Introduction
Ubud is the part of Bali I'd never skip. It's where the temples, the rice terraces and the river gorges are, and it's the first place I send people on a Bali trip. Central Ubud is another story: a congested market town with a traffic problem and a monkey problem. So the hotels worth booking are out in the valleys around it, anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes from town.
That changes how you pick one. Every dinner out means a car, so you'll eat, swim and spend most of your days at the hotel, and the pool, the restaurant and the spa matter more here than they would in Seminyak.
I've stayed at Mandapa, Buahan and Four Seasons Sayan, and I've been to the Viceroy. Amandari, COMO Shambhala and Capella I haven't stayed at yet, so I won't give them a score, but I'll tell you what I'd want to know before booking them. This is only my personal opinion!
The short version: Mandapa is the one I'd book for almost any trip. Buahan is the stay you'll still be talking about years later, if you can sleep in a room with no walls. Four Seasons Sayan is the safe choice for brand fans, COMO Shambhala is for a wellness trip, and Amandari is for Aman loyalists. I'd skip the Viceroy and Capella.
Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve
If I could only recommend one hotel in Ubud, this is it, and it's the best resort I've stayed at anywhere in Bali. It's small, with 60 suites and villas stepping down a hillside to the Ayung river, and there's a working rice field in the middle of it. The path to breakfast runs through the paddies, and I walked it every morning instead of taking the buggy.
The Ubud Pool Villas are the biggest room I've ever stayed in, about 400 square metres with the garden, and the private infinity pool looks straight out over the rice fields. The suites are around 100 square metres. Some of their balconies look down over the rice fields and the villas, and I think that view is even better than the one from the villas.
Kubu, the bamboo restaurant down by the river, is the one big dinner I'd book in Ubud: ten courses over about three hours, with flavours I'd honestly never tasted before. Breakfast is one of the best in Bali (I went back to the noodle soup station every morning), the spa facilities are free for every guest, and the service was the best I've had on the island. My butler handled everything on WhatsApp, and somehow worked out that I love macarons.
The drawbacks are small, apart from the price. You can't walk to town, the pools close after dark, and the coffee machine in the room doesn't make espresso. The suites are already four figures a night, and the villas cost about double.
My tip: at Kubu, book a regular table by the river rather than one of the bamboo cocoons. The cocoons are romantic, but their walls block most of the river view.
Who it's for: honeymoons, big birthdays, and families (Mandapa Camp takes kids from 4). 9/10
Read our detailed 9/10 review for Mandapa here.
Buahan, a Banyan Tree Escape
Buahan is the hotel with no walls. Its sixteen bales sit on a forested hillside about 45 minutes north of Ubud, and each one is a roof on wooden posts over a bed, with a private infinity pool and nothing between your pillow and the jungle except a curtain and a mosquito net. Waking up with fog lying in the valley and rice terraces in view from the bed is the most memorable morning I've had in Bali.
Service is the best thing about it. Staff outnumber guests, most of them come from the villages around the hotel, and several of them remembered my name, my drink and what I don't eat. Breakfast and dinner are included, which matters because there's nowhere else to go. Breakfast is excellent. The five-course dinners are fresh and clever for the first two nights, but by the third the leafy dishes start to blur together and there isn't much meat, so ask for an extra protein course.
You do share the room with whatever flies in. One afternoon I counted a hornet, a wasp, a tiny spider shaped like a scorpion, a fly and a bee. The forest gets loud well before dawn, your own pool is unheated and too cold for more than a dip, and the hotel drops 100 metres down mossy stone steps with no buggies. I slipped on them one wet morning. It's adults-only, and with no walls, an unfenced pool and all those steps, that's the right call.
My tip: ask for a high bale, and get it in writing. All sixteen are identical inside, so you're only choosing the view, and the higher ones have the best of it.
Who it's for: couples who want a story to bring home and can sleep through a forest. Two or three nights is plenty. 8/10
Read our detailed 8/10 review for Buahan here.
Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan
The arrival at Sayan is still one of the great hotel entrances anywhere. You cross a long bridge through the treetops and step out onto a lotus pond, which turns out to be the roof of the main building, with the whole resort dropping away below you to the Ayung river. It opened in 1998, and on setting alone it's up there with the best Four Seasons in the world.
It's at its best for a few days of swimming, eating and doing very little. The main pool by the river was nearly empty every time I went down, even with the hotel full, the gym is one of the best I've used at any resort, and the staff knew my name almost straight away. Try the Sacred Nap: you're wrapped in a silk hammock in a pavilion by the river while someone reads you the story of the Buddha. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else.
The rooms are where its age shows. My suite had heavy timber louvres, old window frames that didn't quite seal and air conditioning that couldn't keep up with the humidity, so it felt a bit damp and noisy at night. There are only two restaurants, and the food is good resort cooking rather than a reason to stay. The whole place is steps, steep paths and open edges, which isn't ideal with young children or anyone who finds stairs hard. And then there's Mandapa, a couple of kilometres up the same river, which is newer, has far bigger villas and much better food, and usually costs less.
My tip: choose by how you like to spend your day. The villas have a private plunge pool and most of their space outdoors. The suites have more room indoors and are much easier if steps are a problem.
Who it's for: Four Seasons fans, and couples who want to slow right down for three nights. 7.5/10
Read our detailed 7.5/10 review for Four Seasons Sayan here. If you're stuck between the two, I've compared Sayan and Mandapa side by side.
