The Chedi Club, Ubud run by the GHM group, offers 20 self-contained units in five hectares of garden looking onto rice fields. This is an extension of The Club at Legian concept, a private home away from home format, spoiling, rustic, and mellow.Three one-bedroom spa villas with plunge pool, massage suite and sauna, cater for for aromatic rubdowns to the accompaniment of jungle calls and birdsong (which is a lot better than listening to your boss hollering over the telephone). Mark it down. Another Ubud option is the atmospheric and tucked-away Villa Semana featuring 10 traditional Balinese villas overlooking the Ayung River gorge and rice fields. It is small, reclusive, and pretty. The Villa Semana Spa is in a private open-air bale on the river with lotus pond baths and varied treatments.The more recent Uma Ubud is almost a small self-contained village with Balinese style villas featuring chic modern bathrooms, some with plunge pools and Broadband access for those refusing to part with their laptops. There's plenty of green space, tranquil nooks and corners for a reflective moment, water features, rockeries and shaded walkways. Spa out in a treatment room, steam off your city stress, or settle in to some soothing yoga.
At the very lip of the Ayung River is the architecturally striking Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan. You literally walk into a giant lotus pond to access the resort and then wend your way down through accommodation levels to the river, the pool, and the villas. There is a health club and spa with traditional Indonesian herbal treatments, massage, sauna and whirlpool.
Uma Bali, yoga and spa treatments
Up the road is the extremely elegant Amandari which offers spa treatments. The dedicated Aman Spa is a bit further away - at the Amanpuri in Phuket, Thailand. Amanusa and Amankila (also Amanresorts) have some limited treatments available without the now-fashionable (lest you forget the location) Spa at Amanusa, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Asia, Below The Equator, etc.
The Alila Ubud, has a Mandara Spa with extensive spa packages, some going up to five days. Well if that's what wellness takes, just do it. Among the offerings are the Balinese Boreh (ground spice exfoliation), Bali Coffee Scrub, and Javanese Lulur. At the end of all this if you have any skin left at all you'll be lucky but boy will those girls (or men, and alternative genders, lest we be politically incorrect) be chasing you. The latest spa contender is the Ubud Hanging Gardens by PanSea Orient-Express Hotels. As the name suggests, the Balinese villas,are perched - pretty securely - above the Ayung River gorge, the de rigueur location for any upscale Ubud hangout. The 38 villas with thatched alang-alang roofs are set on wooden pillars with four-poster beds inside, outdoor showers and plunge pools. The Ayung Spa close by the river offers birdsong (which is free) and fancy herbal spa treatments like the signature "Ayung Beautifying Ritual" that combines a blend of rice powder and coconut to exfoliate the skin. This is followed up with a perfumed floral bath.
