Amed Cafe & Hotel Kebun Wayan

Rapi and Riska at the front desk were excellent and helped us out a lot. There’s a beachfront restaurant, two pools, and excellent rooms. I highly recommend staying here in Amed, especially if you book one of the bigger rooms for your guests.

I’m writing this more as a love letter than a review. In plenty of ways, I love Amed Cafe and Hotel more than my own brother, but a relationship needs work sometimes, and love can be tough. So here’s the good, bad, and ugly. The hotel means a lot to me because of Sunariyani and Buddhi. When I first came to Bali, I was recovering from losing my job and the end of a long relationship, right in the middle of a proper midlife crisis. Those two have felt like family, just by being themselves. Once, in Culik, I was hungry, drunk, fading, stuck in a crowd, and had no food. Sunariyani spotted me and bought bananas and water, which basically saved my butt. That’s what a good auntie does, right? Buddhi and I have long philosophical conversations, and I’ve kept in touch with both of them since leaving Bali. I’m back now to live here. Last night, New Year’s Eve, the hotel hosted a local children’s event. The kids sang, danced, performed spectacular traditional dances, gave beautiful prepared speeches in English, and more. I’ve never seen anything like it in a hotel. It showed the incredible beauty of Balinese culture, which the hotel really embodies. As a hotel, though, it has always been pretty poor at looking after customers. Laundry takes more than a week to come back. The place is spread out, but there are no phones to call reception. Sometimes you walk up there and nobody’s around. Then you go to the restaurant to get someone to find the receptionist, who sends you back across the road. It’s like being run in circles. This time I was moved through three rooms in two days, and none had a working shower. The fridge in the new room doesn’t fit its spot and is falling off the edge. If you complain, staff get defensive, make excuses, and pass the buck with things like “that wasn’t my shift” or “that’s not my department.” Come on, you’re one team, take responsibility for each other. When I asked for the shower to be fixed, a man told me showers everywhere can only spray hot or cold water, so they couldn’t be fixed, lol. Quite a unique worldview. The ugly part was coming back exhausted from a four-hour hike to find a weird smell in my toilet. A staff member had done a big diarrhea poo in there, on the seat and all over the inside. That’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me in a hotel. So, connection with the local community gets five stars, and showing the beauty of Balinese culture gets five too. Room preparation gets two. For work ethic and customer service, Sunariyani gets 30 stars, Buddhi gets four, most staff get two, and the guy who crapped in my toilet gets minus five million. Come on, guys, be the hotel you could be. Keep the good and sort out the bad and ugly. I believe in you.

The generous buffet had fresh food, beautifully laid out, with local dishes, international favorites, and options for vegetarians too. We had a lovely breakfast with a beautiful view at Amed Cafe and Hotel Kebun Wayan, and it felt like great value for money. Karniti made the morning especially nice with her positive energy, ready smile, and helpful service. Good food and warm hospitality. I’d recommend Seaview Amed Cafe and Hotel Kebun Wayan to anyone visiting Amed.

The location is nice for snorkeling and quite pretty, and the staff were super friendly. Breakfast, which is included, was one of the best in this area, and the food and drinks were generally quite nice. The shisha was bad, though that seems normal for the area. There are two areas, one by the beach and one central, with a rooftop bar. I stayed on both sides. The central place is next to a rooster farm, so be ready to wake up at 4:30am every day. I didn’t know that and didn’t sleep the first night. The beach side is quiet, but the room maintenance was horrible. The AC sounded like it might explode and was super noisy. I couldn’t charge anything in my room because the power points were very low wattage, so I charged my things at the restaurant. The internet was generally bad. Housekeeping only cleans if you ask for it.