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I’ve stayed at both The Laguna, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Nusa Dua, Bali and the Ritz-Carlton Bali, and here is my honest comparison.
They are both excellent hotels. Both are beachfront Marriott properties in Nusa Dua, both have extensive pools, good food, very good service, and unless you have completely unreasonable standards you can have a fantastic time at either one.
The short version is: if the price is the same, or almost the same, I recommend the Ritz-Carlton. The Ritz has a more epic setting, better Indonesian food, a bigger breakfast buffet, more privacy, and just feels like a more extraordinary resort.
A quick way of thinking of the two resorts. The Ritz Carlton is slightly to clearly better in almost every respect except:
- The Laguna has a better and truly huge network of interconnected lagoon pools,
- The Laguna has a substantial Balinese temple/shrine area with daily activities to learn about local culture.
- It also gives Platinum and above members free breakfast (as an option). Other than that, the Ritz is the same or better.
So when would I would choose the Laguna over the Ritz? If it is over $100 USD cheaper per night, especially if you have Platinum Elite status or higher, which gets you free breakfast. The other reason to choose the Laguna might be if you are doing lots of adventures outside of the resort, because the amenities of the resort itself matter less.
My very rough rule is that I would probably pay an extra $100 to $125 USD a night for the Ritz. Above that price difference, I’d probably go Laguna. If you aren’t a Platinum or above member, raise that to $150 since you’d be buying breakfast at the Laguna anyway, which negates some of its benefit.
Quick Comparison
| Category | The Laguna | Ritz-Carlton Bali |
| Overall Resort | Excellent | Winner — more memorable/epic |
| Setting | Tropical, integrated into Nusa Dua | Clear Winner — huge cliff-and-beach setting |
| Pools/Lagoons | Winner — huge swimmable lagoons | Excellent, but more restrained pools |
| Breakfast | Very good | Clear Winner — much bigger buffet |
| Platinum+ Breakfast | Clear Winner — free breakfast can be selected | No comparable elite breakfast benefit |
| Indonesian Restaurant | Good overall dining | Winner — Bejana is fantastic |
| Walkability | Laguna is connected to other resorts, for better or worse. | Quite isolated, which I prefer. |
| Balinese Temple/Shrine | Clear Winner | Has one, but much smaller |
| Privacy / Escape | More connected to surrounding resorts | Winner — feels like its own world |
| Top-End Luxury | Excellent rooms, suites and villas | Winner |
| Value | Winner only substantially cheaper | Winner if prices are close |
| My Choice | Very good hotel | Great hotel, but beware high season. |
The Ritz Feels Epic and Enormous
The Laguna has just under 300 rooms, suites and villas, including direct lagoon-access rooms and private-pool villas. The Ritz has 313 suites and villas, with even its entry-level accommodation starting at around 100 square meters. So these are both substantial luxury resorts.
They absolutely do not feel the same, though.
The Ritz’s biggest asset is its absolutely epic, and frankly breathtaking sense of scale. The first thing you see walking in is this huge view down over the property and ocean below. Part of the hotel sits on top of a cliff while much of the resort is several stories below and accessed by elevators. There’s a small Balinese shrine near the elevators, huge views everywhere, and then down at the bottom you have the pools, beach, restaurants, etc. It feels like another universe.
It feels epic. That’s really the word. When you’re at the beach, you look up at checkin and see it all the way up there on this huge cliff.
The Laguna is more intimate, and basically flat (as is the St. Regis). It’s much more integrated into the Nusa Dua resort area. For better or worse, it is sort of sandwiched in near other luxury resorts, so you can actually walk around. I wandered along the beach and paths to several of the neighboring resorts. The Ritz technically is near other resorts too, but it doesn’t feel that way, based on the way it’s set up.
You feel like you’re staying at a nice resort within Nusa Dua, whereas at the Ritz you feel like you’ve entered the Ritz-Carlton cinematic universe and might never leave again.
The Laguna’s Lagoons Are Not a Gimmick — But They Are Probably Most Fun if You’re a Teen
The Laguna has seven lagoon pools, most of which are interconnected which is obviously where the name of the hotel comes from, and they’re genuinely a huge part of the property rather than some decorative pond around the lobby.
