Hotel Review: Umana Bali LXR

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After our mega Europe trip in 2025, we found ourselves with a free night at any Hilton in the world and Diamond Status thanks to my Hilton Surpass American Express Card. We wanted to make sure we got our money’s worth, so we scoured all the Hiltons in Asia to find one that was truly a once-in-a-possibly-never type of experience, the sort of thing we couldn’t afford otherwise, to blow all our points on.

We found it in the Umana LXR Bali, one of the fanciest resorts on an island of fancy resorts. We used our free night certificate and Hilton Honors points for three nights toward the end of April. Is the Umana worth its exorbitant cost? Let’s find out.

Arrival in Bali and getting to the hotel

We flew to Bali after four nights in Singapore on Singapore Airlines Flight SQ938. It was a quick two-and-a-half hours, and beyond the bad food and lack of Premium Economy, the flight was fine. When we arrived in Bali, we immediately found out why it is important to fill out the many online visa forms well in advance of your arrival: there is essentially no line for those who’ve already filled out the forms, and a MASSIVE one for people who haven’t. We scooted straight through and went to the baggage claim.

While waiting at the baggage claim, I received at WhatsApp message. I was expecting this, as we had booked the hotel’s transport service. We’ve done a similar pickup service in Koh Samui, and found it to be a good way to get to the hotel on an unfamiliar island. The Umana’s pickup service was somewhere around $50 for a ride of however far it is from the airport to the southern tip where the resort is.

However, this text was not for me. It was for someone else. And it was about a pickup from somewhere else. They’d sent the wrong text to my phone. Not a great first impression.

We had plenty of time to muse on this at the baggage claim, because the conveyor belt at the Bali airport is the slowest thing on Earth. We waited and waited and waited and waited and I’m not sure but we might still be waiting. If you are traveling to Bali, go carry-on only. Do not check a bag. You will be glad you made this choice.

As a fancy resort, the Umana sends you an email about a week and a half before your stay with a questionnaire about your airport pickup needs, whether you’re celebrating a special event (I said “anniversary”), bathrobe and slipper size, and one I really liked: a box you could check to have them remove all alcohol in the room. There were also questions about dietary preference, preferred kind of water, coffee, tea, and juice, and food allergies. They even asked how adventurous we were with food. We waited to see how these questions would be paid off during our stay.

I eventually got a WhatsApp message from the right person, who said he would be waiting outside. When we got outside, we saw there was a corral where all the hotel pickup guys were waiting with signs. We walked up to the guy with the Umana sign and told him who we were. He asked us if we were the Foobadoo couple. We were not. He was not there for us. He said there was another guy, and tried to call him. We scanned the crowd and eventually found a different guy with an Umana sign. This was our guy.

I would say that if they are going to send multiple guys, they should wait with one another. Or they should have signs with our name on them instead of the hotel’s. That would solve this problem. We followed the guy, who had to call our car because it was not waiting nearby, and he didn’t seem to know where it was. While we waited, we stood in the hot sun with no water. When the car arrived, the guy took my suitcase, not Eriko’s. I am a strong man, and she is not, so maybe he should have taken care of her first.

In the car, a Toyota something, there were bottles of water, but they weren’t cold, so they didn’t really help us combat the heat and humidity. The weather in late April was sunny and nice almost the entire time we were there, except the last night when it rained a bit.

When we got to the resort, they did a security check at the front gate where they searched the car and waved a little thing under it and all that. Odd. When we arrived, the guy came to my door first, not my wife’s. By now, I was annoyed. I would have been peeved anyway from the long wait at the baggage claim, but so far, the Umana had not impressed me. The expensive pickup service had not been worth it. On the way to the airport at the end of our stay, we got a Grab instead, and it only cost $10, about 20% of what the pickup service had cost.g

A staff member came over and put flowers behind Eriko’s ear (I declined because I’m a tough guy) and gave us bracelets. We were also given a drink and towels and a really good little pastry.

A guy came over with a clipboard that didn’t have my correct phone information, once again mixed up with someone else’s. He also didn’t know we were Diamond Status, meaning we wouldn’t be getting the room upgrade a person with our status might hope to receive. He also asked if we were allergic to anything, even though I’d already told them this. After he left, someone else came and asked the same question.

“Do you not know who we are?” I asked. “We filled out a pre-arrival questionnaire with answers to all this.”

