We travelled during the wet season, but over our 10 day stay, we only had 1 day of rain, we were really lucky.
The Sintesa is nestled up in the hills of Jimbaran and is is quite secluded, which is perfect for if you want to be away from the hustle and bustle.
We booked the Sintesa from Scoopon and after reading some reviews on TA, while I can see why people would post some negative comments relating to walking up the hill from Jimbaran, after visiting the property, I've decided these people would have to be barking mad to walk from the beach... It's far, and up a very steep hill. The hotel offers hourly shuttles and the taxi's are incredibly cheap. Why you would walk it is completely beyond me.
We were very pleased to have been upgraded to deluxe rooms from the superior we had booked. The rooms were large, modern and were serviced very well throughout our stay with an evening turn-down and towel replacement service, including fresh water if you needed it. Rooms were always very clean, and no maintenance issues.
The reception staff were very helpful, welcoming and really willing to go the extra mile to make you feel happy, welcome and valued at the hotel and would always offer our kids to feed the fish, who seem to have noticed that the humans feed them as they always swim towards you. Excellent English skills, and the Whatsapp service allows for very little to be lost in translation.
Food and beverage staff were generally good, although some were better than others in terms of service and English proficiency. We had a few issues with missing meals, wrong drinks and long wait times for meals, but nothing insurmountable. The quality of the food was always excellent.
Massages were good, atmosphere in the spa was really nice, and allowed you to really relax as you had your treatment. services were reasonable and good value.
If you want to be close to shopping & restaurants, this is not the property for you. There are traditional beach restaurants at Jimbaran, and others at the nearby Samasama mall, but if you want to get to Kuta, Legian or Seminyak, you need to allow 30-60 mins depending on the time of day (avoid 3-5pm - that's when shift change occurs). Unfortunately, there is construction occurring at the airport to create a bypass, however the traffic is dreadful in the meantime - hopefully when we return it will be fixed :)
The property was very quite during our stay, with only a handful of guests. I commented to my DW that it felt that we had run of the place and there must have been more staff than guests. People have been turned off by the volcano, but there really is nothing to be concerned with - it's 70km away from the property.
My self and my two boys enjoyed our Barber experience, which was really exceptional value and a really great haircut.
The hotel had a small issues with a green pool on our last few days, but they were working tirelessly to have it fixed.
Overall, it's a great property, not a resort but a good 4-4.5 star hotel.
Thanks for hosting us.