Capella Ubud

No tree was cut to build Capella Ubud. That was the rule Bill Bensley set himself when he laid out 22 tents and a lodge on the steep side of the Keliki valley, north of Ubud, and the result is a camp threaded between the trunks of a rainforest, with rope bridges and timber walkways instead of paths. The resort opened in 2018 and belongs to Capella Hotel Group, the Singapore-based company.

History

Bensley, the American designer based in Bangkok, had already built the Four Seasons Tented Camp in the Golden Triangle when he was asked to design a tented retreat in Bali. He invented a story for the site: a party of European settlers arriving in the 1800s and setting up camp beside the river, with the tents furnished from their trunks. The theme runs through the names, the furniture and the brass and leather fittings, and the restaurant is named after Mads Lange, the Danish trader who lived on Bali in the 1840s.

Architecture and design

Each tent is a canvas roof over a timber platform, with a four-poster bed, antiques and a bathroom of copper and stone, and a private pool on the deck. The tents sit at different heights up the valley, some above the paddies, some in the trees, some by the river, and the walkways between them were built around the existing trunks. The main pavilions, the pool and the restaurants stand near the top, on the edge of the village of Keliki.

Rooms and suites

There are 23 keys: 22 one-bedroom tents and a two-bedroom lodge, all with saltwater pools. Each tent has a dedicated Capella Culturist, the resort's name for a butler who also acts as a guide to the valley and the village. The tents are named for the roles in the imagined expedition, with the lodge for the party's leader.

Dining

Mads Lange is the all-day restaurant, serving breakfast and European and Indonesian dishes on a terrace over the valley. Api Jiwa is a counter restaurant for a set menu cooked over fire in the Asian manner, with a small number of seats. The Camp Fire serves drinks and grills in the evening, and the Officers' Tent is the bar.

Wellness

Auriga, the spa, has treatment tents in the forest and bases its programmes on the phases of the moon. The central pool, called the Cistern, is a saltwater pool fed by the stream, and the resort offers yoga, river walks, cooking classes and visits to the village temple with the Culturists.

Weddings and events

Capella Ubud takes weddings and private celebrations for small parties, usually when a group books most or all of the tents, with dinner at Mads Lange or around the Camp Fire. There are no meeting rooms in the ordinary sense; retreats use the lodge and the restaurant pavilions. Published capacities are not available.

Location

The resort stands at Keliki, in the Tegallalang district, about 20 minutes by car north of the centre of Ubud and near the Tegallalang rice terraces. Keliki is known for its miniature paintings, a school begun in the village in the 1970s, and the Culturists take guests to the painters' houses. Ngurah Rai International Airport is about 90 minutes to two hours by car. As a resort on Bali, it is one of the smallest and the furthest from the sea, and the better for it.