Puri Mas Beach Resort Lombok

Absolute Rubbish

We stayed at the Puri Mas Beach Resort in September in one of the "traditional" rooms. The room was dank, dark and the floor felt slippery all the time. The shower gel and shampoo were a joke and el cheapo to say the least. The place is over decorated to the point of being gaudy and has no real atmosphere. We went for a walk and had a look at the new Puri Mas Ocean Villas next door, which we had seen on the net.

We enquired about moving in to one of them but the price was over the top for a "villa" that isn't anything more than a walled in prison with a pool and no ocean views as advertised on the net. "Absolute beach front villas for sale" in fact. When we enquired about that we got a frosty stare from the manager and were told they were never for sale, but we have seen them advertised for sale on the net.

The owner, who we had the misfortune to meet the next day, struts around as if he were the king of Lombok and can't wait to tell everyone how wonderful he is. The food is bland and has obviously been toned down and is nothing like Indonesian food usually is. The second evening we stepped out next door and visited the Santai, affectionately known as Pearl's Place and sampled some absolutely delicious local cuisine. No meat, mostly fish dishes and lots of vegetables, but I could easily go vegetarian when food is prepared with so much flavour, using all the natural spices that they use so well.

We were supposed to stay for 5 nights but opted out after the second night and walked down the road to Qinci Villas. What a difference. No walls, gates, or "security" constantly walking around with walkie talkies and that brrrreeeep every 5 minutes, that we had to put up with every night usually starting around 10pm when people might be trying to sleep. If this is meant to make people feel safe it is total overkill and paranoid. We have stayed in many hotels in Bali and Lombok and have never encountered this. Is Puri Mas a Hotel, a prison, or a military camp, that's anyone's guess.

The qunci was totally different, like a normal hotel should be, we walked in with no "security" hanging around and no constant brrrreeep. Plus it was much cheaper. Puri Mas is a load of rubbish and we are hoteliers ourselves, we have a hotel in Australia.

Unique Quality: Security staff and their non stop chatter on walkie talkies.

Walls, walls, walls and locked gates everywhere, like a prison