I went swimming around them and it is pretty cool. You can effectively explore like 70% of the hotel by swimming through these long lagoon areas, past rooms, tropical gardens and little sitting areas. Interestingly, I basically didn’t see anyone else swimming everywhere even though you can.
I don’t think it’s a gimmick. It’s a real feature of the resort and makes The Laguna fairly unique. But, to be honest, the novelty eventually wears off. You swim around and think wow, this is really cool, but I’m not sure most adults are going to spend three days exploring the lagoon system.
If you’re a teenager, though, this might be one of the coolest hotels ever. You can basically swim around exploring a luxury resort. Obviously parents need to use common sense here — kids exploring large interconnected pools should be good swimmers and properly supervised — but I can imagine absolutely loving this place when I was 14.
So The Laguna actually wins the lagoon category against the Ritz. The Ritz has extremely impressive lagoon-style pools around some of its accommodation, and I stayed in a Lagoon room with direct pool access, but The Laguna really commits to the concept.
The St. Regis also has an insane and awesome lagoon, but it’s more private and connected to the Villas there. The St. Regis is not even close in price however.
Breakfast at the Laguna:
Breakfast at the Ritz:
Here is a video walkthrough of most of the Ritz-Carlton’s breakfast buffet. BUT, I didn’t even capture everything, a waffle station and an Indian food station are not even in this video.
Breakfast: The Ritz Is Better, But This Gets Complicated if You’re Marriott Platinum
Breakfast at The Laguna is very nice by almost any normal hotel standard. The restaurant sits right beside the lagoon, with some couch/bench seating almost against the water, so there is a cool feeling of eating breakfast within the lagoon area. The menu is extensive.
The buffet itself is good. Lots of options, nice setting, good service. I just don’t think it is as big or as fun as the Ritz breakfast.
If I compare all three, I would put it roughly like this:
St. Regis has the highest-quality breakfast food. Ritz has the biggest and most joyful breakfast buffet. Laguna is very good, but doesn’t really win either category.
The Ritz buffet is enormous. It’s almost stupidly big. There is just something fun about walking around a gigantic hotel buffet looking at 100 different things you could eat.
But there is a major catch if you have Marriott status.
At The Laguna, Marriott Platinum members and above can choose restaurant breakfast for themselves and one guest as their welcome benefit. Ritz-Carlton does not provide the same Platinum breakfast benefit. The St. Regis, when I stayed there, did include breakfast, but I spent 96,000 points for the privilege of staying there–which could get you at least two, maybe nearly three, nights at the Laguna.
Compared to the Ritz, the Laguna’s free breakfast can become a pretty meaningful amount of money over a five-night stay. You can book Bejana, the Ritz Carlton’s Indonesian restaurant, in advance with a discount at Klook.
So I think the Ritz has the better breakfast, but The Laguna clearly has the better breakfast deal.
Restaurants: The Ritz Wins Because Bejana Is Fantastic
The Laguna has plenty of restaurants and bars and I had perfectly good food there, but I didn’t eat enough across the entire resort to pretend I can comprehensively rank its dining program.
What I can say is that Bejana at the Ritz is fantastic. And even though I didn’t eat everything at Laguna, nothing is going to top this, based on the view alone.
Bejana is way high up on the cliff with a huge view across the resort and ocean. I really liked the food there. In my St. Regis vs. Ritz comparison I said Bejana was the one area where the Ritz clearly beats the St. Regis, and I still think that. Bejana is open every day from 6-10:30, though when I first visited it was closed something like M-W, so just verify to be sure on the current hours.
But the thing about Bejana is, you don’t have to stay at the Ritz to eat there. So one completely reasonable strategy is to stay at The Laguna and go over to Bejana for dinner one night. And you honestly should.
Surprisingly Big Laguna Advantage: The Temple Area
The Laguna has a fairly substantial Balinese shrine/temple garden inside the resort, and this is one area where I think it clearly beats the Ritz. The Ritz does have a small shrine near the elevators, which is nice, but The Laguna’s is larger and much more visually prominent.