They’d made a point to ask my allergies before we arrived, and yet we’d been asked twice in four minutes. Really strange. Eventually, we got checked in and a buggy to our room. The Umana, like the Conrad Koh Samui, uses golf carts to transport guests to and from their rooms. You WhatsApp your contact and ask for a buggy somewhere (or whatever else you’re asking about, room service, etc.) and they hook you up. It’s a fine system, provided you have a phone that can be used in Bali or a Mobile Wi-Fi.

The buggy drivers were always prompt and friendly. and the grounds are nice, with lots of flowers and green everywhere. We were driven to villa 130, a Garden Pool Villa that would be our home for the next three days.

Garden pool villa at the Umana Bali

On the outside, this villa looked a lot the ones at Koh Samui. But inside the door, we saw that the exterior entrance didn’t lead straight into the room, but to a walkway on the side of the villa. It had a little path with water on either side, and led to the back, where there was seating and the pool/hot tub. It looked great, and would have been a nice way for us to let guests go straight to the pool if we were entertaining, which of course we were not. The entrance to the room was on the right side, and my mood changed promptly.

Remember how I hadn’t been wowed by my first impression of the service and was a little crabby? Well, forget that. This room was gigantic. We’d just stayed at the Conrad Singapore Orchard, where the room was bigger than our apartment, and this villa made that room look like a shack in the woods. It was bigger than the villas at Koh Samui. It was MASSIVE.

The entry room was a living room with couch, chairs, TV, and kitchen bigger than the one we have back home. There was a Nespresso machine with plenty of pods, tea, and no alcohol, just like I’d asked. They also gave us tons of water so we never had to ask for more. The tea was fantastic; Eriko stuffed the leftover tea bags into her suitcase, and I am currently enjoying “Midnight in Paris.” It is excellent.

There was also honey, which I put in my tea. I left it out, and it was set upon by ants, who promptly drowned, turning the honey into what Eriko called an “ant graveyard.”

On the table was a plate of fruit, anniversary cake (as I’ve mentioned in other reviews, we always say we’re celebrating our anniversary and always get free stuff because of it), and two coconuts with our names on them. We were impressed.

In the hall was Gregg’s bathroom, with toilet that rose to accept our waste. The sink splashed a little, but the Wi-Fi worked in the bathroom, so I could watch BABYMONSTER videos while I pooped, which is really my #1 need in life.

The second bathroom featured tons of suitcase and closet space, a bag and hats for the beach, his and hers sinks, plenty of mirrors, and a big bathtub Eriko used for a bubble bath. There was also a toilet, rain shower, and even a matching shower OUTSIDE if you wanted to use that. There were a lot of bathroom products, but Eriko said the toothbrush fell apart. There was also a vanity mirror and a hair dryer, but it wasn’t a Dyson like in Singapore.

In the bedroom was a big bed, chair, and TV that could be adjusted to be pointed at the bed. Look at that setup with the flowers and the swans and the happy anniversary. Incredible. They also put a knife on your pillow when they do turndown service, because I guess it’s good luck in Bali. Or that’s just a lie Eriko told me. I woke to find her hovering over me, holding two daggers. Marriage.

The sliding doors in the bedroom go straight to the pool, which is really cool. You feel like a big shot when you go from bed right to the pool. Oh, about that pool.

It’s huge. And deep. I guess the garden villa is less fancy than the villas with views? Well, we didn’t need a view. Privacy was better, honestly. The pool was so much fun to swim around in that we may join a pool in Japan. It had a little fountain waterfall, but honestly, I would have preferred if it didn’t, because the waterfall drowned out the music I was playing on the Sonos Wi-Fi/Bluetooth speaker that they give you for your use during your stay.

There’s also a hot tub, lounge chairs, and seating underneath a gazebo. You have to watch out and make sure you always keep the doors shut and don’t leave any valuables like your phone or shoes outside, because monkeys will come and steal them. We had a brief showdown with a monkey at one point, and did the wrong thing (looked it in the eye) because we are not monkey trained. We told one of the buggy drivers about the monkey, and he immediately went into action, ready to report this monkey. They don’t think the monkeys are cute. They hate them.

Overall, this villa was definitely the biggest “hotel room” we’d ever seen. As a use for our points, it was looking pretty good. I’m surprised that a hotel would even allow scum like us to be given a room like this. I can only imagine what the rooms people pay top-dollar for are like, but this one was plenty fancy for us.

