This may sound odd, considering I grew up in the English countryside, but the sound of roosters crowing is pure Bali to me. It’s a deep-rooted thing, redolent of family holidays spent in the island’s interior in the Nineties. My dad, who’d first visited a decade before, adored this place; the town of Ubud, in the centre of the Indonesian island, was always his first choice for a family break.
Those childhood visits delivered nothing but halcyon days. Back then, the place was little more than a village with a couple of nice hotels pitched in jungly spots on the outskirts. There was barely any traffic, pavements were practically non-existent, fruits stalls spilt onto the streets — along with the unforgettable whiff of durian fruit — and at welcoming, family-run warungs (informal roadside cafés), my parents kept fingers firmly crossed that the mushrooms I was chomping on weren’t of the magic variety. To a young child, it all felt magical.
It was that spirit of wonder I was trying to recapture on my last family visit in 2017, but bar the durian, I was amazed by how much had changed. I was thrilled by the new hotels in and around Ubud — wellness retreats, boutiquey villas and luxury resorts — but that sense of authenticity I held in my memory felt somehow watered down. Instead of the quiet village I’d expected, we were met with corny tourist traps, warungs offering sanitised menus for international palates, and unseasonably bad weather. Halcyon it was not.
Blossom with her father in Ubud in the 1990s
I hadn’t been back since, so my November visit to the new Anantara Ubud Bali Resort — my first time on the island since I lost my dad — felt like a do-over. The luxury hotel sprawls over a hillside in the village of Banjar Puhu, in the Payangan district ten miles north of Ubud. It promised the “real Bali”, away from the oversaturated town.
The new resort is the Thai group’s second property on Bali, adding to Anantara Uluwatu Resort on the surfy southern coast. Both are grounded in Balinese heritage and work with locals to help champion the Hindu island’s rich cultural and culinary history, religious traditions and local craft to hone a true sense of place — something that many Balinese hotels tend to use more as a marketing tactic than a modus operandi. Think of it as a slice of island spirit to go with your tan.
Stepping into the lobby after a two-hour journey from Uluwatu, a wild tangle of greenery lining the open-sided space made it apparent how high up in the rainforest mountains we were. The main bar area, just beyond, led to a terrace with a pool-like water feature, revealing the full panoramic view. Mount Batur and Mount Agung peeped out at eye-level like soldiers from a treetop parapet. With towering doors, tall ceilings and wide walkways, the modern design felt more like something from the pages of Architectural Digest.
The infinity pool was a dreamy sunbathing spot for Blossom
Having sipped red maracuja (a type of passion fruit) and coconut water and had my wrist wrapped in twists of thread for luck and love as part of a welcome ritual, I headed for my forest view pool villa. There are 85 rooms; most of the suites sit under the lobby in the main building, but a small collection of villas (connected by funiculars) undulate down the hillside.
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The villa was a fairly typical Ubud set-up; a spacious layout with a sitting/dining room and a separate bedroom and dressing area (complete with two ikat sarongs with bright orange sashes to borrow for temple visits). A big bathroom featuring a soaking tub and twin copper sinks had products made of native lemongrass and frangipani. Modern rattan chairs sat next to carved wooden panels, shadow puppet art.
I’d clocked a large infinity pool on the way to my villa, deeming it a dreamy sunbathing spot to while away an hour or so, and it was here I heard my first rooster call. The adults-only pool (the hotel is family-friendly and I saw a few well-behaved children pootling about) connected to the Sulang bar delivered jaw-slackening vistas of the jungle and swooping swallows, plus access to iced coffees to help take the edge off the humidity. It was only the prospect of lunch on the breezy, sun-soaked terrace of the restaurant Kirana that stirred me from my sunlounger.
All-day restaurant Kirana overlooks the forest
RICHARD WAITE
The menu majors in local dishes served with unfussy style: fresh urab gedang (papaya salad) and beef rendang, and a selection of lighter “wellness” dishes like baked mahi mahi. Indeed, throughout my four-night stay, all the food held its own, particular highlights being the à la carte breakfasts with extras like excellent Balinese cheeses from local cows and goats, and the signature restaurant Amarta’s more refined offering of international dishes that extract the full flavour of native ingredients such as dry-aged Indonesian wagyu.
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The activities offered by the hotel, curated by the Payangan-born Made Warnata, are similarly thoughtful and show off this underrated bit of Bali. While other guests opted to hike up Batur — one of Bali’s tallest mountains, about 15 miles away — at daybreak, I decided on a tour of Taro, one of the island’s oldest villages, a 20-minute drive from the hotel (£89pp). We were met by the naturalist Pak Wayan Wardika, whose family has lived here for generations. Guiding us through the jungle, he pointed out coffee beans, spiky jackfruits and plants used to make the Balinese medicinal jamu. Each came with fascinating explanations as to its use and cultural significance. This was not a touristy mooch; it was an education.
