Our trip to Bali was aimed to teach my son about a little culture, without giving him ultimate culture shock as an eleven year old. With this in mind, we ended up in comfortable but familiar Nusa Dua resort area of Bali, Indonesia. Our stay at the Westin Resort Nusa Dua Bali was everything we would have expected from a stay at in Nusa Dua; a hotel with comfortable rooms, a safe and appealing beach, in addition to being reasonably located for our needs in Bali.

---

This post is one chapter on our trip to Bali and Singapore. This trip was redeemed through Lifemiles, AAdvantage and through Starwood Preferred Guest (Marriott Bonvoy) loyalty programs. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

---

---

Review: The Westin Resort Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia

“The Westin Resort Nusa Dua Bali offered an old school family styled resort with oversized rooms, a traditional pool and a gentle but basic beach. It was perfect base of operations for a family stay with an eleven year old”

Planning and Choosing the Resort:

We selected this resort as we were looking for a family oriented property that was situated in the Nusa Dua Resort area of Bali, Indonesia. We also were looking for a property that was a reasonable award category, and wouldn’t blow the bank on a reward redemption on a family trip. At the time of our visit, the property was a Starwood Preferred Guest Category 4 property, with free rooms available for 10,000 Starwood Preferred Guest Points per night. At the time of writing, the property is a Marriott Bonvoy Category 5 property, with free rooms available for between a reasonable 30,000 – 40,000 points per night.

We ended up booking at this property under 3 back to back reservations. As we were arriving at the late hour of 3 AM the first night, we ended up booking a standard regular sized room using an SPG Free Weekend Night award that we had gotten as a result of meeting the minimum spend on MrsWT73’s Canadian SPG American Express Card. As a category 4 SPG property, we figured there was no point spending full rates for a night where, with a 3 AM arrival, we hardly could enjoy the property. I find that these American Express awards are a little hard to spend anyway, being valid at only a Category 4 property or less. As a result, we were happy to use this one up no less than 15 days prior to it’s expiry date. Our next booking for the rest of our stay in an Executive Suite on on Starpoints for 5 nights (with the fifth night free), and the last booking was for one night on a paid cash rate for a total of seven nights as this resort.

One advantage to using points when staying in Indonesia is that the reward program takes care of the 11% government tax and the 10% service charge that is otherwise applied to room rates. As a result, you can easily save an additional 22% on the value of a room by redeeming Marriott Bonvoy reward points in Indonesia.

Getting to the Westin Resort Nusa Dua:

Kawasan Pariwisata Nusa Dua, Btdc, Jl. Nusa Dua No.3, Bali 80363, Indonesia

We had arranged the van transfer through the hotel for about $25 USD, which I concluded was probably easier than two taxis with all our bags. After getting off our Asiana Airlines Business Class Incheon – Denpasar flight, we met our driver at the land side and he escorted us to the waiting van. It was a single person operation at this hour – it was almost 2 AM by the time we were land side at the airport thanks to a delay of 30 minutes on landing and some very slow baggage delivery on the part of the airport authority.

We took the toll road to the Nusa Dua area. It was a quick transfer at this time of night, only taking about 15 minutes.

Checking into the Westin Nusa Dua:

We arrived to the Westin Nusa Dua. It was a large property. We were checked in for all three reservations on arrival. Courtesy of Starwood Preferred Guest Gold level status, we were upgraded from the basic room to the “Garden Terrace” for our first night and extended a 4 PM check out for the room changeover for the suite. We were offered by the front desk to accept the new room as early as 12 PM. However, we opted for a later time to allow for a bit of a sleep.

The Room: A Garden Terrace

We were led to Garden Terrace room # 1308 which was a nicely refreshed room in the south wing. It was a little tight in the room with all the luggage (3 regular size suitcases and 3 rollies), but it was reasonable. If we were travelling with an infant, and a few less bags, we could have probably been okay with this configuration of room with the infant resting in the attached bathroom area as the bathroom was really large.

The bathroom was especially huge for a base level room. It ran the entire length of the room and had a combination shower and bath area.

There were some instant Starpoint awards available, as presented on a sheet in the vanity area.

The Garden Terrace:

The garden terrace was nice, and I would have easily paid the small amount to upgrade to this configuration if I was with a family. The terrace was on the quiet side of the building and offered immediate access to the pathway to the beach. It was also key access, meaning you could return to this side after an outing. There were ample lawns outside, meaning that kids could run around easily and burn off steam. The mosquito bugs you would expect in SE Asia were not present at all during our visit during the day or night so it’s conceivable that parents could hang out here at night while their kids fell to sleep.

The Garden Terrace room was perfectly suitable for our one night “late arrival” stay, and we probably could have managed in this room with a smaller child. Despite this, better rooms lay ahead with our stay.

The Room: An Executive Suite

We booked the balance of our 6 night stay into an Executive Suite. It’s the smallest suite configuration at this property, but was still a full suite with a separate dining and separate sitting area with one and a half bathrooms.

