Jimbaran Bay: Raffles, Four Seasons or Jimbaran Puri?

There are very few beaches in the world shared by Belmond, Four Seasons and Raffles. I'm cheating slightly, because Raffles' stretch of Jimbaran is a cove at the bottom of a hill that nobody else can reach. But the three sit side by side on the same bay, I've stayed at all three, and the easiest way to understand them is by where they stand: two on the hill, one on the sand.

At a glance

2 Raffles The hideaway 11 Four Seasons The village Jimbaran Puri The beach

Raffles Bali, Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay and Jimbaran Puri compared

	Raffles	Four Seasons	Jimbaran Puri
Where	Hillside above the bay, private cove below	Hillside and corner of the bay	Flat, directly on the beach
From the airport	18 to 25 min	15 to 20 min	About 15 min
Entry villa, per night	From around $900	From around $700	From around $325
Size	32 villas on 23 hectares	156 villas and residences on 14 hectares	64 cottages and villas
Service	Sharp, trained abroad	A family, generations deep	Warm, jovial, casual
Eating	Rumari, Loloan, Writers Bar	Sundara, Jala, Taman Wantilan, Telu	Nelayan, Tunjung
Best for	Couples, privacy, food	Families, liveliness	The beach, value
The Bali 20	No. 2, Best Table	No. 11	Not ranked

Numbers on the photos are positions on The Bali 20. Rates are for the entry category at the time of writing, September 2026, and move with the season.

Three brands, none of them behaving like itself

That's what makes this bay so interesting. Belmond, to me, means hotels that are larger than life, like Hotel Caruso in Ravello or the Cipriani in Venice: places that cost thousands a night, know it, and make you want to apologise to the doorman for your luggage. Jimbaran Puri is the opposite. It's simple, laid-back and allergic to anything that glitters, at a fraction of the price. If Caruso is the aunt who inherited a palazzo, Jimbaran Puri is the cousin who moved to the beach and never came back.

Four Seasons breaks its own mould just as thoroughly. Most of its resorts are grand buildings with rooms arranged around them, but Jimbaran Bay was built as a Balinese village, with nothing but villas grouped around village squares, each with its own village head, and more than three hundred shrines tucked among them. It's the only resort I know whose organisation chart includes a priest.

Raffles, meanwhile, has swapped colonial grandeur for silence. In Singapore it's white old-world buildings and crowds on a pilgrimage to the bar. Here it's an intimate retreat hidden in the green, with a Writers Bar of its own and a Sling that tastes exactly as it should.

Which has the best beach: hill or sand?

This is the first choice to make, and Jimbaran Puri wins it outright. It's the simplest of the three, but it sits flat on the best stretch of Jimbaran beach, which it shares only with the InterContinental, and old shade trees grow right on the sand. The sea is never more than a few steps away. I spent most days drifting between the pool and the water out of nothing more than mild indecision.

The other two live on the hillside, and it shows. Four Seasons gives you a corner of the bay, whether by the coconut grove, up on the slope or around Sundara, but never the beach head-on. Raffles has a private cove, but it lies at the bottom of a steep hill, and across 23 hectares you'll go everywhere by buggy. I tried walking, more than once. The hill won every time.

So the moods follow the terrain. Raffles feels a little static, Four Seasons like a busy little factory whose main product is happy children, and Jimbaran Puri finds the best balance between life and calm.

Which villas are best?

Climb back up the hill, and the order reverses. Raffles has perhaps the most beautiful villas on the island, starting at 470 square metres, with large private pools and gardens manicured down to the last leaf. They've thought of everything except shade by the pool, which on a Jimbaran afternoon is a bit like forgetting the roof. Four Seasons' villas are smaller, visibly older and don't all have a clear view, yet it's where I most like to stay with my family, because they feel warm and homely in a way size can't buy. The race for bigger and more luxurious isn't always the one that wins. It's also where Jimbaran Puri's simplicity stops being a virtue: its villas are dated, and not really what I'd call luxurious.

Where is the service best?

Raffles, objectively, though Four Seasons runs it close. Raffles is the only hotel on the island where I've met so many Balinese staff who trained abroad at famous hotels and came home with those skills. The team is sharp and utterly professional, yet still unmistakably Balinese. I suspect there's a room somewhere where trainees are handed impossible guests until nothing fazes them. If so, I'd like to apply as one of the guests.

Four Seasons gets there by a different route. It feels like one big family, and in a sense it is, because many of the staff come from families who have worked here for generations. The resort's priest is the best proof. Ajik Ngurah joined as a security guard when the hotel opened in 1993, heard the calling, and the hotel created a role for him rather than lose him. From night watch to temple in one career: I can't think of a more Balinese promotion. That same loyalty is in every conversation here, and with children this is one of the best teams on the island. Jimbaran Puri's staff are warm, jovial and never over the top, very good indeed for the price, but its neighbours are a step higher.

Where will you eat best?

Raffles, easily. Every meal can be tailored to you, and the depth of quality is extraordinary. Rumari is the best hotel restaurant on the island, helped by a ratio of staff to guests so generous that at dinner you half suspect there's a chef per table.

Four Seasons is where the evenings are livelier. Sundara, the beach club, is always busy, and between Jala's Indonesian cooking, Taman Wantilan's market-style dishes and cocktails at Telu, there's always somewhere with a buzz. The food is good but a little polished, as it often is at Four Seasons: the culinary equivalent of a firm handshake. Down on the sand, Jimbaran Puri's Nelayan is a beautifully designed restaurant where the view does some of the heavy lifting.

Which is the best value?

Jimbaran Puri, from around $325, is very fairly priced for what you get, and so, oddly, is Raffles. At around $900 it sounds anything but, until you do the maths: 32 villas on 23 hectares. Four Seasons, from around $700, doesn't feel much cheaper, yet it packs 156 villas and residences onto 14 hectares. Your neighbours will know what you had for breakfast. If you're coming to Bali for privacy, it's the wrong choice.

The Jimbaran hack: sleep on the sand, eat on the hill

Stay at Jimbaran Puri and spend the difference on dinner. It's the tip I give most often for this bay. You pay a fraction of the room rate next door, you keep the best beach, and the best tables are all within reach. Sundara and the other Four Seasons restaurants are a short walk along the sand. Cuca, one of the best-known restaurants on the island, is five minutes away on foot, and Kayumanis is barely further. For Rumari, it's a short taxi ride up the hill to Raffles. You get the beach from one world and the kitchens from the other.

Raffles or Four Seasons?

Raffles for couples and privacy, Four Seasons for families and life. They're five minutes apart by buggy but built for different people: Raffles a hideaway for two with the best kitchen on the island, Four Seasons a village with a kids' club, a beach team and a priest. If you can't decide, stay at Four Seasons and ask them to run you over to Rumari for dinner. They'll do it happily, which tells you something about both hotels.

For villa privacy a short walk back from the sand, see Kayumanis Jimbaran. The full reviews are here: Raffles Bali, Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay and Jimbaran Puri.

Three brands on one bay: Raffles for everything a hotel can do, Jimbaran Puri for everything the bay can.