I’ve had the chance to travel to Bali a few times, but I’ve never checked into a hotel while standing on a riverbank holding a kayak paddle. That all changed on my most recent trip, when the opportunity came up to stay in two top resorts in Bali, one of which has been voted the world’s best hotel!
A Bali getaway – sans kids
This was a different and memorable trip in many ways. For one thing, it was a rare child-free break for my wife Gill and me. We usually travel as a family, but our two teenage girls had both signed up for a school language trip in Japan. This left a string of empty squares in the calendar that I immediately decided we should fill with a tropical escape. I adore travelling with my kids, but travelling without them isn’t to be sneezed at either!
A special trip calls for staying somewhere special – and that’s the ideal adjective to use for the two Four Seasons Resorts in Bali where we spent three blissful days apiece.
# Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay
The Javanese priest Dang Hyang Nirartha, who helped shape Bali’s Hinduism in the 16th century, stopped at Jimbaran to pray, before continuing south around the peninsula to Uluwatu.
You get a strong sense of his legacy at the Four Seasons in Jimbaran. More than 300 pelinggih, or Hindu shrines, are dotted around the resort grounds, some adorned with the black-and-white chequered cloth (saput poleng) that symbolises balance and harmony. There’s even a resident priest who tends a temple built around a 400-year-old shrine.
I don’t think I’ve seen prettier grounds – gardens galore, stone steps leading to rocky coves, and grassy plateaus where couples get married above lapping waves. The resort rises up from the south end of the bay, giving each of the 156 thatched-roof villas a prime water view.
Downtime and drinks
I had some work to finish our first afternoon, which I did on a daybed beside the private plunge pool of our Premier Ocean Villa. I was still there as the sun dipped and tendrils of smoke started rising from the distant seafood restaurants along Jimbaran Beach.
Gill, meanwhile, was at the resort’s Healing Village Spa, a 10-suite complex that looks like it’s suspended over water. Her two-hour Celestial Light Ritual included crystalinfused oils, chromatherapy lighting, singing bowls and a massage on a bed of crushed quartz crystals. You couldn’t wipe the smile off her face.
She told me all about it over drinks at cocktail bar Telu. This place is an absolute gem, constructed entirely of upcycled materials, from weathered timber columns to coasters made from tyres. Arak is a focus here – not the home-distilled stuff, but artisanal arak in beautifully labelled bottles. There’s even an arak cellar where tastings are held. The cocktails are world-class too – not to mention the bar bites. (Lobster rolls, anyone?) Buying drinks at Telu also supports local community initiatives like mangrove planting.
Jimbaran Beach and breakfast
If we thought the view from our villa was good, we were blown away at breakfast the next morning. Taman Wantilan is an open-air restaurant with wide wooden decks offering an unbeatable panorama. On a clear day, you can see Bali’s volcanoes to the north. And the food? Let’s just say that every item I ate from the huge array of live stations deserves its own paragraph. But that would be a lot of paragraphs.
A stretch of the legs was needed after our breakfast indulgence. Gill stretched hers in the large resort boutique, while I wandered along the beach to Coconut Grove. Four Seasons guests can head here for ocean activities – free use of boogie boards, sea kayaks and a catamaran, or a paid surf lesson with TropicSurf. Or, just flop into a hammock strung between the palm trees.
The human capacity to get hungry again on holidays is astonishing. I soon found myself up at the resort’s main pool – a two-storey infinity job with a waterfall. Alu is a casual poolside café that serves a healthy menu put together by a nutritionist. It’s named for the Balinese word for the monitor lizards that sometimes lounge in the sun here.
I didn’t see a lizard at Alu, but I did claim a small family victory. My daughters had been sending me food-envy photos from Japan on WhatsApp, but when I countered with a pic of my Japanese-style salmon tataki bowl, the pool twinkling in the background, they simply replied: “OMG!”
Dinner and Dior
Speaking of enviable food, we also enjoyed two standout dinners. One was at Jala, whose menu honours the culinary heritage of Jembrana, a coastal regency on the western edge of Bali. Everything was bursting with flavour, from coffee wood-smoked chicken to braised pork belly and banana blossom with sambal.
The other was at beachside restaurant Sundara on our final night, where we tucked into a five-course degustation menu with a golden sunset backdrop. Highlights included tuna and palm hearts served in a smoke-filled glass cloche, and an unctuous wagyu short rib with bone marrow.
Just after our visit, Sundara hosted the launch party of an eight-week collaboration between Four Seasons and iconic French fashion brand Dior. Preparations we witnessed for the party and the pop-up boutique included the installation of some amazing rattan sculptures of African animals.
For every glamorous Dior event at the resort (this was their third collaboration), there’s so much being done behind the scenes to support the community and environment. For intance, waste is recycled and distributed to locals to be used in other ways, and leftover soap is processed and repackaged for the ROLE Foundation supporting orphanages in Bali. Four Seasons also hires hearing-impaired students from a school at Nusa Dua for internships, and clean-up events are regularly held on the beach and elsewhere. And that’s just scraping the surface. So, if you travel to Bali and stay at these resorts, you’re helping to facilitate lots of good for local communities.
# Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan
Staying at the second Four Seasons property in Bali – located in Sayan, just west of Ubud – is memorable enough. (It has previously been voted the world’s best hotel, after all!) However, our unique check-in process just added to the vibe. No taxi for us: we pulled up in a whitewater raft!
I’ll explain. Guests who stay at both the Jimbaran and Sayan properties can opt for “The World’s Only Check-In by River Raft”. Your suitcases are transported between the two locations, while you’re driven to the jungle-lined banks of the Ayung, Bali’s longest river.
From there, you take a one-hour journey through Class II and III rapids, passing by a holy spring and a heritage dam. Two crewmembers help negotiate – they yell out “boom boom!” as a heads-up to hang on during the trickier passages. I had loads of fun – and so, to my immense relief, did Gill. (I’d forgotten to mention it was on our itinerary, and when they handed her a helmet at the start, she turned an arched eyebrow my way…)
The raft rounds one final bend then eases up to the Riverside Pool of the Four Seasons Sayan. Cold towels and heavenly welcome drinks await, then you’re off in a buggy to your accommodation.
Villa and views
There are 42 villas and 18 suites at Four Seasons Sayan. Our One-Bedroom Villa was enormous – 350 square metres, with private pool and a view of endless towering trees and the Ayung snaking its way through the terrain. The villa décor is everything everyone loves about Balinese design: locally sourced materials, traditional ikat fabrics, intricately carved wood and a warm, rustic elegance.
The suites are located in the resort’s main building, whose rice-bowl style architecture adds a dramatic touch to the valley location. We ate breakfast each morning perched on the edge of the “bowl”, looking out over swaying palms and rice paddies.
Upstairs in the lobby, local musicians play daily sessions on the rindik, or traditional bamboo xylophone. Above that, on the rooftop, is a huge circular lotus pond that’s an Instagrammer’s dream.
Spa and sleep
If I’m waxing lyrical, well, it’s hard not to. Take the resort’s newly opened Sacred River Spa, for example. This is almost a separate resort in itself, a large cluster of seven private spa villas named after sacred Balinese elements and with a focus on holistic wellbeing and detoxification.
I went for the Ultimate Renewal treatment here, and it was two hours of sheer magic. After a foot bath came a session in my own aromatic infrared sauna set in a mossy stone courtyard. I was then drizzled with a hair and scalp elixir, and given a deep tissue massage that enlivened every lazy sinew in my body.
As I was leaving, I noticed a few other guests sipping on cups of post-massage tea, their hair unkempt and the occasional crease on their face, but with the same glow of contentment I was feeling.
Gill and I also tried a relaxation experience called the “Sacred Nap”. I’m usually not much of a sleeper, but when it’s midafternoon and you’re suspended in a silk hammock in the nook of a tropical river, being gently rocked while the resort’s Wellness Mentor – a former Buddhist nun named Fera – chants quietly in the background… well, suddenly I was a very, very good sleeper.
Out and about
It’s not all pampering. There’s plenty of energy to expend here, if you’re up for it. Like at Four Seasons Jimbaran, each day has a schedule of activities, starting with a complimentary yoga class. (This is worth it for the setting alone.) Also free is a regular 20-minute shuttle bus into Ubud, which Gill jumped aboard for a spot of shopping. I headed in the opposite direction (it’s a pattern with me and shops), and a three-hour biking-and-hiking exploration of nearby villages. My guide Rai graduated as one of the local scholars at Bali’s well-known Green School. He’s from the Sayan area and got a wave from everyone we passed. It’s noticeable at both Four Seasons properties how connected the resorts are to the communities around them.
Other paid activities include a cooking school, mixology, sunrise trekking and a private tour called “Can You Keep a Secret?” that takes in Bali’s hidden gems. And Pici Pici (“little snail”) is the resort kids’ club, for ages four to 12.
Feasts and farewell
You’ll likely be grateful for getting the body moving, because, yes, you’ll be eating well! Breakfast I’ve mentioned. We also enjoyed a Mediterranean dinner at Riverside with superb tapas-style starters and charcoal-grilled mains; a lunch of satays and seafood at Ayung Terrace; and a couple of cracking roomservice pizzas by our pool.
The culinary highlight, though, was a special Chef’s Dinner at Sokasi. Book this in advance, as it’s an open kitchen with just eight seats. At a small pavilion by the river, Chef Ong prepared and served seven Balinese dishes, from claypot duck stuffed with Balinese spice paste and cooked underground for 12 hours, to barramundi marinated in coconut oil sediment. The showstopper? Bali’s famous babi guling, a suckling pig slow-roasted over an open fire next to us. (A thank-you to the Singaporean guest who shouted the whole group to an impromptu round of cocktails!)
The experience combined entertainment with education, and a bit of pure indulgence for good measure. And that, frankly, was the mantra for our whole Bali trip. It made for a couple of very contented parents waiting at the airport a few days later, ready to greet our two teens with a cheery “konnichiwa”!
fourseasons.com/jimbaranbay | fourseasons.com/sayan
This article first appeared in the Autumn 2025 issue of Expat Living magazine. You can purchase the latest issue or subscribe so you never miss a copy!