When I was there I saw some sort of ceremony or cultural experience happening around sunset. Sadly, I didn’t participate. I later learned that the hotel does hold Balinese blessing ceremonies and other cultural programming around the temple garden, so I probably should have done it.
This is actually a nice feature because Nusa Dua is, let’s be honest, not the most culturally immersive place in Bali. It is a purpose-built resort area. Having an obvious Balinese spiritual space inside the property gives The Laguna a bit more sense of place.
That doesn’t mean you’re suddenly having some ultra-authentic village experience — you’re obviously still staying in a five-star Marriott resort — but it is cool. This is actually the best thing about the Laguna. I really, really appreciate it has a more Balinese feel in that sense.
What About the Westin Next Door?
I also walked through the Westin Nusa Dua, although I didn’t stay there, so I don’t have a strong enough opinion to properly review it.
My impression was that it felt a little less luxurious than The Laguna, and there were a lot of conference attendees around when I visited. That’s probably not surprising because the Westin is right beside the Bali International Convention Centre. For better or worse, it gave the property a slightly more conventional large-hotel/conference-resort feeling.
But you are still right on essentially the same stretch of Nusa Dua beach, and Marriott Platinum members and above can get the same free-breakfast welcome benefit there.
So if the Westin is way cheaper than The Laguna, or you basically want the cheapest Marriott option that still gives you direct Nusa Dua beach access and elite breakfast, I think it is worth looking at.
I just didn’t stay there, so I wouldn’t personally tell someone that the Westin is better or worse based on walking through it once.
Service: Both Very Good, But Neither Is St. Regis Level
Service at The Laguna was very good. Everyone was nice, staff were attentive, and I basically have no complaints. The Ritz was similarly excellent. Everyone was warm and service-oriented and both hotels contacted me before arrival asking if I needed anything. If you’re choosing between the Ritz and Laguna I would not make service the deciding factor. They’re both luxury hotels in Bali and you’re going to be treated well.
If service is the absolute priority and you’re willing to spend much more money, that’s when you start looking at the St. Regis. The personal butler service there genuinely puts it into another tier.
Rooms, Villas and Why I Still Think the Ritz Reaches a Higher Tier
It would be unfair to say The Laguna doesn’t have serious high-end rooms. It does. There are lagoon-access rooms, large suites and private-pool villas, and some rooms open directly into the lagoon.
The Ritz just goes further.
Even its standard accommodation is great, and once you start moving into its private-pool villas and higher-end categories you are getting into the type of hotel where the accommodation itself can become a major part of the trip.
Add that to the cliff, beach, enormous property, beachfront wedding chapel, restaurants, spa and everything else and the Ritz simply has a higher luxury ceiling.
The Laguna can absolutely give you a villa-and-private-pool luxury vacation. The Ritz feels more like the kind of hotel where you can decide the hotel itself is the vacation.
Marriott Elite Upgrades
I’ve heard some travelers say The Laguna can be relatively generous about upgrading Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador members. I want to be clear that this is anecdotal.
Hotel upgrades depend on occupancy, length of stay, available rooms and probably a hundred other things, so I wouldn’t book The Laguna because somebody on the internet got a suite.
I don’t have enough personal data to say Laguna definitely upgrades elites more often. I received a slightly larger room, but it was not on the lagoons themselves.
At the Ritz, I booked a normal room on points as a Platinum member and got upgraded one level to a very nice Lagoon room with direct pool access. At the St. Regis I did (much) better and got upgraded to a Pool Villa, but that may have been pure luck.
Basically: status can be useful at all of these hotels, but don’t plan your entire trip around an upgrade that may not happen.
Is the Ritz Worth the Extra Money?
Prices vary enormously depending on dates, but roughly:
| Hotel | Typical Nightly Price |
| The Laguna | ~$300 USD |
| Ritz-Carlton Bali | ~$375–400 USD |
| St. Regis Bali | ~$700+ USD |
Don’t take these as fixed prices. Christmas, New Year and other peak holiday periods can be dramatically more expensive, while quieter dates and promotions can obviously be cheaper.
