Where (& how) to stay in Bali

Bali has every kind of accommodation option imaginable, plus a heap of places most people would never imagine.

In Sideman, a tourism village in a lush green valley in east Bali, Veluvana Bali has a “snail house” featuring a rotating bed offering different views of Mount Agung volcano, and another called Cobra House with a sliding deck.

In Canggu, Bali’s epicentre of tourism, Hotel Tugu, set right on the beach, features 21 traditional wooden stilt houses as well as villas made entirely of coral set in a garden with winding stone pathways, lotus ponds, wooden bridges and moss-covered shrines. The lobby at Hotel Tugu houses priceless works of art, including a 500-year-old stone bowl and a massive statue of the Garuda, a mythical figure with four arms and wings that was carved from a 120-year-old tree trunk and found buried in a backyard.

In Cemagi, an emerging tourism village on the fringes of Canggu, Spanish fashion designers have recently opened ADE living, a boutique hotel with only four guestrooms. Based on the Moroccan riad, an inward-focused guesthouse but with a swimming pool instead of a water fountain and crammed with whimsical custom-made decorations, it is equal parts art gallery and equal parts hotel.

Want to stay in a private villa? One of about a dozen private luxury homes in Cemagi listed on Airbnb, Villa Trevor, around the corner from ADE living, has three bedrooms, 7m-high floor-to-ceiling windows, a vintage motorbike on a wall plus a 25m lap pool.

Fancy a bit of glamping? In Munduk, a village above the clouds in the highlands of northern Bali, is Desa Eko. Cut straight out of The Jungle Book, the deluxe tent features large picture windows on two sides and is situated on an elevated wooden platform with 180-degree views of misty mountains.

And in Sanur, a beachtown on the island’s lower east coast, you can step back in time at the Bali Beach Hotel, a 10-storey art-deco building where the rich and famous stayed when they visited the island back in the sixties and seventies. Following a three-year restoration that cost 1 trillion Indonesian rupees, it now features an entrance worthy of Ancient Greece or Rome. “The architect’s brief was to bring back the original grandeur and complement the original design by folding in new structures into existing ones,” the general manager says.

Then there’s the Private Jet Villa. With a multi-million-dollar fit-out and all white interior, this utterly unique property set on the cliffs of Uluwatu costs $3500 per night — and that’s during the low season.

These are just some of my favourite places to stay in Bali. Each is different, though if there’s one thing they all have in common is that they’re all a little pricey, with the exception of Villa Trevor, when you consider that you can get three bedrooms for the one price.

But there are plenty of great budget-priced accommodation options on the island. In Kuta, Bali’s corny backpacker beachtown, you can get a room in a guesthouse for as little as $7 per night, though don’t expect too much in terms of amenities or hygiene.

I have, however, stayed at places that cost a little more and are perfectly good. Take Jiva Flow Kerobokan. A motel-style building with a pool, co-working space, and glimpses of rice fields in a central location with plenty of cafes and restaurants nearby, clean, air-conditioned rooms at Jiva Flow are only $23 per night.

Tucked away in a quiet pocket on Petitenget Road in the heart of Seminyak, a busy nightlife and dining precinct, Taman Ayu also offers ridiculously good value, with big double or twin rooms, balconies or terraces, mini-bars and a TV with old-school satellite channels for only $36 per night.

These are two good examples, though there are hundreds more. From dirt cheap to break-the-bank expensive, when it comes to accommodation, Bali has it all.