Tips for visiting Seminyak :

• If you’re looking for a nice, clean American-style hotel, you should stay at the Courtyard Bali Seminyak. It was by far the nicest Courtyard I’ve ever stayed in. The rooms were clean and spacious, the pool quite nice, the gym was small but had the basic equipment and was clean and air conditioned and the breakfast spread is fantastic. They also offer a shuttle to the beach and a restaurant area.
• La Favella restaurant and bar/club boasts stunning Brazilian-style decor. The risotto I ordered was okay(not great) but it’s worth the detour for the ambiance! Apparently, it turns into a fun, lively club at night.
• There are so many restaurants to choose from! Still on my list to check out: Dusty Café, Revolver Espresso, Nalu Bowls, and many more…
• Same goes for cute shops, I didn’t have time to shop but I could see just from walking by them that you could spend hours in these cute little boutiques.
• The beach was dirty and very shallow although it was quite wide.
• This is a very busy town and it’s very big. You need a scooter if you want to see most of it. A friend recommended checking out the sunset by the beach for some a lively atmosphere that goes on through the night.
• You can run on the beach and around town. Most streets have small sidewalks.

Impressions of Seminyak:

I was slightly overwhelmed with Seminyak although I wasn’t there long enough to really explore and get a true vibe for it. My hotel was great (I was upgraded to a king suite room with access to the pool) and I was very grateful for that after the busy flight from Australia.

I had dinner at La Favella, and walked around that area and then back to the hotel. There were a lot of people out and about although it was still quite early when I got back to my room. I did notice a lot of cute shops along the way!

The next morning I went for breakfast at the hotel buffet and it was truly impressive! They had everything you can imagine and more: juice bar, pastry bar, eggs benedict, noodles, Kimchi, toast, fruit, sorbet, yogurt, etc! After feeling completely stuffed, I decided to walk down to the beach and check it out. Sadly most of the restaurants, commerce and lounging areas only opened around 10/11 am so I just walked down to the beach. The amount of trash and dog poo that was there really disgusted me. It also felt impossible to go for a swim as I saw people walking in the shallow water for a long time and it barely went up to their knees! A few runners passed me while I was walking on the beach… and it motivated me to get moving too! I walked back to the hotel, put my runners on and went back to the beach for a 6 km hot and humid run!

After all that walking and running, and an hour of reading and cooling down by the pool, I decided I’d had enough craziness and was ready for a little bit quieter… so I jumped into a cab towards Canggu.

Related posts: Canggu (Bali), Ubud (Bali), Outskirts of Ubud (Bali), Nusa Ceningan, Nusa Lembongan, Gili Trawangan and Sanur (Bali).