The Gazebo Selong Belanak

The gardens were nice and the restaurant looked good, but the meals were only okay. Even after we asked for spicy food, it was made for a Western palate. When it got busy, the restaurant was understaffed. The bungalows look attractive but are basic and poorly maintained. In my room, the shower tap, wall socket, and fan were all broken, and staff didn't seem interested in fixing them. The pool was a little dirty. Hotel and restaurant staff seemed disengaged and did only the minimum.

The staff were out of this world, especially Harry, Ika, Astika, and Imran, who made our first Lombok visit great. The grounds and bungalows were beautiful and well kept. The brand-new infinity-style pool completes the Gazebo area nicely, with clean water up to about neck height at the deepest, so it's good for swimming but not jumping or diving. Restaurant portions were a little smaller than I wanted, though I have a large appetite. The food quality and presentation more than made up for that. The main problems were the bungalow being uncomfortably hot at night, which affected sleep, and the cold shower. Afternoon or evening water was fine in the heat, but a cold shower in the morning was too much. AC in the bungalows would make the stay more enjoyable. Some Slovak guests partied every night, shouting, drinking, whooping, and playing eurotrash music until 1 am. It was a timing issue, I understand, but I wish security had asked them to turn it down after 11 pm.

The pool was nice, and the cottages had a Lombok style. The walls were thin, so we could hear the mosque at 5 every morning, and the bath was outside. Since the hotel is a little way from the village, having dinner and breakfast included was convenient. The meals were much too small, though.

The setting looked nice, but being beside a few mosques meant loud speakers and evening prayers went on for hours. It wasn’t a peaceful dinner. We’d only come for dinner, hoping to treat ourselves after a long day, and ordered four dishes. The portions were so tiny they looked like kids’ meals, which really upset us. The curry was delicious, but the fish didn’t seem fresh and the rice was overcooked. The sweet and sour prawn tasted more like ketchup prawn, the fu yung hai wasn’t much better, and the vegetable soup was too plain.