We had a wonderful and very relaxed time in the Beach Villa. It was the second time that we visited Lombok, after a stay in the Oberoi Hotel back in 2010. Being a family of four kids now (2, 3, 5 and 8 years old), we prefer villas to hotels for truly relaxed holidays. We spend 10 nights in the Beach Villa at the end of June / beginning of August 2015. As we were visiting in the dry season, the weather was absolutely perfect (that is, if you like a lot of sunshine).
The Beach Villa is located in the same area as the Oberoi and Tugu Hotel on a stunning white sandy beach. It is set in a former palm grove neighboring the Tugu Hotel on one side and Villa Sapi on the other side. For your diving and snorkeling needs, the Gili Islands are located on the left side of the villa, just 10 boating minutes away. The beach in front of the villa is clean, quiet and offers magnificent views. You will have the beach for yourself most of day, as there is only a limited number of villas/hotels in the neighborhood. If you want to meet people you can go to the Tugu Hotel beach next door or take a boat trip to the Gili Islands, which are more crowded.
The villa architecture is a mix of traditional Indonesian and modern beach style. There is a big living room with satellite TV, two large bedrooms with adjacent bathrooms (partly open air) plus a modern kitchen. The veranda in front of the villa is the dining area. The built quality is high and meets 5-star hotel standards. Wi-Fi is included.
Being a family with four kids, the owner (Jacqueline) arranged for an extra cot and extra bed in the two bedrooms to accommodate us. The bedrooms are very spacious and the extra beds have no negative impact on your comfort.
The back yard is beautifully landscaped, well maintained and provides a lot of space. The pool is located at the end of the yard, close to the beach, and is big enough to keep you entertained. The pool does not provide a lot of shallow space for small kids (babies, toddlers) and is quite deep (approximately 1.50m). Our kids are fairly good swimmers and it took them a day to get used to the fact that they cannot standup in the pool. The 2 year old had to wear floats when we were not in the pool. Some pool toys and adult snorkeling gear came with the villa, but we recommend bringing your own pool floats and toys to keep your kids save and busy. We enjoyed the pool all day long. In the morning it was cool and fresh, after sunset it provided pleasurable warmth.
An elegant gate separates the backyard from the beach. Two sunbeds are available on the private part of the beach, were beautiful trees provide shadow in the hot sun. It is hard to believe that such a beautiful beach is so quiet – we saw only one beach vendor during our ten days stay. The beach provided an endless supply of shells and corals for our kids to sort out. The full moon low tides revealed the coral reefs and sea grass fields in the late afternoon, attracting local fisherman going for the catch of the day. We shot some of our best sunset pictures in this nice ambiance.
The staff at the villa was super friendly. They were dedicated to make our stay as comfortable and pleasurable as possible. We found them less formal than the staff that we experienced in villas in Bali, and we liked that. Their English was not perfect, but we usually succeeded in getting things arranged. Jacqueline, the owner, arranged boats trips to the Gili Islands for us and poolside massages. The staff enjoyed the kids as well: they flew kites with them, climbed into the palm trees to get them fresh young coconuts etc.
We enjoyed our stay very much, including the freshly baked croissants that were delivered from the neighbouring cooking school (in villa Sapi). it was a memorable goodbye to South East Asia for us.