As I mentioned in my Eco-Lite post on the Bali Bird Park, it can be easily accessed from Ubud.  When I was planning this part of the trip, 5 days of R&R in Bali after the challenging birding adventure in West Papua I had to decide whether to stay in the pleasant small town of Ubud in central Bali or at one of the beach resorts.  Since I was short on cash and had Priority Club points to burn I ended up splitting the stay between 2 nights in Ubud paid and 3 nights in the Holiday Inn Baruna Beach on points.

I booked this resort on Hotels.com as I was working towards a goal of 10 nights to earn a free night in the Welcome Rewards program and these 2 nights put me over the top, plus I used the Ultimate Rewards mall to click thru.

Cendana Resort is well located in the centre of Ubud on Monkey Forest Road within walking distance of both the Monkey Forest and the Art Market.  It’s reasonably priced at around $50-80 depending on room type and season.  We arrived in the night so didn’t get to see the gardens at first but the room itself was gorgeous!  I love traditional Bali/tropical decor and this place has it in spades!  A large bathtub was a welcome sight after roughing it in Papua!

The next morning, we were delighted by the beautiful gardens surrounding the large swimming pool.  Our room looked out onto a rice paddy giving a rural feeling even though the hotel is on Monkey Forest Road.  There were a few birds flying over the rice paddies.

The room rate includes a delicious buffet breakfast including my favourite pineapple pancakes!

The one criticism I could make was the very small cages the myna birds were kept in.  They are beautiful birds, tame and can talk pretty well but I would have preferred to see them in a large aviary where they could at least see each other if they can’t be kept together.  Birds are flock creatures and don’t like to be alone.