Capella Ubud, Bali

The Hotel

Capella Ubud opened in October 2018 in the Wos River valley near Keliki village, twenty-five minutes from Ubud's centre, on a site that designer Bill Bensley insisted not be cleared. Not a single tree was felled in the construction; the twenty-three tents were placed around the existing trees rather than the trees being placed around the tents. The result is a tented camp that feels less like a resort and more like an 1800s naturalist's expedition that has decided to stay permanently — Bensley's stated reference for the design — with each tent themed differently: the Photographer's Tent, the Naturalist's Tent, the Cartographer's Tent, the Cartoon-themed Cinema Tent, and so on.

The twenty-three tents are not interchangeable rooms. Each has its own theme, its own one-of-a-kind antiques and curiosities (Bensley's team sourced individual pieces for each), and its own architecture. All have private decks, plunge pools, deep ofuro tubs, and outdoor showers. The Lodge — a higher-category two-bedroom — and the Camp Manager's Tent are the larger options. The hotel is adults-only (sixteen and over), which is a deliberate choice that has shaped the guest profile and the atmosphere.

The food programme is across two restaurants. Api Jiwa is the chef's-table Asian fine-dining restaurant, set in a tented pavilion with a wood-fire kitchen and a six-course tasting menu that has earned the kind of reputation usually reserved for restaurants that don't happen to be in hotels. Mads Lange is the all-day Indonesian-Mediterranean restaurant in a more relaxed pavilion, named after the Danish merchant whose nineteenth-century Bali expeditions inspired Bensley's overall theme. The Auriga Spa is across two pavilions with a single signature treatment ritual that runs ninety minutes.

Service at Capella Ubud is the Capella standard — Singapore-trained, hyper-personalised, with the lead-host system that Capella has used at its other properties. The service is the part of the experience that justifies the rate alongside the architecture. The pool is the infinity pool over the Wos valley. The whole property is a theatrical Bensley vision delivered with the precision of a Singaporean luxury operator. Capella Ubud is for travellers who want the most distinctive Ubud stay available — the resort that other Ubud resorts study but cannot replicate, because the asset is Bensley's eccentricity rather than any operational template.

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Practical Information

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