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.