Balinese BBQ at Umana Bali

The first night, they were having a special Balinese BBQ dinner. It was held outside on the patio between Commune restaurant and the Pad Pool Bar. It wasn’t too expensive, so we went. They had a decent-sized buffet as well as a dessert bar, and offered a variety of fresh juices. There was also a big band of like 15 guys playing Indonesian music and some belly dancers.

The food included several salads, a few of which were really fresh and tasty, as well as multiple kinds of rice. The meats, which included chicken, pork, beef, prawns, and feesh, were all right. But the best part was the first piece of steak I got from the grill. It was amazing. “This is amazing,” I said. I went back and got several more pieces of steak. Sadly, the others weren’t as good as the first. But we enjoyed our intro to Balinese food.

We weren’t able to try all the desserts, but the ones we tried were just okay. I really liked the ball of mung beans. Eriko liked that little glass of green mush with green bits in it. I don’t know what it was, but she liked it.

I would say that if you have a chance to do a special meal like this, take it. We weren’t that familiar with Balinese food, so we might not have thought to order some of these things, and certainly wouldn’t have been able to try so many, so it was a great introduction to their cuisine.

Breakfast buffet at the Umana Bali

Each morning, we got a buggy to the breakfast buffet. Each morning, we were asked about allergies. They never stopped asking us allergy questions. We ordered coffee, but sadly they did not have oat milk during our stay. However, they DID have to-go cups, so at the end of our meal, I could ask for a double espresso to go that I could drink back at the villa.

In addition to the buffet, they have a menu of Indonesian and Western foods to try. Eriko asked for their Umana Breakfast, which contains baby lobster and truffle scrambled eggs with caviar. But then she changed her mind and got the daily special, a waffle with ice cream. However, they misunderstood and didn’t realize that she was changing her order, not adding to it, so they brought both. We ate both.

Like the buffet at the Conrad Singapore Orchard, these people seemed intent on stuffing us with as much food as possible, goading us into going back and trying more stuff. There was even one day when they just walked up to our table and said, “Hey, we made these for someone else by mistake. You wan ‘em?” and we said “Yeah we want ‘em!” and ate food someone else didn’t want. That was a time when a mix-up worked in our favor.

The one bad thing I will say about this buffet is that the orange juice wasn’t that good. They also frequently ran out of it, forcing us to order it from our server. But the other juices were plentiful in glass carafes, including a melon juice that you would like if you’re the kind of awful person who thinks honeydew is better than cantaloupe (known as a “wrong” person).

Things at this buffet: granola, muesli, cheese, sushi, cold cuts, many types of honey, DELICIOUS pastries (including a cinnamon one that I absolutely inhaled), really good omelettes, hot Balinese dishes that reminded us a bit of the stuff from the night before, sweet desserts, English breakfast fixin’s, yogurt, fantastic blueberry muffins, chia seed pudding, banana bread. And that was just the first day. Things like the muffins rotated throughout our stay.

I tried some of the Balinese breakfast dishes, but they mostly tasted like they belonged at dinner. One was a beef, egg, and rice dish that was absolutely Earth-moving, but didn’t contain enough beef to make up an entire meal. Ultimately, there just wasn’t enough time to try all the delicious stuff on the menu. I would say that overall, it was a great breakfast buffet, but not the best I’ve seen. Some things were incredible, some things mid. But those pastries had it going on. And I really liked the menu of stuff to choose from, so kudos for that, Umana.

Uma Beach House at Melasti Beach

After breakfast, we went back to the villa to get sunblocked up for our midday trip to the beach. You can reserve beach chairs at the Uma Beach House upon arrival, so we chose to reserve them for 11:30-2 on each of the two full days of our stay.

The way you get to the Uma Beach House is by shuttle, AKA bigger-than-a-golf-cart buggy. You must call a buggy from your villa, then ride that to the lobby, where you catch the beach shuttle. The big surprise for us was that the shuttle only ran once per hour: it left the lobby at 15 past and returned at 45 past, and if you missed one of those, you had to wait an entire hour for the next one. To me, that’s unnecessary, as it’s not like the shuttle takes 30 minutes to get anywhere.

The shuttle does take a somewhat lengthy drive to the beach, which means 1) the hotel isn’t that close to the beach, and 2) you can’t really get there any way except shuttle. I guess you could order a Grab from the hotel to the beach club, but we always made sure we were there on time and left the club a few minutes before 1:45 pm each day.

