Intan Lake View Kintamani

With the villa owner also behind the camera, you're sure to get some great pictures framed by that splendid view of Batur lake and the mountain.

I arrived in the evening, tired and ready to rest after travelling all the way from Denpasar to Kintamani, but I couldn't check in. Someone had apparently made an offline booking without confirmation, and was suddenly checked in instead. They didn't seem to feel guilty. The hotel staff did take responsibility for finding me another place to rest, but I was still upset and felt I'd been treated unfairly as a guest. I couldn't shake the feeling afterward. Please check whether you're fully booked so this doesn't happen to someone else. If you often take offline reservations, turn off online bookings to avoid double booking.

We had booked two nights for €78, but the experience was so disappointing that we left the next day. The room didn't look like it had been cleaned at all, with dust everywhere. My wife couldn't stop sneezing and coughing, and the flies made it unpleasant too. The tap water was yellow. There was nothing around the isolated property, and we couldn't find transport: no taxis, Grab or Gojek, and no scooter rental. We had to go through the hotel, where fares were immediately doubled, so we had no autonomy. For that price, it's a disgrace. The hotel and its location weren't worth it, and we felt we'd wasted time and money. Travelers should stop overestimating places like this. Overly generous reviews send people to messy, out of the way hotels with inadequate services and no freedom of movement.

Waking up to the view is lovely, and the hotel itself is beautiful. But there are quite a few problems. We never got the breakfast we'd paid for, and nobody even asked about refunding it when we left. The hotel is new, but the bathroom plumbing leaves a lot to be desired: there was an unpleasant smell and the toilet barely flushed. The access road is off road, and rain covered our white car in mud. There are no cafes or restaurants nearby, so we went to the nearest toteme glamping site. It's fine for one night if you mainly want to wake up and enjoy the view, but the price is seriously inflated. The rooms were very cold, and the pool was freezing. A heated pool would have been a good idea, since that's very typical for this area.