There is a wide choice of mid-range hotels and villas on offer in Bali, but only a few five-star establishments. Here we review two new resorts in the top range and have a fresh look at some of the best luxury resorts on the island.
If you simply cannot travel without a decent espresso, pain au chocolat or classic martini, then this is the place for you. Recently opened, the St Regis delivers the feel and service of a slick city hotel to a beachside resort. Comprising 79 suites in the main building and 42 villas dotted around the grounds, the hotel is situated in the gated and slightly sanitised enclave of Nusa Dua in southern Bali. The hotel’s theatrically large entrance lobby creates an impression of tropical grandeur, and its two restaurants, on-site deli and French spa add an air of sophistication. However, the differences in the quality between the internal and the external design schemes makes the hotel feel thoroughly divided. While the interiors successfully combine traditional Indonesian colours, materials and artifacts with western furnishings and 21st-century technology, the mismatch of styles in the grounds and crowded landscaping make the place look more like a local garden centre than a garden of Eden.
A sophisticated range of food from foie gras to dim-sum, served in such glamorous eateries as Kayuputi, whose classic seafood menu is delivered to beachside pavilions with dramatic views of spot-lit breakers.
The endless array of international goodies and the neighbouring golf course make it all too easy to forget you are in tropical Bali.
Best for gourmand city slickers.
Prices from $435, including fast-track transfer (0062 361 847 8111, www.starwoodhotels.com ).
Bulgari’s second hotel, and first venture outside Italy, is located on the Bukit peninsula – the self-proclaimed Beverly Hills of Bali – on the south-western tip of the island. While the idea of 59 luxury villas built into terraces on a secluded clifftop site 150 metres above the Indian Ocean sounds heavenly, in reality the resort is an expensive disappointment. Average prices of $1,000 per night for dark, slightly cramped villas are not compensated by spa novelties that include “gem-essence” treatments or the close proximity of the Bulgari boutique – an air-conditioned temple to the cult of the handbag. The aim of combining the best of Italian and Balinese design by the architect Antonio Citterio is an interesting concept, but the result is a style that can at best be described as “run of the mill Maldives”: thatched minimalism, with angular dark-wood fittings and gloomy lighting. Steep walkways, a small, communal swimming pool and an unsafe beach accessible only by lift contribute to the hotel’s problems.
Its elevated position, with views across the Indian Ocean, make it an ideal place for sunset cocktails.
The stark lobby, constructed of dark volcanic rock, feels more like an underground car park than somewhere to start a holiday.
Best for label lovers.
From $750 (0062 361 847 1000, www.bulgarihotel.com).
This unique hotel is housed in a futuristic building that looks to have been taken from the set of a Stars Wars movie. Designed by English architect John Heah and opened in 1998, it is situated in dense tropical jungle just 15 minutes from central Ubud. The drama of the sci-fi design is well hidden from guests entering the hotel for the first time. At road level, all that is visible is a solid teak drawbridge that leads to an enormous circular lily pond with 360-degree views of the surrounding Ayung Gorge. The central core of the hotel lies in the three-storey tower that supports the peaceful pond, so it is only as you descend the stairs that the scale of the main building beneath becomes apparent. This saucer-on-top-of-cup idea is continued in the 36 villas in the resort grounds, where the teak-dominated living quarters are concealed below thatch. The ingenious, refreshingly open landscaping leads down to rice fields and the sacred Ayung River.
The main bar is an open-sided cathedral space, an architectural tour-de-force that calls for suitably dramatic OTT cocktails.
The main swimming pool doesn’t live up to the imaginative vision of the rest of the resort, and the suites in the main building feel a little too urban for the rural environment.
Best for Architectural fans, bird-watchers and Bond fantasists.
From $460 (0062 361 977 577, www.fourseasons.com/sayan).
Shambhala isn’t a resort hotel; it’s a residential health retreat whose tropical location and modern Zen-style villas lend it an air of exclusive luxury.
Room sizes and prices vary enormously from the simple garden rooms with shared pool to the Como Suite with its 300 square metres of private space. Outdoor space is an important feature on the large estate, and exploring its mature gardens is part of its holistic appeal. One of its many paths leads down to a series of secluded small ponds, while another heads back up to Glow, the hotel’s all-day restaurant, serving healthy Indonesian cuisine in a 19th-century open Javanese villa. State-of-the-art facilities include a jet pool, a climbing wall, outdoor gym and yoga pavilion; tutors range from fitness and yoga masters to a martial arts teacher.
Specially-designed health regimes and consultations in a stunningly beautiful setting.
Younger couples may find so much tranquility and fresh air, and the early nights, a little challenging.
Best for Stylish health-seekers.
From $300 (0062 361 978 888, www.cse.como.bz ). Como Shambhala’s sister boutique property, Uma Ubud, in nearby Ubud, has rooms from $260.
This year is the twentieth anniversary of the Amandari, the second of Adrian Zecha’s Amanresorts and the first of three in Bali. The hotel is marking the event with a series of full-moon festivals, and has been suitably spruced up. There is a strong emphasis on traditional materials at Amandari, with local teak and coconut wood used throughout the 30 freestanding suites that surround the lobby. Balinese culture and history are at the heart of this hotel’s personality, and over the years the place has become fully integrated with local life in Ubud. This is not the place for those wanting DJs, designer furniture and funky beachlife, but if you want to take a walk through the temple villages with a staff member or enjoy a simple Balinese spa session or like the idea of a literary festival set in rice fields (late September), then the Amandari is a good choice.
The atmospheric village layout, complete with oriental villas, croaking frogs and a sleeping lion god.
The villa’s towering wooden interiors lack intimacy and can be a little too airy and soulless.
Best for Cultural purists.
From $750 (0062 361 975 333, www.amanresorts.com ).
The ultimate exotic getaway (see main story for full eulogy). The hotel’s alang-alang-thatched villas are balanced on a steep hillside that runs down to a coconut grove and a vast sweep of empty beach. The architect Ed Tuttle has created architectural harmony within the lush green vegetation. The only other colour in his picture-perfect scene was the turquoise blue of the three-tiered infinity pools that cascaded out in front of the hotel’s grand amphitheatre.
Otherworldly romantic architecture in a location that is worth flying 18 hours to savour.
Disabled visitors may find the steps and steep walkways too much of challenge.
Best for Romantic perfectionists.
From $750 (0062 361 975 333, www.amanresorts.com ).
The original grand lady of Balinese luxury hotels opened in 1978, and 30 years later Peter Muller’s seminal design, based around a traditional Balinese village, is still working its charm. Its 15 acres of well-landscaped tropical gardens have matured beautifully with age, and the location of its swimming pool, fringed with tasselled gold parasols and frangipani trees and overlooking 500 metres of beach, is still paying dividends. Coral stone walls surround the teak-and-marble hotel villas, which feature sunken baths enclosed within private courtyard gardens. Health facilities include a destination spa, open-air massage parlours, a gymnasium and a sauna. Oberoi’s style and serenity are well-suited to mature visitors, but the resort is perfectly located for access to the fashionable nightclubs, bars and restaurants in trendy Seminyak.
The location and gardens.
Some of the rooms and facilities are showing their age.
Best for Garden-loving traditionalists and lovers of good value.
From $270 (00 62 361 73 0361, www.oberoibali.com).