Reason we went with three stars as opposed to five stars was that (5) days into our trip we returned one night to have power off at the house. We tried to reset the breaker but something (I believe water pump/softner) shorted out and unable to isolate it from the panel. The villa manager responded very promptly and was able to provide aircon back to 2 of 4 rooms so that night wasn’t completely a heat wave. Unfortunately though due to the hour of night unable to get additional help to repair. The next morning they were able to re-route some power all over the villa with an array of power cables throughout the garden and house. As result they were able to get aircon back to all four rooms but about 1/3 of all other electrical items did not work (microwave; no tv’s – cable – dvds; several lights; pool pump; various wall outlets). We also struggled with water pump running or not over these two days, and once it did run you moved quickly as to not be stranded with heedful of soap and no water.

As result we believe that the hired staff is very considerate and were truly invested in providing a memorable holiday at the villa. They were very apologetic and I felt tried diligently to resolve issue in timely and reasonable manner. I just think that it was outside of their direct control given the magnitude of issue to resolve. If you couple this with other visitor reviews and their comments I too agree that this group does attempt to provide effective and considerate service for guests. We did run into (2) other groups staying at villa’s along the same gang and they really loved there villa’s and stated by sounds of it that their amenities were a little more modern and that they had no other issues. As a result I think we will shop around on our next visit to compare Villa Suku to a few of these others before making decisions.

Now onto the VILLA SUKU setup prior to issues:

Now to the villa itself to house (6) of us -> Ages 71, 42, 43, 14, 12, 9

Staff -> very considerate and polite. They promptly showed up at our chosen breakfast time and provided a very simple but effective meal of eggs, toast, fruit, juices, coffee. Our kids brought in some cereal from the mini-mart to supplement. It was casual and decent way to start morning. They efficiently moved on to cleaning and tidying up of premise, making beds, cleaning up lawn, servicing pool and such. All of which I would estimate took about 1 hour maybe 1.5 hours. They even did our laundry a couple times and what we thought was very good price, especially for the ease of it.

Villa Itself (other than electrical outage incident) -> The décor was excellent and had lots of Indonesian/Bali influence. It felt very homely and enjoyable. The kids frequented the pool as did I, especially to cool off from heat. The post meal evenings were spent in living room with fans blowing and reflecting on prior days accomplishments and next days activities. Overall though we are activity driven travelers so we didn’t spend any large blocks of time (say 4+ hours) at villa at any given time during the day. Rather we were off on different island adventures. I could see however though that if you really want to just kick back and lounge around then this villa would do excellent job of that. The place as clean and appeared to have lots of personal care given to it as it did not seem like a turn and burn money changer villa. The amenities were newer, and when electrical did work the aircon was very good. The units visually looked relatively new and provided fast and effective climate control. The garden area and pool bed were relaxing for me as I would get up every morning before everyone else and check on computer for work/emails/etc. The wifi worked ok for email and basic web searching but downloads and/or uploads of large data was very slow or errored out. For example I have slingbox and was able to connect at the airport in SD but not at the Villa. Oh well I am on vacation anyway so not a big deal.

Villa Location (other than electrical outage incident) -> The villa location is at the end of long gang off Jalan Drupadi strip. It takes about 7-8 minute walk to get to the road as you pass other villas. The distance provides a ton of quiet from the hustle and bustle for relaxing time, but with my mother of 71 attending the distance did wear her out over the week somewhat. All in all though I would choose the distance from the main hustle and bustle to ensure quietness. The main road (Jalan Drupadi) provides access to busy shopping/restaurant district. It’s a narrow road though with no sidewalk so you need to be somewhat careful but as we learned tons of people are making way up and down it all hours of the day. We found tons of great little restaurants (used trip advisor to narrow our options prior). None of the choices were poor as we were satisfied for the most part.

Seminyak Comments -> This was our first time to Bali and when talking to friends who have visited their suggestions were all over where to go on the Island. After running all over the Island I am pleased with this location as it provided very close shopping, tons of restaurant locations, and decent launching point to the north end of island for (3) of our adventure excursions we did. Some of the other participants on these were staying at Nusa Dua and wished they did not have as long of commute due to traffic and distance for the North End trips. You need to check which beaches are good though due to rainy/dry season. In January the beaches near Seminyak were very poor and we ended up going to Geger Beach via driver of van for (6) of us and were pleased with it. In fact we may attempt our next stay over there/near south peninsula just to mix it up. All in all though for first visit I think Seminyak is great intro to Bali.

I would definitely be willing to consider working with owners of Villa Suku (as well as comparing a few other properties) next time we come to Bali if staying in/around Seminyak area and see what future guests state on their visit.