Gembira - 2 bedroom house with pool near Bali beach

Canggu - Villa

My friend and I had the MOST amazing 8 nights at Villa Gembira. The Villa itself is huge - so much garden space and the fish pond and pool are spectacular. We felt so well cared for by the incredible staff who cooked our breakfast and tidied our room and looked after the garden and pool. The Indonesian breakfast was truly wonderful and staff came and went so quietly we were never disturbed and really appreciated the setting of mosquito coils each afternoon evening and the setting of our rooms with the mosquito nets. We loved watching the fish in the pond and the geckos and tiny frogs in the garden. The pool area is wonderful - the pool itself is delightful and the sun lounges and gazebo were perfect for lazy afternoons. The location of the villa is so terrific - it’s tucked away in a quiet location and yet only a 5 minute walk to the street with shops, restaurants, massages and the beach. The best of both worlds - peaceful and bustling. It’s going to be very hard to leave and I really hope I am able to come back and visit again with my family. It was a great time to visit with all the kites in the sky and the penjor everywhere. Bali is so beautiful.

The villa is absolutely enchanting the surrounding area has plenty of nice restaurants and it is a nice close walk to the beach for the beach bars. There's also convenience shops and markets close by and it has easy access to main roads for travelling to other hotspots

Wow. Villa Gambira is a fabulous place. And excellent value. The walled gardens are expansive and delightful. We wandered around trying to identify plants and admiring the landscaping skills. The Villa is well designed with spacious garden areas and large rooms. The two master en-suite bedrooms are either side of the central living area – consisting of lounge, dining and kitchen – overlooking the koi pond. We started naming each koi! There were just the two of us. So we occupied only one of the two bedroom suites. But, both were complete in themselves: each having a king size bed, walk-in wardrobe and en-suite. A wonderful touch was the 3 water coolers. It saved us lugging large water bottles from the local supermarket and was a more sustainable solution. The staff were delightful and such fun and maintained the Villa daily. There was a linen change every 3 days. American breakfast was included in our daily fee. Given neither of us is American – and we like to embrace the local food – we asked for mie goreng and special nasi goreng respectively instead. No problem. And no extra charge. In fact, John can eat Nasi Goreng for breakfast, lunchdinner. Not joking! We had lots of fun in the pool which has a lanai. It is a good size. We have few niggles. So minor it would not deter us from going to the Villa again. Indeed. We intend to do so: It would be preferable to have a door bell to the villa. This would help with privacy a bit to forewarn guests when the cleaners and gardeners want to do things. OK, strangely, John and I are cooks. So sometimes, we preferred to cook ourselves steak, seafood and/prepare a salad for dinner. While the kitchen was well equipped with full size fridge, gas cooktop, microwave and utensils, there were no spotlights over the kitchen sink nor stove top, making it difficult to see. I am not very good with stairs. So, John had to help me in and out of the open air bath tub which had two stairs up and down into the covered tub with shower. Also, although there were shallow stairs into the pool, the pool itself was a uniform 5 feet deep. We would have preferred it to be at least graded in depth. I think that would be better for kids and games in the pool. Although there was not an abundance of restaurants along the nearest main street – Julan Batu Belig only a 2 minute walk away up our Gang – there were sufficient. Warung Sabot being our favourite. Watercress is more of a hip burger place that does breakfast until 4pm – no lunch menu – and dinner. Strawberry Fields, about a 10 minute walk east made great breakfasts and brill smoothies. There were many local convenience stores in easy walk. But if you wish a more extensive range, Supermarket popular ( a Pepito brand) was only a 7,000 rupiah (flag fall) taxi drive away. We’d always tip to 20,000 rupiah anyway. There were plenty of taxis plying up and down Jalan Batu Belig. The Villa is about a 30-40 minutes’ drive to Ngurah Rai airport. About 90,000 rupiah by taxi. There is an authorised money changer just across our gang from Julan Batu Belig. We advise not to use the unauthorised ones. They offer a slightly better exchange rate but are usually dodgy. If you are not familiar with Bali, we also advise catching the Bluebird range of taxis. They must turn on their meter. There are independent taxis ( often painted blue and with similar logo on the roof) who want to argy bargy with you. If you want to do that, then by all means! (

Me and family had a great time in Villa Gembira and the experience was fantastic! The booking service was great , crew was friendly and very helpful! Villa was fantastic, morning breakfast was tasty and the freshly made juice was great too ! Only 10 mins walking to beach from the Villa and very near Main Street as well. Overall experience is fantastic and I will definitely contact Villa Finder to arrange my next trip to Bali!

The villa is lovely - very clean and spacious with a nice pool area too. The beach is only a short walk away too, which was appreciated. The staff at Villa Gembira are very helpful and nothing is too much trouble for them, whether this is arranging massages in the villa, booking taxisarranging laundry services. Villa Gembira is midway between Seminyak and Kuta so each of these areas are easily accessible. So you can have the tourist areas as well as an insight into "real Bali" in the immediate vicinity of the villa if you want it. Breakfast is included in the price of the villa. Whilst this was tasty, it was the same each of the four days we were there. Had we been there longer, then I think we would have got fed up of eggs and bacon each morning, and would have been looking for more variety but I suspect that this could have been had we accommodated, had we asked. All in all a very nice villa in a good location