Serene lodgings and two freeform pools await at the highest point of Jimbaran’s 90-hectare Ayana Estate.
Poolside at Luna, Ayana Segara Bali’s rooftop bar. (Photo courtesy of Ayana)
The Look
Part of an integrated resort that now includes 980 rooms, suites, and villas, the month-old Ayana Segara Bali aims to attract a younger crowd to an expansive property already popular with vacationing families from as far afield as Japan and Australia. The emphasis at this new five-story wing is on laid-back contemporary luxury with traditional Balinese touches. Curving whitewashed walls, open-air corridors, and indoor-outdoor spaces were the work of Singapore office of global hospitality design studio WATG, which also created the earlier Ayana properties elsewhere in the estate and Ayana Komodo on the eastern Indonesian island of Flores.
Meanwhile, the interiors came courtesy of Yasuhiro Koichi, founder of Tokyo-based SPIN Design Studio. Ayana Segara’s polished arrival lobby achieves a sense of place through wooden screens with intricate floral motifs and ceiling panels of traditional kamasan paintings mirroring those at the Ayana Resort just down the hillside. Meandering around Karang, the all-day restaurant, is a tiered indoor-outdoor pool that features circular cabanas and an outdoor bar.
The main pool and whitewashed exterior of the hotel. (Photo courtesy of Ayana)
Left to right: Outdoor seating at Karang restaurant; inside the hotel lobby. (Photos: James Louie)
Balinese kamasan paintings in the ceiling of Ayana Segara’s lobby. (Photo: James Louie)
Inside an Ocean View room. (Photo: James Louie)
The Rooms
Muted tones predominate in the 205 rooms and suites: think light gray sofas with steel blue cushions, sand-colored marble flooring, and blond wood latticework. Plush king beds feature feather-soft pillows; the serene decor incorporates woven rattan details and carvings by local artisans of vegetal patterns resembling unfolding ferns. Some of the 65-square-meter Ocean View rooms can be combined into a two-bedroom suite with a connecting hallway and shared entrance offering families and groups of friends extra privacy. Floor-to-ceiling windows let in plenty of natural light, while the balconies of Ocean View rooms overlook Jimbaran Bay and the runway at Ngurah Rai International Airport (about a half-hour’s drive from the Ayana Estate). Sliding screen doors open up one corner of the spacious bathroom, allowing guests to bathe in the deep soaking tub with the sea in full view.
Left to right: On the balcony of an Ocean View room; a deep-soaking bathtub. (Photos: James Louie)
Left to right: Part of an Ocean View room; lounge seating at Karang. (Photos: James Louie)
Karang’s outdoor dining area. (Photo courtesy of Ayana)
The Food
Organic vegetables and herbs grown at the on-site Ayana Farm star in dishes served at Ayana Segara’s three restaurants and bars. The breakfast spread at Karang has a variety of pastries, cold cuts and cheeses, sushi, Japanese-style salads featuring wakame seaweed and fiber-rich hijiki, Balinese-style fried rice, as well as Western staples like bacon and sausages. Eggs are made to order at an omelet station, and the changing roster of hot dishes might include beef with black pepper sauce and snapper fillets dressed in a Jimbaran-style spice mix. Ayana Segara guests are also entitled to take their breakfast at any of the other all-day venues around the estate, including Padi, where buffets come with a selection of Indian favorites, and Toge at the family-oriented Rimba Jimbaran.
Back at Segara, sundowners are best enjoyed at the rooftop bar Luna, home to a smaller river-like pool. Patrons can also graze on tapas, a selection of Indonesian snacks, and other light bites. Downstairs, semi-subterranean Italian restaurant Scusa is about to open in tandem with Segara’s final wing of guest quarters. Scusa’s character is markedly different from the rest of the hotel, with thick walls and hefty stone archways that bring to mind the lower levels of a European castle.
The tiered ground-floor pool at Ayana Segara Bali. (Photo: James Louie)
The Indian Ocean as seen from the balcony of a first-floor Ocean View room. (Photo: James Louie)
Ayana Segara’s main block and Mount Agung viewed from Luna. (Photo: James Louie)
What Else?
Vista, the expansive open-air event space on the top floor of Ayana Segara, affords astonishing views that stretch as far as Mount Agung in Bali’s northeast on clear days. Wellness treatments at the 22,000-square-meter Ayana Spa, a quick buggy or “tram” ride away, range from Balinese massage to thalassotherapy sessions in Asia’s largest Aquatonic seawater pool, where spa-goers should budget two hours for a slow circuit through a dozen hydromassage stations.
And thanks to the regular shuttle service between different parts of Ayana Estate, you’ll have easy access to breezy Italian venue Sami Sami (try the decadent lobster taglioni), Ah Yat Abalone Seafood Restaurant at Rimba Jimbaran for Cantonese fare, the famous cliffside Rock Bar, and the delightfully rustic Kubu Beach Club. Soon to come is the purpose-built Museum Saka with eight galleries and an inaugural exhibition of ogoh-ogoh effigies. Dedicated to Nyepi, the Balinese “day of silence” marking the dawn of a new year, the on-site attraction will debut in March 2023.
ayana.com; doubles from US$243
