Mandapa is the newest ultra-luxury resorts on the island, and is one of three Ritz-Carleton Reserve properties in the world. In our 3 1/2 weeks in Java and Bali, this was our final stop before returning home to the US. We spent 6 nights here in a beautiful one bedroom suite with separate living room and large terrace high up on the property which cascades down through rice fields to the river, with a gorgeous backdrop view of tropical rainforest. (Now that we have experienced Mandapa, rather than staying in one of the suite buildings next time we will stay in a rice field view pool villa. Some of these provide more privacy than others, so best to check when booking.)

Notable are the crisp and luxurious bed linens and fluffy sumptuous towels, and the beautiful site-specific Balinese paintings.

On day 5, Resort Manager, Reka, came to my table at breakfast and apologized for not meeting us before but she’d been away at a Women’s Leadership retreat. Other staff whom I’d like to call out are Ade – front desk manager, and Ari – main restaurant manager, who greeted us at breakfast every morning. Also, we both participated in the “Disconnect to Reconnect” program which is apparently something new at Mandapa. While every resort we stayed at on this 3 1/2 week trip offered at least occasional yoga, this extensive program has a wide array of cultural, spiritual, and physical offerings that occur during the day. We loved yoga and singing bowls with Wayan and participated in several of his sessions.

A few minor things of note, as a lap swimmer, I had difficulty with the freeform pool and kept running into the undulating walls, though it’s lovely to look at. Also, lighting in the suite, particularly in the bathroom is insufficient. Though there’s a stylish countertop makeup mirror, it is useless; replacing these would be an easy fix. Finally, when I am in Asia, I prefer to listen to Asian music; quite incongruous and somewhat disconcerting to hear “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” while gazing out over rice fields and tropical forest in Bali. In my view, the main negative is that because of the hillside setting, lobby accessibility by foot is nearly impossible. As one who enjoys walking and exercise, I wasn’t fond of needing to depend upon someone to drive me there via “buggy” when I wanted to go into Ubud. That said, accessibility into Ubud is quite easy and quick via Grab (app similar to Lyft or Uber), and because of Mandapa’s location north of town.

Staff went above and beyond expectations in every way. We were almost always greeted by name, and our preferences in all things were remembered. Our French patih (butler), Louie, was delightful, leaving gorgeous flower arrangements, facilitating gifting of items I’d admired and had wanted to buy, and everything was with a hand-written note. We even received a lovely note from our housekeepers.

Mandapa is truly a cut above and provided a most wonderful ending to our first trip to the magical island of Bali.

We stayed here for 4 nights in August, the experience from start to finish was incredible. We were greeted on arrival with a drink and cold towel whilst we checked in. We were then taken to our villa and treated to a foot massage and given a tour.

The location is on a quiet road about 20-30 minutes walk from central Ubud, they do provide a free shuttle service but we didn’t use this as the traffic can be quite bad and it’s just as quick to walk. The walk in to central Ubud is up a main road with limited pavements but if you check on maps, you can also walk up a side street which is much quieter. There are a couple of restaurants, a day club (Titi Batu) and an amazing spa (Jaens Shanti) within a 5 minute walk from the villas down the quiet road.

Breakfast was provided daily and there was plenty of choice from traditional Indonesian food to breads, pastry, tropical fruit and porridge. They also have a restaurant on site which we ordered from to have in our villa and again, there was plenty of choice.

We stayed in a 2 bed villa with a private pool, the rooms are air conditioned with mosquito nets around the beds. The beds were the most comfortable I have ever slept in! Complimentary bottles of water, mosquito repellant and toiletries are topped up daily.

The staff really made the experience extra special, thank you. We were disappointed that we didn’t book to stay for longer! If you’re looking to book a stay at Purana, you really won’t be disappointed.

The resort and the room were very pretty, the pool villa was lovely but stairs everywhere so not suitable for mobility challenged. The staff were all very young and had no senior direction which might explain the poor service and laughable experiences we found during our stay. The 4 poster bed creaks every time you move and the wooden door to the external bathroom wouldn’t close properly, requiring slamming to close it. Not so good in the middle of the night. We were first greeted by a waiver we needed to sign exempting the resort of all blame for injury or death, and making us liable for any breakages or damage. We found several things wrong in the room and wonder if others had hidden the damage for that reason. One outside lounge chair fell apart the first time we sat on it. The bathroom sink was blocked. There was a major attempt to upsell. We had a Trip-A-Deal special which included some meals, drinks and a massage, but they denied it was for all guests and charged accordingly. Beware of small print! The free shuttle to Ubud only runs when prebooked. We prebooked a shuttle back to the hotel after having dinner in Ubud and they forgot us, leaving us stranded and wet after a downpour of rain. Luckily the next shuttle driver an hour later rescued us. No apology from the 5 staff at reception when we returned dripping wet. “Communication error” was all they could say. We requested our free cocktail and they told us to go upstairs to the restaurant (dripping wet). We asked them to bring us towels and the cocktails to the lobby as we were going to our room. The pool is icy cold despite the hot humid weather. The rice terrace walk is just a stroll to the field next door for around 10 minutes – skip it and visit the rice terraces on a tour. Building construction next door is very noisy and intrusive but stops around sunset. All noise echoes in the valley. The resort is out of town and you will need a taxi or the shuttle to get around. One guest we spoke with broke her arm on the wet slippery surface and was flying home early.
Would never go back and would not recommend.