Take me back to the Santai!

• andathousandwords

 
It’s hard to believe that I was almost thrilled to be back in Amsterdam after a few months with a lot of traveling and living out of a suitcase – well, out of a suitcase or two 😉  But as I am writing this final post from my recent trip to Bali, it’s pouring rain in Amsterdam and I can’t wait to get back to the Santai!
 
Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak8lr2
 
After a wonderfully relaxing stay at the Samata near Sanur, we were dropped off by the friendly driver at the Santai in Umalas, another resort managed by Lifestyle Retreats, the luxury hotel group. Every property it manages has its own unique vibe, which is one of the things I love about Lifestyle Retreats. At some of the bigger chains you can wake up in a room and wonder if you are in Frankfurt or San Francisco, which I always find such a shame.

Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak8lr2 Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak8lr2

 
The Santai is located in Umalas, which is a quiet town between the hustle and bustle of Seminyak and the up and coming beach town of Canggu. It is a fantastic location because I really enjoyed going by scooter for sunset drinks in Canggu, in 10 minutes, or for lunch on Oberoi in Seminyak, within 15 minutes!

Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas SeminyakFashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak
 
The lobby of the Santai is beautifully designed and underlines the fact that this is a high end luxury resort, where everything is top notch to the last details. We stayed at a huge three bedroom villa, of which we only used one, but we thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the villa had its own lap pool across the entire length of the garden!

Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak8lr2 Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak8lr2Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak8lr2
 
The bedroom and bathroom were also very spacious and as always I enjoyed the fact that it offered both an indoor and an outdoor shower and bath. Having an outside living room and kitchen is also a feature I always like, because somehow it highlights that you’re staying in a tropical destination. Even though a large part of a villa at the Samata is outside, privacy is always guaranteed.
 
Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak8lr2Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas SeminyakFashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak8lr2
 
This luxury, private pleasure of staying in a beautiful villa was especially obvious when we enjoyed a private cooking class in our own villa.The cook was a Balinese chef who taught us the basics of Balinese cuisine in a few hot, but super fun and delicious hours! He helped us to create an entire Balinese three course meal, which I enjoyed so much that I cooked it for my parents the day we came back from Bali.

Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas SeminyakFashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas SeminyakFashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas SeminyakFashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas SeminyakFashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas SeminyakFashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas SeminyakFashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak
 
I won’t lie to you and pretend I cooked my own food while staying at the Santai. Actually, its Gong restaurant serves delicious food and it was a treat to have their breakfast served every morning in our own villa.

Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak
 Fashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas SeminyakFashion blogger review The Santai Hotel Bali resort Umalas Seminyak

X Merel

LOCATION // the Santai

53 thoughts on “Take me back to the Santai!”

  7. What a beautiful visual diary, Merel, and Bali is simply spectacular. I’m from Sarawak, a part of Borneo which counts Indonesia as a neighbour, and I’ve been blessed to visit various parts of the islands, every single one of which with its unique charm and beauty 🙂 lucky duck!!

    Like

    Reply

  12. Hi Merel,
    Santai looks amazing and I adore private cooking lessons because you can learn many secrets about cooking. For me cooking delicious food is an every day ritual and a luxury I won’t relinquish on. One of my biggest dreams is to have a live like you show it to us in today’s post. Living at a beautiful place surrounded by nature and having enough time to enjoy life by its fullest. I hope I can realize this dream once; maybe when I am an old and wise woman 😉
    Thank you for sharing these very nice impressions, Merel :-*
    Jasmin

    Like

    Reply

  38. Gosh all of your photos are so amazing. Love the green walls and all of the lush pools at this resort. When I went to Bali, I was in college so we were on a budget. We stayed at a place where there was a roach in our room and my ipod got stolen. Still, it was one of the most incredible places I’ve ever visited. I can’t wait to visit again one day and stay at some of the nicer resorts!

    xx freshfizzle

    Like

    Reply

  50. Wow wow wow, what an amazing place to stay!! I have always wanted to go to Bali, and this place sounds amazing. Can’t believe you get to have a cooking class too! You look so beautiful, gorgeous outfit too!

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s