Bali all-villa stay on par with the best

The Hotel

Umana Bali, LXR Hotels & Resorts, Ungasan, Bali

Check-in

Umana Bali and its village-like setup.

Located on Bali’s southernmost limestone cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean, Umana Bali is the Ungasan neighbourhood’s latest opening, or I should say reopening. The property, which has 72 villas, manicured grounds, five restaurants and bars plus pools, a spa, a wedding venue and kids’ club, owes its exceptional location and sprawling size to the original Banyan Tree resort, which was developed when space wasn’t at a premium on the island. Now, newly branded under Hilton group’s LXR Hotel & Resorts, Umana can lay claim to being one of the area’s most generously spaced resorts. Golf buggies bring that message home.

The look

Neutral tones and a lux contemporary vibe.

Singapore-based WATG architect firm and Wimberly Interiors have given the resort, which had good bones, a lux contemporary vibe. Its neutral tones match the Indonesian-style architecture and creates a natural canvas to showcase Balinese art and cultural artefacts. In the ocean-view, open-air lobby, for example, ceiling woodwork resembles the dangling branches of a banyan tree, considered sacred in Bali, and art installations include an exquisite antique statue of a Balinese dancer decorated with ancient ceremonial kepeng coins.

The room

A villa room and its pool.

Mapped on a grid like a small village, the villas go from big (one-bedrooms villas start from 403-square-metres) to bigger (the three-bedroom villa is 1200-square-metres), with space enough for private pools, outdoor hot tubs and cabanas with lounging areas. The villas have Indonesian-style peaked ceilings and decorative timber and rattan furniture and fittings that offset the marble and concrete. Floor rugs, couch areas, a full kitchen and four-poster beds create an elegant home-away-from-home. Bathrooms are kitted out with double basins, indoor and outdoor showers, big bathtubs and robes.

Food + drink

At Umana’s Commune restaurant, guests can sit poolside or in an airy dining room. Its Indonesian cuisine includes sop buntut, braised oxtail in aromatic beef broth with lime, and sate campur, mixed beef, chicken and prawn satay. Nearby, Pad Pool Bar has a more international menu and fruity cocktails made from local spirit arak. The showstopper, Oliverra, is surely one of Bali’s most spectacular dining settings with floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies that overlook Melasti Beach and the blue ocean beyond. Fittingly, grilled scallops, lobster bisque and pasta vongole grace a seafood-savvy menu. From these lofty heights, diners can eye Uma Beach House, the resort’s beachfront bar, set to open in November.

Out + about

Melasti Beach, a public stretch of white limestone sand that is lauded as one of Bali’s least touched and most beautiful beaches, is a short walk or buggy ride from the resort. It has a natural reef that encourages gentle watersports such as snorkelling and paddleboarding. It is dotted with beach clubs and warungs. The resort’s worthwhile Village Walk experience is a six kilometre, 120-minute excursion through the village of Ungasan. Strollers will visit temples, poke around the local market and drop by a traditional Balinese home for coffee.

The writer stayed as a guest of Umana Bali.

THE VERDICT
Umana Bali gets two big thumbs-up from this reviewer. One for the well-executed quality of its reinvigorated buildings and fresh interior designs and the other for its finessed service, which is a match for Bali’s other top luxury all-villa stays.

THE ESSENTIALS
Villas start from IDR9614,000 ($932), excluding taxes, a night. Umana Bali, LXR Hotels & Resorts, Jl. Melasti Banjar Kelod, Ungasan, Bali, Indonesia. See hilton.com

THE SCORE
★★★★ ½

Highlight
Oliverra restaurant. Be you a guest or a drop-in, this is bound to become one of Bali’s hottest dining destinations.

Lowlight
Unfortunately for the indoor-outdoor vibe, villa doors can’t be left open because of the monkeys.