Review of Hard Rock Hotel, Bali

I follow many social media groups and one question that comes up frequently is asking about Hard Rock Hotel and whether it is worth it for families. We began intrigued about what all the fuss was about so when we bagged a bargain Sunday night price we headed there for 24 hours and wanted to share our review with you. Read on for our review of the Hard Rock Hotel, Kuta.

WHY Hard Rock?

We were eyeing up a visit to Waterbom Bali but the price would have been over £100 for the 4 of us and we weren’t convinced that Nyle was going to get his money’s worth – or that we would spend the day together as a family given the kids would want to visit different slides. So when looking around for hotels with slides, Hard Rock came up again and again. We managed to book direct and grabbed a bargain of a deal for less than £90 including breakfast.

LOCATION

Located 20 minutes from the airport in Kuta, Hard Rock hotel is situated right on Kuta beach. This is not the most beautiful beach in Bali by any stretch of the imagination – but you could go up the coast to Seminyak or Canggu which is much more picturesque. Kuta is a bustling town for tourists, with lots of (western) restaurants, huge shopping malls, and is totally geared up for tourists. Traffic is busy but the pavements are probably the best in all of the island. Please don’t stay here for your entire trip to Bali – there is so much else to explore, things to see and beautiful sites such as Sanur (30 minutes away), Ubud (1 hour), Canggu (30 minutes) and of course the less tourist areas of Northern Bali or Amed (3 hours).

Check In

We arrived around noon but check in isn’t until 3pm. The hotel seem quite strict on this and wasn’t letting anyone up early. Instead we left our bags with the concierge and headed to the pool area which the kids were desperate to get in.

At check in, the staff scanned all passports and then took our number and email, and said they would message when our room was available – which they kept to their word and did!

The Pool

This is definitely the highlight of the hotel. There is a large children’s splash pool (probably best suited for under 10s), an area with 3 larger slides and then the main pool area which is enormous and even has a section with sand covering the bottom. There is a man-made beach along side this section with a volleyball net, and also a swim up bar which some of the guests were making very good use of – perhaps too much, even drinking their cocktails and beers in the pool!

It was very easy to grab a sunlounger, and there are staff all around taking food and drink orders which you can enjoy around the pool. We got a bit of a shock at the prices after being in other areas of Bali and eating in restaurants and enjoying local food – a pizza was £7, soft drinks around £3, beers £5, and kids meals around £6-8. It’s still good value and was all very tasty, we had just got out the habit of resort prices. And tax and service is then added on top (15%).

The slides were great fun for our two and they spent all afternoon in the splash pool before having an hour or so on the other slides. For ages 5 and 8, this was definitely great and they were very happy and we decided we were pleased not to spend the £100 on Waterbom tickets.

RESTAURANTS

There are several restaurants scattered around the resort but we chose the main restaurant for both breakfast and our evening meal as we were watching the budget. Breakfast was included in the room rate for under 12s, and we added on the buffet dinner package where under 12s again ate free so it was £20 for the 4 of us. Water is included for free but other drinks are chargeable.

Breakfast was huge and the kids made great work of all the various stations from pancakes to muffins to fruit, to cereal and of course fresh juices. The hot food was also very good quality with fresh eggs and omlettes being made to order. We arrived around 9am for breakfast, with a 10.30 closure time, and it was busy but we got seated straight away by the staff.

Our evening buffet meal landed on an Indian themed night, which suited us well, but perhaps check what the theme is before you arrive here. There must have been 15+ curries, plenty of vegetarian options, and of course sides, naans, rice and a huge selection of desserts. It was all delicious and we thought really good value for money. The restaurant didn’t open until 7pm and we were first in there so if you need to eat earlier you may need to venture elsewhere.

Note, rumour has it is your child is 12 they don’t qualify for the free food and of course they know their age from checking passports at check in. It’s age 11 and under where food is free.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

The hotel boasts a huge variety of activities for families. There is a family garden with a large chess set and other wooden games. The kids club is £3-£5 per hour and from people we spoke to was excellent fun and the kids loved it – ours decided they didn’t want to go much to our shock and disappointment!! There was an indoor kids club room, and then other activities around the resort that you could join in even if your children weren’t signed up to the club. There is a climbing wall, mini golf and pool games to enjoy as part of the animation programme.

ENTERTAINMENT

After dinner we ventured to the main bar in the hotel for drinks and to see what the entertainment looked like. There was a free drink voucher distributed at check in which basically was lemonade or orange juice. Cocktails and glasses of wine are £10 but there is a buy one get one free offer on some cocktails at certain times. The entertainment on the evening we were there was Moulin Rouge style dancing, which went on for about 40 minutes and was actually not bad at all, and then the live band come on the stage which hangs over the bar in the air.

The biggest disappointment with the main bar was that smoking was allowed there and after 20+ years of living in a country where smoking indoors is prohibited, this was a bit of a shock and not very pleasant at all. It’s not that everyone in there is smoking but there were a couple of people including the table next to us.

THE ROOMS

Fabulous!! We only had a standard room but we thought these were really good. The family room had 2 double beds, which were very comfy, and the bedding was superb quality embossed with guitars – it’s the little details sometimes! The curtains were completely black out and the rooms were quiet with no sound from the bar and music downstairs. The bathroom has a powerful and hot shower and various toiletries provided. The only disappointment was maybe the balcony which was basically a space to dry swimwear – you couldn’t even fit a chair out there and it looked over some small, metal housing below. It’s not the place you would sit for sunset cocktails! ‘

The halls and corridors of the hotel and littered with rock memorabilia and instruments which is a really nice touch and Alicia was made up when she found something of Taylor Swifts!!!

For the price we paid, Hard Rock hotel delivered, especially after the more budget accommodation we had been staying in, but we would have been disappointed if we had paid £200 a night like I have seen. Everything was around an 8/10 – very good but perhaps tweaks for improvement. The staff were helpful and polite, the rooms and facilities clean and plenty of entertainment to keep the kids busy. If you choose to stay here more than a couple of nights I imagine it would get a bit much and you certainly wouldn’t see the real Bali – or the best bits of this wonderful country. But there’s no denying the fun that the pool and slides brings for kids!