The beach club has a nice vibe. There’s an infinity pool that doesn’t get much use, so you will easily have an area all to yourself. It may also be possible to walk down some steps to the beach, but we didn’t. It looked like kind of a rocky beach. Aside from a coupe pool jaunts, we stayed at the lounge chairs we’d reserved. They were comfy and nice, and the staff brought the drinks we ordered. We never tried the food here, but it looked pretty good in a crunchy taco sort of way.

The drawbacks to the beach club are threefold: 1) there is one bathroom, and if it is full, you can either wait or go in the locker room across the street; 2) there is nonstop dance music that will drown out what’s in your headphones if you don’t turn them up really loud. Actually, this is a strange quirk of the Umana overall. The Beach House also advertises a nightly DJ with saxophone player. We never went, because that is not our vibe, and I didn’t really get why they were going for that vibe either. It seemed like they wanted the beach club, and the resort as a whole, to have a cool singles party vibe. I’m not sure why. Single people can’t afford this place. Most of the guests were old like us. I would have preferred no music.

Oh, and 3) when the sun goes up, the lounge chairs lose their shade. Actually, the one on the right loses its shade, while whoever’s on the left will just have to pull their feet back a bit. Eriko got sunburned the first day, and I did the second. I eventually asked a staff member if we could switch to the two chairs we could see that were a little ways back and therefore shielded from the sun. He misunderstood and started dragging our table somewhere. His superior apologized and said he was new, then let us move.

Overall, we had a good time at Uma Beach Club. I would never want to hang there at night if everyone’s drinking and listening to techno, but it was nice having a private club where we could reserve chairs and sip drinks and read Kindle and hop in the pool. But at 1:45 pm each day, it was time to take the shuttle back for lunch.

Pad Pool Bar at Umana Bali

Our Diamond Status gave us 10% off food at the Uma Beach House, but it gave us 25% off at the Pad Pool Bar and Commune, so we had lunch each day at the Pad Pool Bar. The bar itself was empty, and I mean empty - when we walked in, there were no customers and no staff. There was a ping-pong table, but it’s in a place where there’s no wall, so if you miss the ball, you have to go chasing after it. No thanks.

The pool had plenty of lounge chairs and also these cool little dome things with sofas that we sat in while we ate. There were a few people there the first day, none the second. When we swam in the pool (which had a lovely view of people doing parasailing and other activities we didn’t take part in), we were the only ones there. We made it a point to try all three pools: Beach House, Pool Bar, and villa. I can confirm that all three were fun.

Do not ask if the Pool Bar has music blaring. Of course it does. This place wants everywhere to be a party all the time, even though these places are not party spots.

Pad Bar presented an issue we encountered sometimes at Commune as well: wandering into a place at the hotel to find no staff around. I don’t know what the deal was, but it was hard to find people. And even once we were sitting, it was sometimes easier to walk up to the bar to get menus or order rather than wait for our guy. I was asked about my allergies again, said “asparagus” to someone who didn’t know what that was, and told them to forget about it. This happened several times that weekend. I understand some people are more familiar with English than others; I just don’t understand why you’d have the novice English speaker take my order when someone else right next to them speaks the language better.

We got free water and ordered fancy juices that were pretty good. The first day, we tried a Balinese salad and club sandwich. The Balinese salad was really good, and I’m glad Eriko chose it. Not sure what was in there, but it was good.

The club sandwich is a standard hotel order for me: I don’t often go places that have club sandwiches in Japan, and the club sandwich is one food item where most people on Earth can agree about the recipe, so you know what you’re getting. This club sandwich was definitely sub-par. Fries were okay, flavor was all right, but the bread was soaked through on the bottom, so it fell apart. Bad form.

The second time we went, Eriko got fried spring rolls that were again really tasty, and I tried the burger, which was a letdown. A few days later, desperate for some comfy seats on a long layover, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe at the Singapore Airport, and the burger there was better. Granted, it was more expensive, but a nice hotel shouldn’t be bested by a Hard Rock Cafe, ever.

One thing Umana definitely deserves credit for: whenever they brought us a bill for a meal, it already had our 25% discount applied. This let us easily see what we’d actually be paying, with no question as to whether they would remember to apply the discount. I wish all Hilton hotels did this, but they don’t, so hats off to Umana for getting it right.

