My daughter and I, brother, and niece spent 10 days at Lilly's villa on the North side of Bali. Having never been to Bali, I was a little worried this location on the North side might be a bit remote. Now I'm convinced this exactly where you want to be in Bali. Spend a day or so around Denpasar and then head to this paradise about half an hour west of Lovina. Stop at the incredible temple on the lake, high in the mountains between the villa and Denpasar.
The Villa is beautiful, fairly new, and very well maintained. The pool is actually larger than it looked to me in the pictures. The ocean views are as described - incredible. The staff were all wonderful, we were happy to get to know them and very honored when we were invited to their temple (I had expressed a strong interest in hearing more Gamelan and there was a performance that night). The house manager speaks English well, the rest of the staff speaks a little; we had lots of fun (or at least they humored me) with google translate to discuss dinner plans, etc. We ate their Balinese cooking every day we were there and the food was delicious. We had a minor scheduling mishap during our planning and Lilly and I were able to work out a great solution together.
There are several easy day trips to take from the Villa, probably the best one for us was the Menjangan island snorkeling. Some of the best snorkeling in the world, in some ways better than the Great Barrier Reef. I wished we had gone twice that week or at least done a third snorkel that day. I think the morning trips to see the dolphins might be suffering from popularity - a little too many boats out there. There are also beautiful and historic temples nearby, including a small one immediately between the villa and the beach (but not open to public). We alternated between days of snorkeling, temples, and tourism and days of enjoying the Villa and our holiday.
If you have never been to Bali, be prepared for (once you get out of some competitive Denpasar markets) an island full of kind people, surrounded by Hindu (and a little Buddhist) temples and spirituality. And I recommend you stay at Villa Lilly.