Later we visited Begawan Biji, a restaurant in the centre of a regenerative farm and paddies growing heritage mansur rice, in the village of Melinggih Kelod. The menu is an ode to Balinese culinary tradition. The interiors were lovely, but nothing detracted from the feast in front of us — in particular the succulent short-rib beef (mains from £10.50; begawanbiji.com).
Taro is one of Bali’s oldest villages
ALAMY
The next day I moved from nature to nurture and set out on the 40-minute drive to the town of Tampaksiring, eight miles northeast of Ubud, and the 17th-century Pura (temple) Mengening for an ancient melukat water purification ceremony (£74pp; arrange through the hotel concierge). Following a blessing, participants move through a succession of bracingly fresh natural pools fed by springs, offering prayers at each stage. The idea is that negative energy, or emotional baggage, is washed away and you emerge anew.
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I wish I could say that this happened to me, but the fact is, I didn’t make it as far as the pool. There’s a caveat at the entrance to Bali’s temples that says women on their period cannot take part under Hindu customs. People emerged in varying states of emotion; some smiling, others sobbing, a few silent and contemplative. Sitting alone in one of Dad’s old sarongs, watching the process unfurl by the temple, was profound in its own right.
This feeling was even more tangible later that night at a fire ceremony, held by high priest Idha Guru Sri Empu at his home in Bukian, five minutes’ drive from the hotel. I found him feeding a fire with sandalwood and mango tree oil. The sound of his low-pitch mantras and chiming bells reverberated around the space. It was hypnotic. Watching from the sidelines, I felt the atmosphere change and become heavier as his mantras gathered pace and wishes were offered up to the gods. Deep chants of “swaha” marked the moment that rice seeds or flowers, each carrying their own significance, were thrown on the flame in thanks or in hope.
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Earlier, I’d asked Warnata how the older generation felt about the island’s development. He assured me the community’s elders are accepting, provided that Bali’s cultural soul lives on. After the ceremony, the priest performed a puppet show in which a father asks his son to protect Balinese culture. It couldn’t have been more apt.
As the old local adage goes, you can leave Bali, but Bali never leaves you. And as I lay poolside back at the hotel, surrounded by the nostalgic smell of the jungle — earthy, vegetal base notes heady with bonfire smoke and floral inflections — and the sound of treetop melodies and echoing rooster calls down the ravine, I experienced a feeling that wasn’t just like stepping back in time, it was more a sense of coming home. I may have missed out on some of the ceremonies, but I still felt blessed. And what I would have given to be able to share the week’s tales with my old man, to reassure him that the soulful Bali he fell in love with all those years ago still exists. You just need to know where to look. Or, in my case, be lucky enough to have a team on hand willing to share their spirit and their secrets with you.
Blossom Green was a guest of Anantara Uluwatu Bali Resort, which has B&B doubles from £434; and Anantara Ubud Bali Resort, which has B&B doubles from £465 (anantara.com). Fly to Denpasar
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Ubud travel guide
By Blossom Green
Where else to stay
Stone House Bali, Petulu
Stone House Bali is a collection of villas
A boutique collection of six fantastical stone villas, wooden Javanese joglos and stilted bamboo suites with rustic-luxe appeal, Stone House is close to Campuhan Ridge Walk and a five-minute drive from Ubud. The owners live on site, so you can expect personable service and insider knowledge of the area, not to mention homely interiors across the indoor-outdoor spaces. Wendy Kassel and Walker Zabriskie run a furniture brand, and their interior nous plays out via plush furnishings, covetable objects like rattan-lined trunks and carefully curated antiques. Swaddled by greenery, the property was constructed using reclaimed and upcycled materials, and a kitchen garden and local farms fuel the all-day communal dining. In-room massages, cultural experiences and day trips such as temple visits, jewellery making or whitewater rafting can be organised.
Details B&B doubles from £213 (stonehousebali.com)
Amandari, Kedewatan
When it opened in 1989 on the banks of the Ayung River, 15 minutes outside Ubud, Amandari set the benchmark for island hospitality and helped to put the town on the global jet set’s map. Featuring Bali’s first infinity pool — a curvaceous, emerald affair overlooking a valley — the hotel emulates a Balinese village: think alang-alang thatch, abundant teak, standalone suites with outdoor tubs and kamasan tapestries, plus tall, compound-style walls constructed from local stone. Villagers own the land the hotel is built on so local life continues all around; children learn dances at the community pavilion, gamelan music rings out across the open-air reception, and villagers carry umbul-umbul (tall cloth flags) and canang sari banten (offerings) to the 7th-century Hindu shrine down the hillside. A farm-to-table menu of recipes passed down for generations, tennis courts and a spa focused on ancient rituals complete the picture.
