Secret Garden Ubud

After six months here, the apartment really felt like home. It’s affordable for a longer stay and has plenty of room, with a living room, kitchen, mezzanine bedroom and two bathrooms. Sri, who looks after the apartments, is lovely and always helpful. It’s close to everything but remains peaceful. There are sometimes bugs, but that’s Ubud jungle life, and having none at all would seem odd. Highly recommend.

The place is roomy and has a cozy interior, and the caretaker is a really helpful woman. It’s also quite cheap. But the rooms are very dark, there’s no yard or private outdoor space, and under the roof it gets so hot that the little fan can’t keep up. There’s a musty smell inside, and the upstairs floorboards are broken and covered with rugs. Quite a few things need proper maintenance. If this had been my first stop in Bali, I’d have felt upset and disappointed. Since it was my last few days, I didn’t mind as much. If you can see it before checking in, I’d do that.

It’s a huge two-floor loft apartment, and the monthly rent is cheap. You’ll need to sort out your own breakfast and water. A friend recommended the place, but when I checked it out, there were loads of ants, more than anywhere else I’ve stayed in Bali, even though I’ve mostly stayed by rice fields. The walls are paper thin, so you can hear your neighbor yawn. The caretaker is a nice lady.

We booked through AirBNB, and the photos looked normal, but once we arrived in the rain we still wanted to leave and find somewhere else. It’s a very old, dark space that wasn’t pleasant to be in, more like a barn. There was termite sawdust on the sofas and cobwebs everywhere. The fan was broken and replaced by two old ones that were half broken too. The bed had only a sheet, no blanket. I wouldn’t recommend this place.