In Reply to: Mara River Safari Park posted by Morgans on Thursday, 14. May 2009 at 19:59 Bali Time:
The Safari Lodge is right at the back fo the park and you can walk around the park whenever you want to. It's the safari tram ride that you only get 1 entry ticket to.
We stayed a night in April and I loved it and even though it's expensive, I would do it again. The restuarant wasn't the greatest though, expensive and I didn't like the way some food was cooked. They have another restuarant in the grounds which was Ok and better priced but you don't get to see the lions.
We walked around the park both days, there is so much to do there that you can run out of time for just 1 day. We arrived, booked in and went straight to the park, did the tram ride and saw some shows. We had lunch at the cheaper restuarant, dinner and breakfast at the lion restuarant. After brekky on the second day we went for a stroll around the park again, nice and quite before everyone gets there and we spent some time with the tiger and elephant again.
We left around lunchtime on the second day and the safari lodge driver drove us back to Kuta. The staff are brilliant, so yes you would be able to leave your bags at reception and yes they would arrange (or you could pre arrange) transport to Jimbaran Bay.
The elephant show is a must see, the elephant bathing is great and you can feed the elephants. The bird show is not bad either and worth a look. The Safari tram ride is great also. We didn't do the elephant safari ride but you can just pay extra and do that once there, mind you it's expensive!