but sadly the weather was not great. We were however very well catered for in the hotel. The staff are very nice. We did the Campuhan ridge walk into Ubud twice! The walk took us about 30 mins and in places was quite steep but very manageable provided you have a decent level of fitness. Would not advise wearing thongs - do take with you your trainers as you’ll be grateful you did. We did see people walk in thongs and even bare feet and can’t imagine how they felt the next day. I certainly ached in my calf muscles the following day:). When you leave the hotel to do the walk, turn left and you will pass several building sites where they are building new luxury accommodation Bali style and there are a nice selection of cafes and restaurants amoungst rice paddy fields. Very quaint! We came for a quick 4 day break. If the weather has been better we would have been hopping in and out of the pool all day but you win some and lose some with holiday weather. We didn’t use the SPA, yoga or gym but that was simply our choice not to. Even so it was a great trip and if you choose the Kastara you would not be...

Firstly the ‘great’. The rooms are gorgeous. Spacious, well apportioned, comfy beds and clean stylish decor. The bath on the balcony and the views are all lush. Super clean and def have the wow factor when you walk in.|Reception arrival is nice, the pool area is stylish and the infinity pool overlooking the jungle certainly is pretty and at first glance a spectacular view. Staff are classic Balinese and therefore very friendly and attentive. The location of the hotel is in a quiet spot at the start (/end) of the Campuhan ridge walk so actually it was an enjoyable 45 mins walk into the ‘centre’ of Ubud which I supposed had the best of both worlds, being quiet and certainly no traffic noise, to being able to access the restaurants and shops in the hectic Ubud centre. Not possible to walk in at night but there are plenty of local cars / taxis and of course Ubud traffic is murder but it’s like that everywhere so no different staying here.|Now for the not so good. Breakfast was poor. Service, understanding of orders, quality of food was definitely under par for the hotel price / quality. Easily fixed in my view with better staff training and chef / server communication. Even though breakfast was included in our room rate, we actually walked down the road to Mamoo for breakfast on our final day which was outstanding and fairly good value too,|Secondly (and not the hotels fault) but there is a new hotel being built next door so the view is somewhat blighted by that, construction is happening all over Bali so it is what it is but that was not what I was expecting. There is a gym but it’s not particularly well maintained, no aircon and the morning sunrise yoga is inside (such a shame when the boat part of the hotel sundeck is so stunning) I suspect the yoga is inside because of the construction but still felt like a waste of a beautiful resource. |One thing which bugged me (and bear with me as it sounds petty) but the view from the pool / room is just mesmerising but then as you look down a bit further you see that there had been some fairly significant fly tipping which does ruin the overall impact. The wood / rubbish has clearly been there a while so if it was me owning the hotel I would definitely have sent a team down to move / remove so my guests view was unhindered. Feels like the jungle view is a big part of the hotel experience so anyway that’s my suggestion.|Dinner was not great and certainly |many more restaurants to eat in with better food in the area.||It’s a mixed review and I have mixed feelings about the place and possible its social media’s fault because it looks so spectacular online that maybe the whole thing is just not quite as good as I was hoping….. ||All of the above can be easily resolved so if they did that then this would be an A1...

Me and my partner recently stayed at the Kastara resort in Ubud for 6 nights. The hotel is absoloutly gorgeous and the rooms are beautiful and have a wonderful view of the jungle. The live music we saw in the bar on Monday evening was great. The man who performed on the 8th Sept was excellent. The breakfast option for vegans was great and the coffee was amazing which we appreciated, as a lot of the time the coffee can be bad even at the best hotels.

The biggest highlight of staying here was the staff. All of them are so warm, friendly and kind and they cannot do enough for you. A little bonus is you get unlimited free water bottles delivered to your room which is a nice touch.

The location is good as its very quiet and surrounded by the beautiful jungle. But it is a 30 min drive into the centre where all of the restaurants and bars are. You cannot walk anywhere so this is something to be aware of. The hotel sorted us out a local driver called Made who we used for our whole stay and he was excellent.

However I do have to knock off a star due to the issues we faced with us both being vegan. The hotel food menu is inaccurately labelled for dishes that are vegan. All of the dishes which are market as vegan are actually vegetarian as they contain either eggs, milk or cheese. And when we asked to make them vegan, it wasn’t possible. For example, the sourdough has milk in it or the sauce used for bruschetta contained cheese. So when we asked for bruschetta they could only offer us avocado on toast as an alternative, which is obviously not a good alternative. Also the dishes which were actually vegan didn’t have a vegan symbol next to them, so the menu doesn’t make any sense at all.

For a 5* luxury resort we were very shocked to see these inaccuracies as we expect better. When we checked out the hotel we shared this feedback with the staff who were very grateful to hear our feedback, so we really hope this is changed for vegans, or anyone who has an allergy, so it isn’t a problem in the future.

Also a small issue we had with our room was the vanity mirror would run out of battery every day after using it for just an hour so we had to ask them to fix this every day. Also we weren’t keen on the towel rails being directly above the toilet.

Overall, we would recommend staying at the Kastara resort and would come back...