The Ritz is often something like $75–100 more than The Laguna, and at that difference I would choose the Ritz.
The St. Regis can be close to twice as expensive as the Ritz. I think it is the better hotel overall, but it definitely isn’t twice as good.
The More Interesting Bali Question: Should You Even Stay at A Luxury Resort?
We are talking about luxury resorts but I want to present an alternative choice, for the right type of traveler.
If you have a budget, you might spend $1,000 on three nights at either of these hotels and enjoy the resort. That is a great way to relax and a totally valid choice. But if you want to see more of Bali, you could also spend maybe $100 a night at a cheaper hotel, such as the Courtyard or The Sheraton, and go completely crazy spending money on everything else.
Get massages all the time. Eat at great restaurants. Go to beach clubs. Hire drivers. Go surfing. Take tours. Have nice coffee every morning. Eat at Bejana. Do whatever adventure stuff you’re into. The total price will be similar, but you will have done a ton of cool things. Bali itself can be quite inexpensive once you leave five-star resorts, this can actually be an awesome way to travel.
In some ways, I see three strategies:
1. Stay somewhere cheap and ball out everywhere else.
2. Stay at The Laguna and get a genuinely luxurious beachfront resort without going completely insane on price.
3. Go to the Ritz, The Oberoi, or The St. Regis and basically make the hotel the reason you came to Bali.
That middle position is both The Laguna’s strength and, weirdly, its weakness for me.
It is absolutely luxurious enough that you can stay there all day and be very happy. But if The Laguna starts getting close to Ritz pricing, I would just go Ritz. And if it’s high season and both are super expensive I might go much cheaper than either one and spend the savings elsewhere.
Ice cream at the Laguna’s breakfast. Great for kids (or adults) in vacation mode.So, Is the Ritz Worth Another $100 a Night?
For me, yes.
Obviously this depends on your budget. An extra $100 a night becomes $700 over a week, and $700 goes extremely far in Bali. (Side note: honestly, I would not spend an entire week at any single resort in Bali. If you’re spending a week I’d do three days at the Ritz, two at the Oberoi, and two at the Westin in Ubud.)
The Ritz is 25% or so nicer than the Laguna and costs about that much more. I say it’s worth it. The arrival is more impressive, the property feels more private and grand, Bejana is fantastic, breakfast is more fun, the rooms are enormous, and there is more of that feeling where you wake up and think this hotel is awesome.
If The Laguna were $275 and the Ritz were $500?
I’d definitely stay at The Laguna.
The Ritz is better if the prices are reasonably close. The Laguna can be better value if they aren’t.
And if you’re Platinum or higher and getting free breakfast for two at The Laguna, factor that into the difference too.
Which One Would I Actually Fly to Bali For?
I would personally consider getting on a long flight just to stay at the Ritz Carlton Bali. I’m not sure I would fly around the world specifically to stay at The Laguna.
That sounds harsher than I intend it to. If someone told me they were staying at The Laguna for five nights, I’d say awesome. You’re staying at a great beachfront hotel in Bali with seven lagoon pools. Go swim around the hotel, eat breakfast beside the water, walk around Nusa Dua and have fun. But if I die without ever going back, that’s ok. But I want to go back to the Ritz before I die.
The Ritz has that extra bit of destination-hotel magic.
And What About the St. Regis?
Then we have the St. Regis, which makes everything more confusing.
I’ve stayed there too, and I think the St. Regis is ultimately 50% better than the Ritz, but it costs 100% more. Service is better, food quality is a little higher, the spa is better, the beach service is better, every room has butler service, and the lazy-river-type pool area is honestly magical.
So my general Bali luxury hierarchy would be something like this:
If money genuinely doesn’t matter: St. Regis.
If you want the best balance of ridiculous resort experience and price: Ritz-Carlton.
If you want luxury but The Laguna is significantly cheaper, especially with Platinum breakfast: The Laguna.
If the Westin is much cheaper again and you’re mainly looking for beachfront Nusa Dua plus elite breakfast: it may be worth considering, although I haven’t stayed there.
