Hanging Gardens of Bali

The highlight of my trip to Bali was a spectacular dinner here. The entrance to the restaurant via a funicular was a first, my dinner was the tastiest I’ve had in Bali after 20 years of travelling here and the service was impeccable.

Well spent at Hanging Gardens of Bali, and it was one of the most unforgettable experiences we’ve had in Bali. The moment we arrived, we were welcomed with genuine smiles and a refreshing drink, setting the tone for the rest of the day. The iconic pool was just as stunning as in the photos, swimming here while looking out over the lush jungle was surreal. We took our time relaxing, soaking in the peaceful atmosphere, and just enjoying the beauty all around us.

traveled over 13,000 km for what I thought would be the perfect honeymoon, and ended up with two of the worst days of my life. Upgraded from Half Board to Full Board for €500 just for one extra meal only to discover the menu was the exact same as the In-Room Dining menu, with just 3 or 4 options. Meaning lunch and dinner were often identical. At dinner, we were given a “special” restricted menu, different from what other guests received as if we were second-class guests. Even after their attempts to fix it, the feeling of disrespect was overwhelming. I paid €4,800 for four nights + €500 for the dinner upgrade, and left after only two nights. A place that claims luxury but fails at the most basic level of guest respect.

Very nice hotel and kind staff thank you hanging gardens and pasek we will come back for sure, nice place for honeymoon, we recommend to everyone

