It's 11 a.m. on a hot summer day in Bali and I'm in the middle of a swimming pool, desperately trying to figure out how to do the right foot and arm movements to Psy's 2012 hit song, Gangnam Style.
The other participants laugh a lot, while on the sidelines, someone is probably using their phone to upload images of the show to their social networks.
It's just another morning of free aqua aerobics at Sofitel Bali Nusa Dua Beach Resort, where my husband and I are spending seven relaxing (and mostly humid but not humiliating) nights as part of a Luxury Escapes package.
I avoided visiting Bali like the plague until 2016, when a friend convinced me that a resort in Nusa Dua would have the amenities of a high-end cruise ship without the motion sickness.
After visiting temples, rice fields, cool cafes, upscale restaurants, cliff-top beach clubs and more on that first trip, and the following week in Seminyak in 2017, I thought to be done with Bali.
But I was wrong. Last year I was drawn to my first Luxury Escapes all-inclusive vacation, staying at the Grand Hyatt Bali in Nusa Dua.
I had apparently been browsing the Luxury Escapes app for hotels in Singapore, a place I love exploring. Yet when he was presented with a range of five-star hotels in Bali that included all meals, various VIP bonuses and a shorter flight time, the temptation was too great. It was time to stop favoring deals and book one.
What followed was a therapeutic week spent eating, swimming, relaxing and trying to track down the elusive free daily coconut drink, etched with the hotel logo and infused with the flavor of a warm swamp .
The same friend who convinced me to try Bali in 2016 urged me to splurge on a pool access room at the Sofitel this time around.
As I swim towards the L'OH pool bar – one of the places that accepts our daily free cocktail/mocktail vouchers – I wonder how many bridges and palm trees I have to memorize to be able to find my way? Luckily, all the rooms also have their numbers on the wall by the pool.
This Luxury Escapes package (around $3,200 for two people) includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, a cocktail/mocktail and a bottle of wine daily. During the stay, we each also get a yoga session, a 60-minute massage at SoSPA Gazebo by the beach, a cooking class and a 50% discount voucher for spa treatments. additional spa.
To make this as smooth as possible, we also choose to pay extra for round trip transfers, which is around $100. They are clean, air-conditioned and punctual, although included water was not offered this time.
Meals operate on a voucher system and after arriving in the evening we hand over our first voucher at Kwee Zeen – a vast international buffet in the center of the hotel's ground floor, with separate rooms for noodles and desserts.
The first morning we're a little disoriented by the handful of vouchers since there aren't any for breakfast, which makes sense when you consider it's the only restaurant offering breakfast.
Lunch and dinner vouchers split between Kwee Zeen, Toya Beach Bar and Grill and upscale Italian restaurant Cucina are dated for the week of our stay, while drink vouchers have individual dates. Because of the way they are stapled, I somehow manage to put an expired drink coupon back in most of the time, but it's never a problem.
Expecting the vouchers to be for two-course meals, as was the case at the Grand Hyatt, we are surprised to find that at the Sofitel, three courses are included.
So the biggest decisions each day are which pool will we base ourselves in (and can we get there early enough to catch a gazebo) and where do we want to eat?
After a few days, we became strategic about avoiding eating in the same restaurant for lunch and dinner and opting for Indonesian cuisine when possible. We finally discovered that Kwee Zeen has excellent a la carte lunch selections, a welcome change from the breakfast and dinner buffets.
Our favorite dishes and ones we order again are Cucina's magically fine beef carpaccio, Toya's spicy beef rendang pastels (like a curry puff), and Kwee Zeen's dadar gulung (pandan and coconut pancakes). coconut).
We discuss limiting ourselves to just two dishes per meal and not three, but we usually fail. To get all the food out of the way, I take pictures of the well-equipped gym, but I never actually use it. A better option is a long, sweaty beach walk, past the nearby, mostly upscale resorts; it's also a good way to research where to stay next.
As the end of our vacation approaches, I'm back on the Luxury Escapes app to check out the new offers. Back to Bali? Maybe Hong Kong? Vietnam looks tempting.
Watch this space.
Information file
+ Many Luxury Escapes packages and tours can be secured with an initial deposit. Although I only paid 20 percent, offers are subject to change. Luxury Escapes is currently offering a 50 percent deposit on select limited-time Lux exclusives.
+ Luxury Escapes offers a seven-day change of mind guarantee for limited-time Lux Exclusive packages. You can also change dates self-service. This is useful if, like me, you take too long deciding on flights and they become too expensive for the hotel dates booked. You can also book a package and decide the dates later, subject to availability.
+ There is the possibility of combining flights.
+ Many packages allow one or two children under 11 to stay in existing bedding and eat free or at a reduced price.
+ If you book transfers, Luxury Escapes sends you a form for you to fill in your flight details. They then send you confirmation of transfers and what time to be ready for your return transfer to the airport.
+ Luxury Escapes promotes its packages by offering discounts of up to 70 percent. The best way to determine the value of a transaction is to do your homework. Look up the cost per night on a hotel's website or other travel booking site such as Expedia or Booking.com.
+ Our package cost about $3,200 for two and, based on menu prices/what we ate in seven days, I estimate we consumed/used about $2,000 worth of food, non-alcoholic drinks and bonuses. At the time of our stay, the room rate was around $300-400 per night. No girlish math required – our pool access room was a steal.
+ Read a mix of reviews – sometimes packages that seem too good to be true may be for resorts in outlying areas.
+ You can earn Velocity points on bookings.
+ Luxuryespcapes.com – or download the app for iPhone and Android.
