Tanjung Benoa, Grand Mirage

Just spent one month at Grand Mirage in June/July 2005. Changed rooms a couple of times, looked at several. No such thing as a quiet one!!Korean/Japanese tour groups arrive and go daily and are very very noisy. All room doors open and yelling to each other in the corridoors outside your room at all hours. Finally found a quiet room, after one week ruined by building works going on under us. We changed again only to suffer extremely loud wailing/chanting being played on a tape from next door to the hotel all day and through the night till at least 1 am. Every day. you couldnt swim on the beach as it was only for jet skis,paragliding etc. Vendors constantly hassle you. Breakfast at hotel very good, plenty of choice. Not much outside the hotel, few restaurants, no bars.

Staff were fantastic.

The Grand Mirage is not a five star closer to a four star. It was built in 1983 and could use a little sprucing up. Quite nice and good value for the price. If you don't want the action of Kuta or the quite elegance of Nusa Dua then this is the spot. Water sports are available right on the beach. Parasaling, seadoos, speedboats and glass bottom boats all at your doorstep. Buffet breakfast was great with lots of variety. There are a few restaurants on site but right out back of the hotel you can eat cheaper in a number of restaurants that string all along the road just outside the hotel. We tried a couple and they were very good and reasonable and open late. Stay away from the seafood buffets everybody advertises they don't live up to the hype.

The hotel pool is large and has a wading pool for kids. No hot tub but then you don't need it. It was 90 degrees for our entire stay. You can have a massage in the hotel or from the ladies on the beach (quite a bit cheaper). My advice is don't go during Ramadan as the entire island is packed with people from Jakarta. The hotel was 101% full.

The beach is shallow and if you have waterwalkers pack them as there are a lot of crushed shells in the sand.

I would highly recommend staying here at the Grand Mirage Hotel at Tanjung Benoa on Bali. The facilites are excellent, just what you would expect from a 5 Star Hotel. The staff could not have been any more helpful. The attached Thallasso spa is brilliant, and by european standards quite cheap.

There are a selection of restaurants all offering a very high standard of food.

The rooms are furnished to a high standard - Lovely marble bathroom with opening wall into the bedroom. Aircon, Huge television with satallite TV, seaview balcony etc.

The only drawback is that the sea is quite shallow in this area, so you can only really swim in the pool. Just as well the swimming pool is fantastic. I would highly recommend staying at this hotel.