Adiwana Bisma

We have been visiting Ubud for over 20 years and have stayed in numerous hotels along Jalan Bisma. During that time, the area has changed significantly: what was once dominated by rice fields has gradually become almost fully developed with small hotels, restaurants, cafés, spas, and other services.

We visited Adiwana Bisma in person before making our decision and chose to stay there for a week during this year's visit. The hotel staff are truly wonderful: present, approachable, genuinely interested in how our stay is progressing, and always delighted to welcome us back after our long walks around Ubud. They treat every guest with genuine warmth and respect and are among the very best ambassadors for Ubud that international visitors could hope to meet.

The rooms are spacious and feature generously sized balconies overlooking either the garden valley or the rice fields. Falling asleep to the sounds of nature and waking up every morning to birdsong was a wonderful experience. We especially enjoyed having our first cup of coffee on the balcony before our morning walk and swim. This is simply something that needs to be experienced in person. No photograph, video clip, or social media post can truly capture the unique atmosphere created by the surrounding nature that makes staying in Ubud so very special.

We happened to experience a couple of rainy and rather dark days during our stay, which highlighted one weakness of our room (#231): its interior felt somewhat dark and gloomy. The dark grey granite is an elegant material, but when combined with the rustic brown wall finishes, it creates a rather gloomy atmosphere, particularly on cloudy and rainy days. In our opinion, this does not fully do justice to what is otherwise a comfortable and pleasant room. Although we had specifically booked a room with a rice-field view, we had not expected the interior to feel quite this dark. When the rooms are eventually renovated, we would suggest considering lighter wall materials or colours. It may also be worth reconsidering the unusually large bathroom. The bathroom occupies a significant amount of space that could be better allocated to the main living area, which is not particularly ergonomic for working. After all, the concept of a "working holiday" has become very much part of modern travel.

The staff at Adiwana Bisma are truly exceptional, and the hotel's location on Jalan Bisma is very good, with everything you need within walking distance. Based on our 20 years of experience travelling to Bali & Ubud, however, we would not personally classify Adiwana Bisma as a five-star hotel. In our view, it is a strong 3.5-star property when considering the room, breakfast, and overall experience. Nevertheless, the outstanding hospitality of the staff is something we will remember for a long time.

We highly recommend Adiwana Bisma, truly outstanding in every way - from the moment we arrived we were immediately supported and cared for. The place is amazing between rice fields and the rainforest, the cooking class was Numero Uno and our tour with Gede was particularly impressive who made all our adventure tours around the village memorable with his amazing intuition. We will definitely be back again soon!