#20 in Top 20 Bali for A Wellness Retreat · ★★★★★
Alila Ubud
Adults-friendly, riverside paddy rooms, the original Ubud design hotel.
Adults-friendly, riverside paddy rooms, the original Ubud design hotel.
"Adults-friendly, riverside paddy rooms, the original Ubud design hotel."
Alila Ubud is the original Alila property — Mark Edleson opened the hotel in 1996 on a Payangan ridge above the Ayung river, and the property was the first contemporary-design hotel in Bali. The architecture by Kerry Hill (the late Australian architect responsible for several Aman properties and the Datai Langkawi) is a study in restraint — clay-tile rooflines, alang-alang thatch, dark wood, the architectural precision that defined the Ubud luxury idiom for the next twenty years. Sixty-four rooms and villas, all with valley-edge or rice-paddy orientation, the higher tiers with private plunge pools. The 25-metre infinity pool — square, not curved, set into a sloping garden — is one of the most-influential pools in Bali and the photograph that introduced a generation of design travellers to Ubud. The Alila Spa runs Asian-discipline treatments. Alila Ubud is the right pick for the wellness retreat at the mid-tier price where the architecture and the Kerry Hill design language are the differentiator. It is the most-affordable property on this list of the same architectural quality as the higher tiers.
Pool Villa (with private plunge pool) or Terrace Tree Villa (a treehouse-style room with valley-edge orientation).
Photograph the 25-metre square infinity pool at 7am from the upper terrace. Book the Alila Spa Watukaru massage (uses local volcanic stones from Mount Batukaru) for day three. Walk down to the Ayung river through the rice paddies on day two.
Alila Ubud sits within our broader Top 20 Hotels in Bali for a Wellness Retreat list. It scored an aggregate 9.4/10 across the three editorial criteria — competitive against the field but, on a wellness retreat-specific factors, the angle above is what earned its rank. For the alternatives in the same Bali neighbourhood, see Payangan, Ubud and adjacent. For a different city entirely, see the related lists below.
If you have already chosen the dates, our editor recommends booking the room twelve weeks ahead. The best suites with the right view orientation go first, and inventory for the popular months is quoted in months, not weeks. Suite-level rooms with private plunge pools or terraces — the ones that earn this rank — are typically the first to sell out.