Amandari
Amandari is the original Bali Aman, and it sits on the rim of the Ayung gorge right next door to Mandapa, about ten minutes from central Ubud. I haven't stayed here yet, so there's no score for this one.
It opened in 1989 and it's laid out like a Balinese village, with 31 walled pavilions, each with its own gated garden and an outdoor sunken marble tub. The service is what people come back for, and the privacy comes a close second, because you're behind your own wall the whole time. The main pool is a long, green-tiled infinity pool curving along the edge of the gorge. Breakfast, airport transfers and afternoon tea are included, and there's a shuttle into Ubud whenever you want one.
The rooms are the catch. They're dated, the bathrooms most of all, and Aman hasn't announced a full renovation of them. The entry pavilions don't have a private pool (only 12 of the 31 do), and there's only one restaurant, which is good at breakfast and with Indonesian food and patchy at dinner. Expect mosquitoes, leaves in the outdoor tub after rain, and a lot of stone steps. It's also usually the most expensive of the three Ayung gorge names for an entry room, before you pay extra for a pool.
My tip: if you book it, pay for one of the pavilions with a pool, and ask for a valley view. Some of the garden pavilions have very little view at all.
Who it's for: couples and Aman loyalists who want quiet and privacy and don't mind older rooms. There's no kids club, so I wouldn't bring young children.
COMO Shambhala Estate
COMO Shambhala is a wellness retreat first and a hotel second, on 22 acres above the Ayung gorge about 20 minutes north of Ubud. I haven't stayed here either, so no score.
If wellness is the point of your trip, I don't know another hotel in Ubud that comes close. The Ojas wellness centre reopened in July 2025 with hyperbaric oxygen, an ice bath, an infrared sauna, a Watsu pool and an Ayurveda wing, and the daily yoga, qi gong and meditation classes are free for every guest. You can also sign up for one of the structured programmes, from detox to fitness. The villas are big, at 235 square metres and up, and the butlers get a lot of praise.
The rest is more mixed. The estate reopened in February 2025 after renovation work, but only two of the five residences (Wanakasa and Bayugita) were fully redone, so some rooms are still old. The food is fresh and healthy, which suits a detox and frustrates anyone who came to eat well. Insects come up a lot, the hillside has steep stone steps, and you'll need a car for every dinner in Ubud. The entry Terrace Suites don't have a private pool. The cheapest room with one is the 235-square-metre Pool Villa.
On price, an entry room is roughly a third cheaper than Mandapa or Four Seasons Sayan. Book a villa and a wellness programme, though, and you'll pay as much as either, or more.
My tip: ask for Wanakasa, Bayugita, a Garden Pool Villa or an Estate Suite, which are the parts that were renovated or refreshed in 2025.
Who it's for: adults and couples on a proper wellness or reset trip. It isn't one for food lovers, small children or anyone who struggles with steps.
The One I'd Skip: Viceroy Bali
The Viceroy does have real things going for it. Every villa has its own heated pool looking over the Petanu valley, the entry villas are a generous 150 square metres, and at 5 to 15 minutes away it's the closest of these hotels to central Ubud. Apéritif, the Art Deco tasting-menu restaurant, and the Pinstripe bar are both well liked, and it costs roughly half to two-thirds of what Mandapa or Four Seasons Sayan charge.
The problem is that it's super dated. The look is heavy carved dark wood, maroon ceilings and diamond-tiled marble bathrooms, the original villas were last renovated in 2014, and the hotel's own factsheet still lists an iPhone docking station as a villa feature. The bathroom is separated from the bedroom by nothing more than a sheer curtain, and the plunge pools in the Pool Suites are tiny. Even at the lower price, I'd rather stretch to Mandapa.
Who it's for: honestly, I'd only book it on a very good rate, or on Hilton points (it's part of Small Luxury Hotels of the World). 6/10
Also Skip: Capella Ubud
I haven't stayed at Capella, and I know it has a lot of fans. Bill Bensley designed it as a colonial explorers' camp on a jungle slope above the Wos river, 20 to 30 minutes north of Ubud. Each of its 22 tents has its own theme, with copper bathtubs, antiques and a private saltwater plunge pool. Api Jiwa, the wood-fire chef's counter, is the best-reviewed thing on site, and the service is consistently very good.
The trouble is the canvas. Rain and the motorbikes from the village come straight through it, and the plunge pools, which are meant to be heated, run cold. Most tents face jungle rather than the valley (only the higher Keliki and Valley tents get the view), some terraces look into the neighbours' pools, and the toilet sits behind a curtain next to the bathtub. Getting around means steep stone paths and a lot of steps, and Capella itself says the camp isn't suited to children under 6.
You're paying about what a Four Seasons Sayan pool villa costs. For that money, I'd take solid walls and the view down the Ayung.
Who it's for: design lovers who want something theatrical and don't mind thin walls. I'd send almost everyone else to Mandapa or Sayan.
So Which One Should You Book?
Honeymoon, big birthday, or travelling with kids over 4? Mandapa, and book Kubu for one night. Want a stay you'll still be talking about in ten years? Buahan, for two or three nights, in a high bale. Loyal to Four Seasons? Sayan is lovely, but compare it with Mandapa first. Coming for a reset? COMO Shambhala. Aman loyalists will want Amandari, and should pay for a pavilion with a pool. I'd skip the Viceroy until it's refreshed, and Capella unless the design is the whole point.
Ubud works best as half a trip, so pair it with a few nights by the sea. My picks for that are in where to stay in Bali, and if you want somewhere calm and walkable, Sanur is the easy one.
