Stay like royalty: The Balinese ‘castle’ offering unmatched privacy

With no hills, no crowds and no stress, Belmond Jimbaran Puri feels like your own private sanctuary by the sea

Sometimes a single word tells you all you need to know about something. If you’re a child it’s LEGO. For adults it might be Gucci or Ferrari. Sometimes, like lightning in a bottle, a single word can speak to a philosophy, a way of life. In the world of hospitality, for me at least, the pinnacle of exclusive travel has long been wrapped up in one coveted, exotic name, a name that tells me everything I need to know.

Belmond

Before it was Belmond it was Orient-Express Hotels, which in 1976 had begun building a formidable legacy of acquisitions when it purchased the legendary Hotel Cipriani in Venice, enough all on its own to hang one’s hospitality hat on. Not content with that alone, they’ve since bought the world’s greatest train, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, as well as other trains of similar status in Peru and the UK, lush haciendas in Mexico, river cruises, safari lodges in Africa . . . . and in Bali, Jimbaran Puri, A Belmond Hotel.

Years ago I wrote a little in my book ‘By the Sea’ (New Holland, 2018) – about their Sicilian masterpiece, the Villa Sant’Andrea in Taormina, which began as an aristocratic family home in 1919 – despite never actually having stayed there. It was time, finally, to do something about that. It was time to have my very own Belmond experience.

Welcome to Jimbaran Puri

Jimbaran Puri, which joined the Belmond family in 2006, is set on its own beach along the gentle, sandy arc that is Jimbaran Bay in southwest Bali. A meandering transfer via electric buggy from reception to one of its Deluxe Pool Villas sweeps you through manicured gardens planted with hibiscus, orchids and frangipani and tamarind trees past lotus-filled ponds, the remains of original stone temples, and a swimming pool as big as a lake. 

Deluxe Pool Villas are just one of the several room types here, set within a gorgeous high basalt wall that wraps you up in monastic-like solitude. Entered through a traditional roofed split timber gate it wasn’t long before I began calculating the odds of ever wanting to exit this cloistered world as being, well, slim at best.

Set in my own private walled garden were two traditionally thatched buildings: one, my bedroom with a king bed, and behind it, a teak-filled bathroom featuring an indoor and outdoor shower and a large stone bath; the other, a spacious retreat and lounge with a gigantic daybed, desk, and sitting area that opened onto my private swimming pool and a standalone outdoor cabana.

Both rooms had marble floors and were filled with gorgeous teak furniture and it was only as it was all beginning to sink in that I came to better appreciate what the Puri in Jimbaran Puri meant. In Balinese it best translates as ‘castle’ – a sanctuary incorporating the Balinese/Hindu concept of Tri Hita Karanam – a perfect world of balance and harmony.

Dining in harmony

There are two restaurants. Breakfast in Tunjung Restaurant overlooks the pool and has a numbing array of local Indonesian and international dishes, fruit, eggs done any way you like – and you can get a truly fab latte, too.

Laid back Nelayan Restaurant right on Jimbaran’s gleaming white sands serves lunch and dinner. Try a roasted pumpkin soup with cream cheese tortellini and white truffles, a Wagyu beef bolognese, slow-cooked pork belly or an oven baked Barramundi fillet. At Nelayan, if you feel you’re still not close enough to the water, the staff will happily set up a table for you in the sand, white table cloth and all.

All food is sourced locally where possible. The beef is from Petang in the north, grapes from farms in Singaraja, eggs from the hills around Tabanan, and fruit from the Bedugul highlands. Seafood, from tuna to squid to lobster, is caught in the waters of the Indian Ocean that you look out on, purchased fresh every morning from local markets.

A secluded spa

The Beach Spa is tucked away, as all good spas should be, at the property’s southern boundary. A collection of three thatched gazebos as well as a hot tub for flower or herbal immersions, the only sound here is the lapping of Jimbaran Bay’s gentle waves just metres away.

The hotel feels expansive, maybe because of its beachfront location and unfiltered ocean views, but in reality it’s more boutique than resort. Everything is within a few minutes’ walk, pathways are peaceful and uncluttered, and unlike hillside resorts it’s all delightfully flat, except for the steps down into the swimming pool. There are no perspiration-inducing stairs to negotiate on those humid Bali days, and the layout somehow allows for a surprising separation of guests which makes you feel like you have it all to yourself, even when you don’t. 

My first-ever taste of a Belmond property was everything I’d hoped it would be. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get the chance to stay at the Hotel Cipriani like Steven Spielberg, Georgio Armani, Ronald Reagan, Paul McCartney and countless others have over the decades.

Or, better yet, a night or two on the famed Orient Express… 

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Jimbaran Puri, A Belmond Hotel has 31 Cottage Suites, 4 Pool Villas and 22 Deluxe Pool Villas. It is a 15 minute taxi ride from Ngurah Rai International Airport.

Prices start at AU$612 for a Garden View Cottage Suite and AU$1,190 for a one bedroom Deluxe Pool Villa, including breakfast.

belmond.com