Fine facilities where you connect with nature, savoring revisited local delicacies or “traveling to the table,” but always with the utmost attention to detail in every experience. Here are the must-visit destinations to enjoy a stay among comfort, gastronomy and territory in Bali.
Discovering Bali: how's tourism on the Indonesian island
Bali has the picture perfect beaches. It has affordable accommodation for hundreds of thousands of tourists who flock to this Indonesian paradise island every year. It has the world’s biggest beach club (Atlas, which for the introverts such as myself can seem like hell on Earth) and its hospitals have their share of motorbike injuries to attend to with every single visitor renting a bike to be able to move around the congested island.
With all of its temples and healers and intoxicating incense smoke and purifying rituals where you end up stuck with rice beads and coconut water and frangipani flowers on your face it has that instant dose of spirituality so many Westerners, preferably clad in elephant printed “I am off for my Asian vacay” baggy pants, seek. It’s easy to be at least a little bit cynical about it all. The Eat, Pray, Love travelers. The ones trying to find themselves in the jungles and at the full moon parties. The ones bowing to sculptures of Hindu gods without really knowing what they represent (could be the God of destruction for all I know).
But tourism of southeast Asia was built on people like that. And the friendly, smiley locals play along as well as they can. In Bali, tourism is the main industry by far. It makes up for 80 percent of the nation’s income. And pandemic was devastating for them, so when the island fully reopened to foreigners back in March of 2022, after 2 years of closure, all the woes of overcrowded beaches and congested traffic and rowdy Australians and everything else mass tourism brings along were forgotten and visitors were greeted with open arms.
And yes, for most of it, Bali went back to being Bali – the parties, the surfers, the zig zagging swarms of bikes on the roads, plus the sudden influx of remote working expats crowding the new age cafes, sipping on their lemongrass mango smoothies while updating their travel vlogs. But the pandemic also made a lot of travelers appreciate a bit more secluded places, places where you have your own personal space, places where you connect with nature more than with people.
Bali's resorts: the best gourmand destinations
For those who can afford it, boutique tourism has become the norm. High-end hotel brands had understood that even before the pandemic and had set up a few ultra-luxurious resorts, secluded from the masses. Four Seasons, Six Senses, Capella, Raffles, Bulgari, you name it, they are here to cater to the upper 1 %. And, boy, do they know how to cater. It’s the eternal resort trap, no? They design a place with bungalows that look like small mansions, with vistas so breathtaking you feel as if they were AI created, with activities that give you that Bali feel without actually experiencing Bali (A sound healer! A yoga class in the cave! A purifying ritual on a cliff! A guided tour to the nearby village on the resort’s golf cart!).
Honestly, leaving the resort life to go slumber in the dust and chaos and hostel hammocks and getting stuck in traffic … why? When you can have a spa treatment that leaves you smelling like the garden of Eden and an overpriced cocktail in the infinity pool with unicorns flying over. And now these luxury hotels are branching even further, into a fine dining sphere, ambitiously aiming to prove a resort restaurant CAN put a whole island on the world’s gastronomic map.
The Bulgari Resort Bali: heavenly location and Luca Fantin's Il Ristorante
We start our Bali journey at Bali Bulgari resort, only the second ever Bulgari hotel that opened, after the original one in Milan. 20 years ago and it still manages to set that resort bar oh-so-high. This is one of those places where you have a pinch-me-moment from the time you arrive, all jet lagged, destroyed and smelly, and you get handed a wet towel and some sort of refreshing fragrant green thingy, overlooking what looks like the Garden of Eden. Even for a bitter cynic such as myself, Bali Bulgari resort looks like what I’ve always imagined heaven to be. If heaven served cocktails and had a pillow program and a 24/7 butler.
Would you care for a buggy for a 15-meter distance? You got it. Aloe vera after you foolishly paced up and down the sandy beach, hypnotized by the crushing waves? Delivered. Sunset and sunrise timetable? Coming right up. A fresh blossom on your doorstep every morning? There you go, ma’am. But what really separates Bali Bulgari from everything else you have ever seen and experienced, is the setting. Arguably, the south is not *it* when it comes to Bali. People prefer to venture up North, driving past the rice fields and tiny temples until you reach the Mecca that is Ubud. And then from there on over West to the surf spots of Seminyak and Kuta. South is where you land and south is where you leave. But some of the finest brands set up its Bali base right here, including Bali Bulgari that really lucked out with the position, straw roof covered bungalows stacked like little legos, clinging to the steep slope, overlooking the Indian ocean.
