In Reply to: Ubud - another where to stay question! posted by Poppet on Wednesday, 30. September 2009 at 12:02 Bali Time:
Just got back from Bali and loved it. We stayed the whole time in Ubud at The Mansion and had a fantastic time. It does require using the free shuttle bus, but there was one an hour and we never had any problem with it. Most of the accomodation seemed to be a bit away from the town centre - and that is probably a good thing.
The staff at The Mansion were excellent and all loved the kids (4 and 7yo) and the place is beautiful.
Beware the monkey forest, I was bitten there (monkeys are very agressive about bananas and if you go skip the bananas) and now have to go through a course of rabies vaccines (just in case). Staff at The Mansion were excellent and called out a doctor for me.
Ask the shuttle driver to take you to see the art gallery on the way to the town. Pricey, but a hundred times better than anything in the shops in town and worth a look even if you are not going to buy.
The Mansion gave us 2 rooms for a pre agreed price, one for us and one for the kids, connected by a private lockable corridor. Ask for the extra key if not included. We left both our room door and the kids room door open and locked the corridor room at night. Our room included a TV and DVD player and we brought cheap DVDs to watch.
When walking thru the town expect to be asked countless times if you want a taxi, get used to saying "no thanks" twice - they usually follow a refusal with "maybe tommorrow?". These taxis can be very useful, especially if you want to go on a day trip - we did several times.
The market is near the hole in the road (you'll see - they had half filled it by the time we left) Sellers are quite agressive so you need to just politely say no. They are only trying to make a living after all. Just past the hole is a little restaurant called Moka which we frequented reguarly.
Let us know how you get on.