We used 20,000 Starpoints per night for the room, with the fifth night free (a regular room is 10,000 Starpoints). As I had mentioned earlier, one advantage to using points was that the points rate covered all the taxes (11%) and the compulsory service charge add on (10%) saving us an additional 21% on top of the rate. The best thing about hotel points are no ridiculous taxes and fees (or fuel surcharges).

Executive Suite # 3524 was nicely featured with two flat screen televisions, a large bathroom, a powder room bathroom and a very large deck (lanai) with two comfortable chairs. The room size was perfect for travelling with a youngster, as we were able to have him sleep in the dining area and were able to have our adult conversation time after he went to bed without disturbing him.

The Executive Suite was split into three separate rooms. The rooms included a bedroom, a dining area and a living room.

The Bedroom with a King Size Bed:

The Bedroom featured a King Size bed with the usual Westin Heavenly Bed. It was nicely sized and also featured a flat screen television.

The Living Room:

At the opposite end of the suite, the Executive Suite featured a living room with a chaise lounger, along with an occasional chair. The room featured a second flat screen television, in addition to a bar area.

The room also offered a dry bar. It was full of souvenirs counter space by the end of our trip.

The Dining Room:

The Executive Suite featured a proper dining area. Although this room is typically configured for two guests staying in the King bed configuration the hotel offered a roll away bed that was placed in the dining room. The rollaway was included free of charge.

The Master Bathroom:

While some suites offer two bathrooms or one full bathroom and a half bathroom, the Executive Suite only featured one full bathroom. While it was a single bathroom configuration, the suite made up for it by making it an extra large massive bathroom, which was family sized. This meant I could toss my son in the shower while MrsWT73 was getting ready for dinner using the mirror without massive amounts of cross over or inconveniences. There was space for our luggages too, with great storage space.

The Executive Suite Lanai:

We took coffee outside every morning on the deck, which had a nice resort view. The outdoor deck was a great place to escape while WT73Jr drifted off to sleep.

Food and Beverage:

The hotel featured Indonesian, Italian, Spanish and International restaurants. None of them were really special or memorable. Except for the fact that the breakfast restaurant was an absolute zoo most days; literally hundreds of screaming kids, Chinese talking on wireless cellular phones wondering aimlessly through the buffet area, and kids zig zagging while unsupervised feeding koi fish with bread from the bakery bar. It sets the scene a bit for this place: fortunately the resort aimed more for family mayhem unlike the usual business atmosphere and sleekness that was prevalent in many North American Westin Hotels. This didn’t totally take away from the whole experience, but rather it was more something to be aware of. We actually skipped breakfast after the first two days for the rest of the trip since this breakfast atmosphere wasn’t all to relaxing.

Around the Resort:

Relaxing Walkways:

What was relaxing were the nice grounds of the hotel. The footprint of the resort was quite large, but there were a few areas along the sides that were nice. There were a few traditional bales and massage areas. Although we never saw anyone actually use these. I wouldn’t call it a spacious resort.

Outdoor Pool:

The property offered a large pool area. Strangely, for a family oriented resort, the main pool photographed here was too deep for children, clocking in at about seven feet deep. It was even too deep for me to stand in.

The Nusa Dua Beach:

The beach area offered a stretch of Nusa Dua still beach. The beach did have a gentle wave break, meaning that it was suitable for smaller kids. Calling it as it is, it’s by no means the nicest beach in the world. There are nicer offerings in Australia, Hawaii or the Maldives. I realize that most people wouldn’t compare the beaches of the Maldives to Bali but since we were travelling a long distance of almost half way around the world to get here, I think it’s a reasonable comparison. MrsWT73 thought I was nuts for travelling from the Americas to get here for this. Overall, the trip wasn’t all about the beach, it was more of the experience and ability to teach culture of Bali to my younger offspring.

The Nusa Dua Beach itself was a nice beach area, although I wouldn’t have described it as a fantastic beach. It was perfectly accessible for those with families, and it provided a good distraction for us while we stayed.

The Bottom Line: The Westin Nusa Dua Bali

Overall, the Westin Resort Nusa Dua is a family oriented property. There are heaps of families and kids staying at this resort. In fact, MrsWT73 described this resort as “Bali Birth Control” as there were so many screaming kids staying here. We definitely wouldn’t stay here on our own if we were looking for a get away- instead opting for something a bit more swank like the W Seminyak or the Laguna Hotel (The Luxury Collection) next door.

The property was previously flagged as a Sheraton, so that can get an idea of the type and style of the property; family oriented with an older style. Despite this dire warning, the hotel was perfect for our needs as a family travel destination and I’d recommend it for anyone making a trip with children (although not with teenagers) in tow. The hotel allows you to dine next door at The Laguna and charge to your Westin room account. The kids food that was presented was of international standards (ie: the satay for my son was not spicy here compared to the spiciness of the satay next door at the Laguna). Overall, I found it was also a good value for reward redemptions due to the low amount of points for a room and covering all the taxes and fees.

---

If you’ve stayed at the Westin Resort Nusa Dua, did you have a comfortable family stay?

---