Bali Dynasty Resort Review

As I sit writing this review of Bali Dynasty Resort from the comparative spacious serenity of my current 3 bedroom villa in Ubud, I have started to reflect fondly on my time at the 5 star Kuta hotel. In this Bali Dynasty review I am going to give you my honest thoughts after a 3 night stay with two kids in one of their family rooms. Spoiler alert – this place might not be for everyone, but for those who it does appeal to they will probably love it.

What To Expect

Bali Dynasty bills itself as a five star hotel and is located very near to the main Denpasar airport in Bali. It is geared towards families and has a wide range of activities, good facilities and a very high level of customer service – all of which I will go in to more detail on shortly.

If you browse their website you’ll see the various activities mentioned, most of which are suitable for all ages, but having just spent three days there with a 10 and 14 year old I would say that most activities are geared more towards the younger kids than the older. That being said, you’ll be hard pushed to find boredom waiting for you at Bali Dynasty no matter how old you are.

As you enter the impressive entrance to the hotel you’ll first pass through security before being greeted by concierge who’ll take care of your luggage. We arrived two hours before our official check-in time for our 1 bedroom family room but to our delight it was ready on arrival – perhaps as we’d completed the online check-in prior to our arrival?

We headed to our room in what first seemed a complex layout – after 5 minutes we soon realised the hotel layout is actually incredibly simple, with two wings that flank the main pool, restaurant and bar areas.

Our ground floor room was a 30 second (if that) walk to the pool and although we were all cramped in to one room, the room itself was pleasant, bright, clean and well equipped. The family room had one very large king double bed and two singles for the kids. We also had a terrace that had a garden view which entertained us most mornings watching the younger kids chase the ducks around.

Is Bali Dynasty resort really a 5 star hotel? I’ll reserve my judgement on that for the verdict section of this review, but what I can say now is that it is very much a ‘resort’ just as implied by the name.

Location

Bali Dynasty is located right in Kuta on Jl. Kartika Plaza, a minute or so walk to the Discovery Mall and the famous Waterbom. There’s myriad restaurants and bars nearby with everything from Indian, Indonesian, Aussie, Italian and other types of restaurants within walking distance.

It also claims a beachfront location, although I’d argue that this is a bit of a stretch as there’s not actually any sea view from the hotel itself, as the neighbouring resort loops around the back of Bali Dynasty to claim that prime spot.

There is beach access though, through the back of the hotel and they do have a small section of sand with sunbeds if you really want the beach view. This section is not manned though as far as I could see and you are more likely to be harangued by locals selling their wares. It does however offer a gorgeous setting for watching those famed Bali sunsets – so grab a Bintang and find a spot on the coral beach to watch from.

Bali Dynasty Facilities

The facilities at Bali Dynasty are plentiful. The main attraction being the large pool in the middle of the resort that is surrounded by sun loungers. Simply grab a towel from the hut and stake your spot. We never had a problem finding a sun lounger and the staff are always on hand to monitor the sun lounger situation at busy times.

The towels are decent but a far cry from the 5 star Hyatt towels we experienced in Seminyak, with a few bleach stains and frayed edges – maybe your first hint that this is not true 5 star luxury – but clean and fine to use all the same.

The hotel includes a gym above the adult only bar and I used it during my stay. It’s small but fairly well equipped with cardio and strength cable machines. There’s a couple of benches, free weights and a bench press too, and towels and water are provided. When I visited the gym at around 7am there were around 5 other people in there, which probably took it close to capacity – but I managed to get a good workout in all the same.

There are a few restaurants to mention at Bali Dynasty – the H2O bar and restaurant around the pool area and SEN5ES are the main two that are accessible to all guests, the latter being the one you’ll get your buffet breakfast at unless you upgrade to H2O which has the pool view. They also have a couple of adult only bars and restaurants, as well as the Irish and Chinese restaurants and the Piazza which offers cakes and cafe style food.

Activities

From the hours of 8am until around 5pm there’s always something going on at Bali Dynasty. We arrived at a time when a particularly popular (and noisy) activity was taking place and were at first concerned that this would be more like an 18-30s resort than having a chilled and relaxing vibe – luckily that didn’t last and the staff do strike a good balance between fun and relaxation.

We took part in the water volleyball (separately for kids and adults) and that was a lot of fun.

Food & Drink

We had breakfast included with our stay and so enjoyed the extensive buffet selection at SEN5ES each day. It’s busy so if you prefer it a little quieter I’d recommend asking for a seat outdoors or in the Piazza section. We sat outside and it was lovely being able to close the door on the chaos.

The food selection was excellent, with Indian, Indonesian and American style breakfasts available. Our kids especially enjoyed the pancakes that are being cooked freshly constantly, and the eggs and noodles are also constantly being cooked fresh.

We also ate in the H20 restaurant and ordered from there to eat around the pool at our loungers and again they offer a good variety of meal choices, all of which were very good.

The main pool has a sunken bar that you can either swim up to or sit at, and you can also order drinks (and food) directly from your lounger by simply raising the red flags attached to the loungers.

There are two happy hours, 12-1pm and 5-6pm where you can enjoy discounts ranging from 10-40% off different types of drinks. All cocktails are 40% off at this time including the buckets which offer excellent value.

The food and drinks prices are of course more expensive than outside of the resort, but not outrageously so and they are still very affordable at non-happy hour times.

Our Experience As A Family

We visited Bali Dynasty as part of a one month trip to Bali, Lombok and the Gili Islands and our main reasons for going here were twofold – firstly and most importantly was to give the kids access to a resort (something they really wanted), and secondly was to give us a base to explore Kuta from.

We’d arrived from a luxurious and spacious 3 bedroom villa in Legian, which meant moving in to a relatively small one bedroom family room was quite the contrast. The kids loved it though, and we adults also enjoyed the chance to just lounge around the pool by day and then venture out to find restaurants in the evening.

Compared to everywhere else we visited during this trip, when based at Bali Dynasty we didn’t do much else other than enjoy the hospitality it offered. The staff are exceptional, and every single one greeted us with a smile as we walked past them and would engage in long, pleasant conversations when serving you. Nothing was too much trouble.

We enjoyed the food options and the kids loved the breakfasts. My youngest especially loved the water slide in the kids zone.

The atmosphere at Bali Dynasty Resort is good and pretty lively. It has a mainly Australian customer base, although there were all sorts of nationalities (including us Brits), some who enjoy the bar a lot and others who are happy to chill around the pool. The adult zone is also worth a mention and even though we had the kids we did manage to escape for a while and enjoy this – with a separate pool areas that has loungers in the pool, and a bar area that is kid free.

My Verdict

So the question I teased you with earlier remains – is Bali Dynasty really a 5 star resort? I’d probably give it a 4.5 rating if I had to, which probably makes it more of a 4 than a 5. The staff are exceptional, the activities plentiful and the pool is lovely, but small elements such as towels being stained and frayed, having to book towels in and out some areas starting to show their age all keep it away from that elusive 5 star.

That being said, if you are going here with kids, they will probably love it. We enjoyed it. Would I go back? Of course, if I was with the kids. If I wasn’t, I’d sooner go back to Seminyak or Ubud and go for a more luxurious adult only vibe.