Great family vacation - Review of Mulia Resort, Nusa Dua, Indonesia - Tripadvisor (2023)

Wow!

An amazing resort that exceeded our expectations on almost every front.

We are a family of four who stayed in a Royal Suite Ocean Court room (on floor 7) using a Luxury Escapes package.

Highlights:
* Service - very attentive, friendly and personalised throughout the Resort. The standouts for us were at The Cafe restaurant. Upon check-in, we only had 15 minutes until the restaurant was closing the kitchen for the night so when we arrived, we were asked what we would like to eat from the buffet and any special orders and food just kept coming to us, it was amazing! This service continued throughout our stay at both breakfast and dinner service. As I have a gluten and dairy intolerance, I could not eat many dishes on the buffet but this was not a problem - waitpersons Dwitya and Eka consistently approached me to see what I felt like eating and they either confirmed with the chef what I could safely eat or arranged a meal to be made especially for me. We were sooo impressed with the care they showed, it took away all the stress that usually comes with these dietary restrictions and allowed me to just enjoy myself (plus the food was delicious!). A massive THANK YOU to Dwitya and Eka - they are a huge credit to The Mulia Resort and I hope they are recognised and rewarded for their excellent guest service!
* Food - of the highest quality that we’ve had at any hotel in Bali (and elsewhere in the world). We didn’t have one meal that we were disappointed with. As mentioned above, dietary requirements were looked after with care, not only at The Cafe but also at Table8, Edogin, Soleil and by the pool. I never felt like I was missing out (aside from some opportunities to improve that I’ll mention below).
* Room - immaculately clean and so spacious, it didn’t feel cramped even though we had four of us in there. The sofa bed was shared by our two kids and our bed was a king (actually a king - not two beds pushed together as you often see in other hotels). The balcony was also huge and had a very comfortable day bed so you could lay down and read or rest with views over the pool and out to the ocean.
* Pools - so many to choose from that it never got boring. All a lovely temperature - comfortably warm most of the time so you could enjoy being in there for a while.
* Location - the resort is in a quieter pocket at the lower end of Nusa Dua, so extremely quiet and uninterrupted by hawkers on the beach. There is a great path along the beachfront which easily takes you to visit other resorts, restaurants and Bali Collection. There is a local restaurant on the beachfront at each end of the hotel if you don’t have meals included and are looking for cheaper options.
* The resort in general - it is maintained to a very high standard of cleanliness and function. They have not spared on comfortable furniture in communal areas - you could find comfortable day beds and couches scattered throughout. Some beautiful views to soak in, whether you were at the pool, beach or in particular, the Cascades bar with rooftop views out to the ocean. We really enjoyed having our package included cocktails there each night before dinner.

Opportunities to make it even better:
* Vibe - it did feel like there could be a bit more atmosphere around the pools and bars. We don’t think this would require much to be changed - perhaps some more upbeat contemporary music, keeping the pool bar open later into the evening so you could sit there for pre-dinner drinks (this happened on a couple of nights as it was the end of Ramadan, and we really enjoyed it), and also perhaps having a night or two per week where a dinner with a performance is offered. Many other resorts in Nusa Dua offer this and it really brings the hotels alive. It felt like the resort could do with a bit of a ‘boost’ in this regard.
* Prices - had we not been on a package with so many meals included, we would have found the food pricing to be exorbitant. Once taxes were added, it would be close to AU$30 for a pizza and AU$7 for a very tiny serve of French fries. Drink prices were also high, with a small can of Sprite being around AU$7 and a bucket of 5 Prost beers being AU$30. We also decided to experience a Teppanyaki dinner one night, which for two adults and two kids ended up costing about AU$400 and we walked away hungry! Upon wandering past other resorts in the area, it was clear the Mulia Resort prices were significantly inflated. We also felt there shouldn’t be such expense associated with using the tennis courts - once you added up court hire, racket hire, and ball purchase it was going to cost about AU$90 for us to play a game for a hour!
* Kids’ club - the current setup is a main club which caters to children up to 8 years old and a separate area designed for 10 years and older. We happen to have a 10 year old and a 7 year old so they weren’t meant to be allowed to go in together, which basically meant they didn’t want to go at all as they wouldn’t have each other as company. We think some improvement could be made to better cater to all ages and provide better activities - the best we have seen is at the Grand Mirage Resort, so perhaps some lessons could be taken from there!
* Pool areas - there were plenty of pool loungers available but unfortunately many were in full sun for the majority of the day. It would be great if more shade could be installed via trees or umbrellas, so the pool could be enjoyed for longer without having to race down and claim a shaded lounger early in the day.
* Food - to go the extra mile with common dietary restrictions, I would love to see some of the Indonesian dishes offered gluten and dairy free. Because soy sauce and kecap manis (both containing gluten) are such prominent ingredients, I would love to see dishes such as satay and curries made with gluten free soy sauce (Tamari) and gluten free kecap manis. These were the only things I did feel like I missed out on as prior to having my dietary restrictions, they were Bali holiday staples! It wouldn’t change the taste but would make the traditional cuisine more accessible to more guests and I for one would greatly appreciate that!

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at at The Mulia Resort. We did have a hiccup when we arrived home - a supposed unsettled bill was emailed to us which we did not accept. Fortunately upon explaining why we did not accept the charges via email, the hotel saw sense and retracted the bill. We were very disappointed in how it was initially dealt with but it was recovered well, which restored our faith in the resort’s service and valuing of its guests. I’m glad as had this not been the case, we probably wouldn’t have wanted to return to the resort and that would have been extremely sad! Our biggest hope now is that Luxury Escapes advertises the same package again so we can get back there as soon as possible!

Thank you for an amazing stay!