The main pool is an influencers’ dream and for sure you will encounter at least a couple of times a day some poor schmuck following his missus around the pool as she tries out different poses and different outfits to capture that perfect angle that sends her followers the message “Having the time of my life” and “My Monday is better than yours”. The cocktails are curated by Bulgari team and adjusted to fit the Bali setting and ingredients (yes, they do come in a bamboo covered/Hindu God featured vessel) and the lunch is served in a cute shack you reach by taking a vertigo inducing cable car through the lush blossoming jungle towards the beach. Soft shell crab and grilled squid and spicy lobster sambal when you are already sweating profoundly in the humid tropical heat. But the view really makes up for it.
The main restaurant, Il Ristorante, is a fine dining proposal by Luca Fantin, a brilliant and underrated Italian chef based in Tokyo where he runs the flagship Il Ristorante restaurant up in Tokyo Bulgari tower. You don’t go here if you seek Indonesian staples, it is however impeccable Italy-goes-oversees cuisine, with lobster in a decadent beurre blanc sauce, creamy shrimp risotto, pasta with ragout and roasted quail. And sunsets. Don’t miss the sunsets.
Raffles Bali: the resort that transforms local produce into creative dishes
You don’t need to drive far (well, your AC resort limo with hand crafted nut selection and more Bulgari scented wet towels doesn’t need to) to reach another hyped resort on the South coast, Raffles Bali. Like the original Raffles Hotel in Singapore the Bali edition of this luxury hotel chain has some distinct features that separate it from the competition.
The sleek design that pays homage to local craftsmen and materials but also Japanese zen architecture, the Raffles-shaped straw fans set on your immaculate bed, the Sling at the “The Writers Bar”, in this case modified from the signature Singapore Sling into a Bali Sling (equally diabetes inducing, has to be said) and that slight colonial era feel.
The fine dining restaurant here, Rumari, is led by a French born chef Gaetan Biesuz, who has lived and worked in Southeast Asia for 15 years and did a deep dive into Indonesian cuisine and ingredients (75 % of ingredients are local), focusing on small farmers and suppliers with sustainable work ethics.
“We started playing around with that during covid – which for us, it was a good opportunity to find local suppliers, actually,” explains Biesuz. “Because the international airport was closed for 2 years, we couldn’t import any international produce, so we started seeking out local suppliers, farmers and breeders, testing local flavor with local people.”
He is also one of the Krug ambassadors, so at Rumari, they start the dinner by bringing out the big guns before showcasing some lovely local produce like the octopus, line caught fish, black pork, chayote, duck eggs, papaya, Indonesian wagyu and bamboo lobster elevated into Biesuz’ fine dining creations. Even the starter for their sourdough is made with ginger flowers.
It’s obvious Raffles Bali takes their dining seriously, targeting international guests and foodies in particular, they do 4-hands with some established chefs and they try to put focus on local ingredients and talents instead of doing some resort level generic French take which would be expected. But Biesuz seems to be very careful not to fall into the trap of Westernizing everything – or pretending he can serve you a better/improved version of nasi goreng or satay.
First and foremost, he is on a mission to find suppliers that align with his philosophy, something that can be challenging in Bali, he explains as we drive up north to see his organic black pork supplier, Bali Heritage Pigs. We pass the ornated temples and the gold covered pagodas, pass the intricate shrines and pass bizarre gigantic sculptures of horses and soldiers who fought the Japanese in World War 2. Pass the lush blooming ginger and pass the streetside roasted suckling pig stands, with smoke from the grills mixing with the dust from the road. “They have a lot of rituals here, for all sorts of reasons and opportunities. They lead their lives surrounded by traditions,” ponders Biesuz. The true skill of a chef is to respect it. And if you are able to do that in a luxury resort, hats off.