And if you’re really trying to maximize value, stay somewhere much cheaper and spend your money all over Bali instead.
Final Recommendation
Look, both hotels are cool.
The Laguna is a serious luxury resort. You get a beautiful beach, seven lagoons, direct lagoon-access rooms, private-pool villas, good food, a substantial temple garden, a walkable location and — if you’re Marriott Platinum or above — restaurant breakfast for yourself and a guest as an elite welcome option.
The Ritz gives you enormous rooms, a dramatic cliff-to-beach layout, excellent pools, more privacy, a huge breakfast buffet and Bejana, which is genuinely one of the highlights of the hotel.
If they’re the same price, I don’t think the choice is difficult:
Go to the Ritz.
If the Ritz is around $100 USD more, I would personally probably still go to the Ritz.
If The Laguna is substantially cheaper, particularly if you’re Platinum or above and therefore getting breakfast for two, stay at The Laguna and don’t worry about it. You’re going to have a fantastic vacation. Maybe use some of the money you saved to go eat at Bejana.
Ultimately, I liked both.
The Laguna is a hotel I would be excited to stay at, but The Ritz is a hotel I would specifically fly to Bali to go to.
If you’re unsure if either make sense, also consider the Oberoi hotel in Seminyak, which is centrally located in the city.
For more on Bali, check out our comparisons of the Ritz-Carlton Bali vs St. Regis Bali.
Other Questions and Tips:
Can I use Marriott Bonvoy points at both properties?
Yes, both properties are part of Marriott Bonvoy. As a Platinum member, I used points at both and received room upgrades at each property. My upgrade at the St. Regis (villa with lazy river access) was more impressive than at the Ritz (ground floor with small pool-still very nice though), but this could have been a fluke.
What luggage should I get for my trip?
I personally recommend (and use) the Samsonite Proxis series, which is a good balance of quality and price. While not quite as durable as metal suitcases, it is much lighter.
Is Nusa Dua worth staying in, or should I go to Ubud/Seminyak instead?
Nusa Dua is the least authentic part of Bali—it’s commercial and resort-focused. However, both the Ritz and St. Regis are so exceptionally nice that you probably won’t mind missing out on the cultural immersion. If your priority is relaxation and luxury resort experiences, Nusa Dua works. If you want Balinese culture and local vibes, consider Ubud or, perhaps Canggu, even though now that area is increasingly developed.
The reality is that as a tourist, speaking English, what an “authentic” experience even means is questionable. If, as tourists, we don’t take time to learn local languages or really visit local areas (in a respectful way) I am uncertain how “authentic” we will get. My personal goal is to be respectful and kind to everyone I meet when visiting a foreign country, and I hope that moments of real connection, whether at a resort or elsewhere, follow from that.
How to get the best price?
Simply put, if you want the best price: I would use a booking site like Expedia to book. Double check to see if Marriott has cheaper prices, but usually sites like this will save you some money.
However, if you want the most points and want to build Marriott status, you want to book directly with Marriott. For example, if you’re chasing Lifetime Platinum (which requires 600 nights) you want to book directly with the hotel. I’ve heard sometimes Marriott will credit stays at luxury hotels to your account but I believe this is rare.
Is this the same Ritz-Carlton as the Mandapa in Ubud?
No. This review covers the Ritz-Carlton Bali in Nusa Dua. The Ritz-Carlton Reserve Mandapa is a completely different property in Ubud (about 1.5 hours away), operates at a higher luxury tier, and commands premium pricing well above both Nusa Dua properties. I have heard some say the Mandapa may be the best hotel in the world but I have not yet been.
What about massages in Bali?
Bali is a great place to get a massage. The St. Regis and Ritz Carlton prices are cheaper than the United States but much more expensive than what you can get outside of the hotel. Expect to pay maybe $100 USD inside the St. Regis for a very nice massage.
On Klook you can search something like “Bali Spas” and see a long list with prices, discounts, and booking links. If you book in advance you can get a bit of a discount, price compare, check reviews, etc. This is also a good way to do other activities, adventures, etc.
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