What a beautiful, tranquil and incredibly beautiful place Hanging Gardens is. My husband, kids and I loved it, especially having just come from a stay in central Ubud which we found just too busy to be enjoyable. I am the owner of a luxury tour operator business and stayed at the hotel in an agent inspection capacity, with a view to potentially adding it to our list of recommendations for this region. So if you are reading this, I need to be completely upfront and advise that I am not a standard client per se. However, all incidentals, meals etc during the stay were paid by me at full rate. More importantly, the opinion I have posted below is 100% my own and if I had not genuinely loved the hotel, I would not have written a review at all. I have been offered no compensation whatsoever in exchange for writing this review. I have not been asked to write a positive review by the resort. I've checked the TA guidelines and I don't believe this review breaches them. Having seen the property for myself, we will definitely be adding it to our shortlist of recommended properties in the Ubud area, and I thought my findings might be of use to others. This was my second trip to Ubud, some years apart, and having seen how busy the center has become in the intervening years, I will be recommending to most of my clients that to truly enjoy the area, the trick is to stay well out of town, in a location like this where you can still enjoy ATV, hikes, rafting, rice terraces and the other fun and scenic activities of the Ubud region, without needing to battle the traffic and crowds of central Ubud at all. Hanging Gardens has a classic, quiet old-school luxury feel to it. They've been looking after well-heeled guests here for 20 years as of 2025, and the service levels really reflect this. Everything works like clockwork and the long-serving staff are kind, thoughtful, and efficient. We stayed in a family pool villa, which was ideal for the five of us, with the master bedroom + rollaway bed, and the twin bedroom downstairs. The design was unique, as each stand-alone villa is perched on the edge of a gorge, with uninterrupted jungle views. All villas have their own private pools. Everything was exceptionally well-maintained, with superb quality furnishings, towels, bed linen etc, and the Japanese-style toilets were a treat (apparently these are newly installed). I looked at a couple of other room types while I was there and the bedroom and private pool area is almost identical in all. What differs is the level you're at (bottom aka River level, middle aka Panoramic, top aka Hanging Gardens) and whether you have a second bedroom below (Family Pool Villa) or a stand-alone lounge room (Hanging Gardens Pool Villa - the lounge is across the pool deck from the bedroom). There's one room called a Royal Spa Suite tucked away below the spa salon area - the feel is quite different as there's a lot of dark marble in this room - it wasn't to my personal taste so I don't think I'll be selling this particular room to my clients, but does have a lovely private terrace close to the river, and spa treatment beds. We stayed in the middle 'Panoramic' level of the resort - this is level with the upper section of the stunning main pool. I loved the lush rainforest views. I have teens and would say that since the downstairs bedroom is down a fairly steep winding stairway and you can't easily hear from one room to the other, the family rooms are best for fairly independent kids who would be comfortable coming upstairs on their own if they need you in the night. On the whole the hotel isn't really suitable for toddlers anyway, but we did see several families with (well-behaved) kids from about 6-7 and up. There's no kids club or kids activities here but they do have a kids menu in the restaurant and the staff were very kind to all the kids, from what we could see. I personally loved being able to hear the Ayung river rushing at the bottom of the gorge when walking around the lower sections of the property. This is where the 'lead in' River Pool Villas are located. Those who might be sensitive to this noise can choose villas higher up - we couldn't hear it from our villa in the middle 'Panoramic' level, only when walking around near the spa/ river villas area, and the beautiful spa salon where you have tea. *FOOD/DRINK and SERVICE* Service levels throughout were absolutely top-notch. Truly five star. And the food/drink options there were also of the highest standards. The F&B prices reflect this and there are some fairly pricey options on the menu if you want to go all-out (foie gras, wagyu steaks and so on) but there are also simpler meals available that whilst on the higher end compared to some downtown options, were not higher than London prices for a high-street chain restaurant, so for the price of a lunch at Zizzis (for example) we ate very well here. Bear in mind that due to the location, you'll likely eat all your meals here as the traffic to get in and out of Ubud means it's not really worth heading into town for a meal - budget accordingly. In my opinion, it's best to treat it as a beautiful retreat and/or a base for doing activities in the northern part of Ubud, but not for dining out. Breakfast is an extravagant a la carte experience. Again, excellent, although the 'mezze' which was served beforehand went largely untouched by my kids and I - it's not typical breakfast items, more like a selection of small plates of what you'd have before dinner in a Middle-Eastern restaurant. We loved the complimentary afternoon tea (the best we were offered in all of our luxury hotel stays throughout Indonesia), and were also lucky enough to be staying during the resort's weekly dinner with traditional Gamelan music and fantastic costumed dances; this was an excellent way to start to understand a bit of Bali's age-old Hindu story-telling dance traditions in a low-key way. No way would we have managed to get our kids to sit through a stand-alone show at a theatre, so to have it during dinner worked out perfectly. There is a full multi-course fine dining set meal to accompany the show, which looked very special indeed (cost was IDR 1.5M pp ++) but would have been way too rich and filling for us. We were able to order more simple options from the a la carte menu (and the kids could order from the kids menu) whilst still enjoying the show, which was kind of the staff. We did not have time to try the spa so can't comment on that, but my husband did the complimentary yoga class and loved it. The team told me they are also building a gym down by the river, which will be ready soon. There's a beautiful-looking temple on the opposite side of the gorge which (in better weather) would make a great hike. The staff told me they can set up a cooking class for guests over there, or a private dinner (they take you over by car for these). *LOCATION* The resort runs a complimentary shuttle to town until 5pm if you want it, but despite it only being 17km it will take 45 mins-1 hr to get to the Palace area - longer if you're headed to the Sacred Monkey Forest. It is actually a HUGE plus to be so far out of town; you're very close to the Tegallalang rice terraces up here, and you'll see barely any traffic or crowds (blissful, when you see what the area around the Palace and market is now like). You can swerve the Ubud Monkey Forest and go to the monkey forest in Sangeh instead - it takes about the same amount of time to get to from Hanging Gardens and has a fraction of the visitors. Another reason you might want to go downtown but might not actually need to - the market. The main market downtown is now pretty tacky in my opinion, and has been crammed into a new crowded purpose-built building; it has lost all charm. You could instead try the stalls along the roadside in Tagallalang (the rice terraces not far from the Hanging Gardens resort) which seemed to have slightly better quality items and were not in such a cramped and charmless environment. As we had the opportunity to compare staying in town vs staying up at Hanging gardens, in our opinion, the Hanging Gardens location wins hands down. Unless you're literally staying on Monkey Forest Road, most of the so called 'downtown' hotels are no quicker to get anywhere; prior to our stay at Hanging Gardens we had a cab journey of 2km in 'central' Ubud which took 40 mins. When we opted to walk downtown, it was slow-going, on narrow/non-existent, crowded or dangerously pit-riddled sidewalks. Aside from the Palace and the admittedly amazing dining options in the center, I personally would now steer well clear of central Ubud altogether and would 100% recommend to my clients to base themselves outside of town in an area like this, where they can reach the activities and enjoy the tranquility and beauty that this area first became famous for, without needing to go into town. The Hanging Gardens is one of the furthest out from the town center and in my opinion, is all the better for it. If however, you want to visit the Palace, try out lots of local restaurants and do lots of things downtown, then the Hanging Gardens is not the right location for you, and you'd be better off right in the heart of downtown, where if you pick the right property, you can walk everywhere. Hope that helps you to decide if you're wavering. PS almost all estimates on timings getting into/out of central Ubud or to/from activities shown on resort websites are out of date, unless you're on a motorbike rather than a car. With kids in tow, a motorbike taxi wasn't an option for us, only cars. We were also given several out of date timings verbally during our stay in Indonesia - during peak season you pretty much need to double them. The most accurate way to estimate travel times is to download the Grab app (local version of Uber) and cost up a dummy journey from a to b to get accurate local timings for any trips you want to do. Just bear in mind time-zones to make sure you're looking during the day in Bali and not the middle of the night, and not in the off-season (October-May). FYI there is a sister-resort called Nandini Jungle by Hanging Gardens (not visible from our resort, but very close by) which is a lower-priced option without private pools or family rooms, for those who want this same tranquil location but can't stretch to the Hanging Gardens. I saw the sign for it as we turned in to Hanging Gardens and asked about it. We don't currently sell it and it has its own separate marketing team hence they don't cross-sell, but I mention it as I do love the location and will be looking into it as a potential option for our clients when budget requires.