Jeeva Santai Villas is a fairly small resort on the Mangsit beach close to Senggigi on the east coast of Lombok. The resort features 14 private villas and suites.
We arrived on an early morning flight from Jakarta, and were greeted by our driver with a name sign upon exiting the terminal. The drive to the resort was calm, and our driver gave us some tips about things to see and do while in Lombok. However, we already knew that we would spend most of our time at the resort, relaxing in our private villa.
We arrived to the resort around 10.30 in the morning. The security guards outside greeted us and helped with the luggage to the reception. Immediately when sitting down, we were given a complimentary welcome drink and wet towels to freshen up after the trip. The check-in process was very smooth. We had booked and pre-paid through hotels.com, so we just had to fill out some complementary information and provide a credit card for deposit. Even if the check-in time was not until 2pm, we were given our villa right upon arrival, which was a pleasant surprise. We were shown around the resort, and guided to our villa.
We stayed in a Santai Deluxe Pool Villa, which was very spacious for 2 persons. When entering the villa there’s a common area with a comfortable sofa and a dining table. Continuing in is the master bedroom, with a very comfy king size bed wrapped in a mosquito net. There’s also a small desk, which was perfect for a few working sessions during the stay. The ambiance of the villa was really nice. Soft lighting and bright colors. It felt like a mix of Scandinavian design combined with local Indonesian style.
The villa features an indoor and outdoor bathroom. The indoor area has a wide sink with plenty of space for two persons. It is also combined with the closet and luggage storage. Separately there’s a toilet and indoor shower. We ended up using only the outdoor bathroom, which had a nice bathtub and outdoor shower.
The main outdoor feature of the villa was of course the pool deck. The private pool is spacious enough, you can take a couple of swim strokes to reach across. There was three options for outdoor lounging, the roof covered daybed, the sun chairs and the pool side sofa. During this time of year (early February), the sun chairs had sun in the morning until mid-day.
Included in our stay was breakfast. The breakfast is a la carte, and includes one main dish. We felt this was a bit limited, so we ended up ordering at least one extra dish most of the mornings, which was no problem. The choices are decent, and includes eggs in several different forms, some sweets and a classic Indonesian breakfast. You could opt to have your breakfast at the beach front restaurant or have it delivered to your villa. We did most of our breakfasts at the restaurant, to enjoy the sea view while eating, but we also did order in once and ate by the pool.
The restaurant was very nice, open air, right on the waterfront and next to the resort pool deck. It has two sections, one outside by the bar and another area which feels a bit more indoor, with nice sofas and bigger tables.
There’s also a lounge area which feels like a living room. We had most of our dinners at the restaurant, which meant we pretty quickly ate through the menu. We prefer local food when traveling, and unfortunately the Indonesian options on the menu were very limited. This was no problem though, the very attentive and friendly staff was happy to arrange for the chef to prepare local dishes outside of the menu. If you prefer western food, they do have many choices with things like burgers, pizzas, salads and so on.
There are a few other restaurant options along the beach which you can easily walk to, like Puri Mas Boutique Resort and Katamaran Resort
What really made our stay something extra was the super friendly staff. Everyone, from check-in to housekeeping to restaurant and gardeners. Everyone was really helpful and always greeted us with a smile.