Commune restaurant at the Umana Bali

Following an afternoon dip in our private pool and a quick shower, it was time for dinner at Commune, the hotel’s Indonesian restaurant. There were rarely more than a couple other tables occupied whenever we went, yet also not a lot of staff around. Of course, they asked about allergies, and didn’t know what asparagus was. And a couple times we ordered things like drinks that never came. The staff seemed to have other stuff going on unrelated to the restaurant that kept them busy.

Each night, we got an appetizer plate of peanut crackers, rice crackers, and a third kind, and a bunch of sauces to dip them in, some spicy and some chicken curry and some peanut. These were great. I could eat them all day.

The first night, we went Thai, our favorite cuisine. We tried their pad Thai and gai yang. The pad Thai was under an egg like the original pad Thai at Thip Samai in Bangkok, and had a similar taste. Not quite the pad Thai you’re used to, but we enjoyed it. The gai yang was definitely not as good as the gai yang at 999 in Sangenjaya, but that’s the champion, so it’s not like Umana could compete.

The next night, we tried a medley of satay served atop a little grill. There was one we liked way better than all the others, and now I’ve forgotten which one it was. Beef? Maybe. They also had mutton, chicken, and shrimp. And we tried beef rendang, a rich stew with a sauce that had some real kick to it.

The food at Commune is fine. It did not blow our minds like the Thai restaurant at the Conrad Koh Samui. Is this because we don’t like Indonesian food as much as Thai food? Hard to say. The hotel also has a fancy restaurant, Oliverra, but it’s not an Indonesian restaurant, so we didn’t go. I’m definitely glad we tried Balinese food, but the food wasn’t the highlight of this stay.

Verdict: is the Umana Bali worth the price?

The highlight of the stay was the villa. I mean, come on. This thing was gigantic, and had a huge private pool. The reason we never saw people at the restaurants was probably because they were enjoying their awesome villas. If judging solely based on the room itself, this is the best hotel we’ve ever stayed at.

However, a room isn’t all there is. It’s true, the food could be slightly better, but it wasn’t bad, just not amazing. They didn’t have oat milk. The shuttle only ran once an hour. The music was annoying. It was often hard to find someone to help us. It was all a bit slapdash. Apparently, the hotel has only been open since 2023, so maybe they just haven’t figured things out yet.

Oh, forgot to mention: Eriko got a one-hour head and neck massage and said it was really great. I would never let another human touch me, so I took a nap during that time. My nap was great.

When evaluating this place, I go back to the questionnaire they sent us before arrival. Why ask all those questions if no one would know the answers when we arrived? I think they’d like this to be a place where they get to know you and remember all your stuff - that’s what the Conrad Koh Samui did, always knowing what drinks we wanted when we walked into the restaurant - but they haven’t quite gotten it together yet. I feel like in another couple years, this is going to be a top-tier resort.

But is it worth the money right now? We spent one Hilton free night certificate and 190,000 Hilton Honors points, plus about 400 bucks for our food and drinks, Eriko’s massage, and the airport pickup. If you paid cash, you’d pay $862 a night for the same room on the same weekend, not including any other expenses.

Is this room worth that much per night? I have to say yes. The villa is incredible, and we’ve paid as much as $500 per night for hotels that didn’t offer pools and hot tubs. But we also have to compare it to other hotels in the area, and that’s where this gets tricky. Bali has a ton of hotels, even a ton of Hiltons. You can absolutely stay at a Hilton in Bali for way less. I’ve never been to these places, so I don’t know if their other elements are on par with the Umana, and maybe they are. Maybe their restaurants and beaches are just as good. So how much is a private pool worth to you?

To us, it’s worth a lot. We live in Tokyo, so we don’t have a pool and don’t know anyone who does. Vacation is our time to do wild stuff like have a private pool, even if it’s only for three days. I’d rather take fewer vacations and save up to spend only three days at a place like Umana than go to a normal resort for longer, but that's just me. Also, I have free night certificates and points. Umana was a great use of our Hilton points. If you’ve got extra points, you can feel confident using them here. Like I said, I think this hotel shows some real promise, and we’d love the chance to experience it again.

How to get to the Umana Bali resort

Address: Jl. Melasti, Ungasan, Kec. Kuta Sel., Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80364, Indonesia

Website: Umana Bali

Phone: +62 361 3007000

A few things to remember about visiting the Umana: 1) Don't check a bag when coming to Bali, 2) get a Grab from the airport because it’s way cheaper than the hotel’s pickup service, 3) wear sunscreen because the sun is hot, and 4) watch out for those monkeys.