Details B&B doubles from £855, including airport transfers (aman.com)
Bisma Eight, Ubud
Bisma Eight has 28 suites and 12 pool villas
For a splash of tropical modernism at a wallet-friendly price, Bisma Eight is a solid pick. The 28 suites and 12 pool villas are lined with raw, industrial concrete that’s softened by a warm colour palette, comforting textiles and mid-century furniture. Rooms are set around a central courtyard, surrounded by fragrant plant life, and come with wooden Japanese deep soaking tubs. There’s also a jungle-view pool lined with loungers, an organic garden, a spa, bar and a pair of restaurants, one focused on modern riffs of Balinese stalwarts, the other garden-fresh Mediterranean food. It’s a ten-minute walk to central Ubud.
Details B&B doubles from £144 (bisma-eight.com)
Capella Ubud, Tegalalang
Capella Ubud is a glampsite of the highest order
KRISHNA FOR BENSLEY
The designer Bill Bensley is known for his pioneering approach to hotel design — a marvellous mix of sustainable landscaping and gloriously eccentric interior artistry — and at Capella Ubud he has created a glampsite of the highest order. Twenty-three tented suites with private pools are pitched carefully in a rainforest thicket that slopes to a paddy-lined valley below to ensure minimal impact on Mother Nature. Within, it’s all-out maximalism: a visual riot of salvaged items (think old trunks used to conceal minibars), abundant art, beaten copper tubs, canopied beds and hand-painted ceilings. A well-considered roster of cultural and jungle adventures — food and art tours, mountain hikes and cleansing rituals — back it up.
Details B&B doubles from £650 (capellahotels.com)
Where else to eat and drink
Hujan Locale
Part destination diner, part neighbourhood warung, this contemporary restaurant in central Ubud draws in foodies for a creative menu that heroes Indonesian culinary tradition and modern techniques. Expect dishes that take inspiration from across the country, rolling from elevated takes on home cooking (slow-cooked Betawi chicken with jackfruit curry or rice paddy tilapia, perhaps) to street-food such as pork satay laced with spicy chilli and ginger sambal. Airy interiors inspired by 1930s Jakarta form the backdrop (mains from £7; hujanlocale.com).
Room 4 Dessert
Playfully compelling, this cool industrial spot tore up the fine-dining rule book when it opened on the outskirts of Ubud a decade ago, serving vibrant tasting menus (with multiple desserts) set to live jazz. To eat here is to submit to the wonder of Bali’s natural larder. Harnessing the full potential of sustainable, local ingredients (many from a kitchen garden with an apothecary’s worth of medicinal plants), the chef Will Goldfarb, who appeared on the Netflix show Chef’s Table, has done much to raise Bali’s gastronomic profile. From nuanced plays on Balinese classics (see the recent spin on nasi goreng with confit chicken and crispy skin) to heady pandan panna cotta with sweet-sour snake fruit puree and delicate black rice pudding, the results are as exciting as they are delicious (15-course tasting menu from £54pp; room4dessert.com).
Warung Ibu Oka 3
To visit Bali and not try babi guling — a fragrant herb and spice-laced hog roast — would be remiss. The dish is ubiquitous in warungs across the island, but this laid-back, open-air joint near Ubud’s Royal Palace has gained near-cult popularity since Anthony Bourdain proclaimed it the best pork in the world. Go early to get a spot and wait for the tender shreds of suckling pig, crisp crackling, rice, spiced vegetables, broth and a flavoursome array of sambals and other condiments to come rolling out (babi guling specialfrom £4; Jl Tegal Sari No 2).
To visit Bali and not try babi guling would be remiss
ALAMY
Herbivore
From the team behind Ubud’s trailblazing hyperlocal restaurant Locavore (now the fine-dining restaurant with rooms Locavore NXT), Herbivore is an “all flora, no fauna” takeover of the original site in the centre of town. The smart dining room plays host to three, five and seven-course plant-based menus that put Balinese produce front and centre. Interesting flavour combinations, pretty presentation, ingredients you’ve never heard of — it’s a culinary education in every bite (three courses from £20; locavorenxt.com). Don’t miss a nightcap inspired by Indonesian folk tales at sister bar Night Rooster nearby.
Tipple Room at Mozaic
Head to the bar of this French-Indonesian restaurant for craft cocktails that roll with the seasons and highlight native plants and produce. A zero-waste ethos carries across drinks like the Wilder — bread beer, ginger beer, arenga nectar (palm sugar) and spiced rum — and the lively Re Wind, which sees native coconut palm spirit arak salak paired with kaffir lime, ginger and lontar water (from palm leaves), both of which use up surplus and discarded ingredients from the kitchen. As for bar snacks, think roast duck “nuggets” (spiced with wild ginger, turmeric, garlic, galangal, candle nuts and chilli) and watermelon tart with rendang spices (cocktails from £8; bar snacks from £2; mozaic-bali.com).
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