Capella Ubud is your chance to take on an adventurous character and step back into the past. Bill Bensley’s designed the resort and it is his imagined version of an early-19th-century explorer’s camp, which is located in Keliki, a village north of central Ubud. The resort is set within the jungle and is so immersed that even a bird’s eye view would only reveal a hint of the hidden hotel.
Getting There
On our first visit to Capella Ubud, we were collected from our villa in Canggu and taken to the jungle resort via a private car transfer. If you don’t have your own transportation, this is well worth arranging so that you can travel with a level of comfort in the resort’s luxury vehicle and arrive fresh for check-in.
The Setting
Capella Ubud makes you feel like you have wandered into an explorer’s camp of another era and been invited to stay. Expedition-style tents and colonial-era objects are combined with Balinese craftsmanship and textiles to make you feel like you are taking on the bygone role of explorers and adventurers.
The resort has been built on a steep slope above the Wos River, and built around the existing trees to preserve the authentic natural essence of the environment. Within the centre lies the Cistern, which is the camp’s main 20’metre heated outdoor pool. It is immersed within palm trees and overlooks the hillside. When the air is cool in the early mornings, steam rises from the pool water, which, when caught by the emerging sunlight, creates a visually beautiful scene.
Its accommodation and communal spaces are spread across the hillside as a collection of canvas-topped structures connected by steep paths, steps and suspension bridges.
The Accommodation
The abundance of nature offers a level of privacy for all its guests with just glimpses of the black canvases available through the trees of the different accommodation tents.
There are 22 one-bedroom tents and a two-bedroom lodge, with each tent bearing the name and carrying the essence of the different unique members of the camp, such as “Explorer”, “Naturalist”, “Storyteller”, and “Architect”. This means that no room has the same interiors.
The objects and artwork change according to that character, so the interiors feel collected over time rather than uniformly designed. Dark timber, leather trunks, old maps, books and collected curiosities create the impression of an explorer’s private quarters,
The tents each have a private plunge pool with a jungle view and indoor and outdoor showers. The interiors bear theatrical details with old fashioned antiques, maps, and patterned textiles. A key feature is the copper bathtub, that you should try and have a tea bath as part of their wellness programme.
Experiences
Capella Ubud’s location offers great access to a lot of Ubud’s tourist attractions, like the waterfalls, rice terraces or participate in the rituals of a nearby Balinese temple. You can arrange visits to these hotspots through the hotel and have the experience without travelling taking up much of your day due to its close proximity.
In the resort itself, you can do yoga, have a picnic in the middle of rice fields, learn how to make jamu, or have a relaxing massage in their nature inspired spa.
Auriga Wellness has three treatment tents cocooned within the forest. Its treatments draw on Balinese healing traditions. Like the rest of the camp, the spa feels connected to the jungle rather than sealed away from it.
There’s also a campfire where guests can have hot chocolate and toast marshmallows in the evenings.
Dining
Mads Lange is the main dining room, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Positioned higher on the hillside, it offers a treetop palm tree view and overlooks the pool below. The menu covers Indonesian and international dishes, with vegetables, herbs and spices sourced from neighbouring farms. If you didn’t want to leave your tent, you could have a floating breakfast in your own pool.
A stay at Capella Ubud isn’t complete if you don’t take a visit to the Officers’ Tent. There’s a complimentary afternoon tea and an evening cocktail ritual that is available for all staying guests. The cocktails are really good and we made full use of the hour they were available for.
For a unique dining experience, book yourself in for the Asian-inspired Api Jiwa. Located just beneath Mads Lange in the ‘Culinary Tent’, a multi-course menu centred around open-fire cooking awaits. Dinner begins at 7pm sharp for all guests with limited spaces available. You’ll sit alongside other guests with a first-hand view of the kitchen as the chefs create an open-air dining experience to remember.
Is Capella Ubud worth travelling for?
Capella Ubud is one of my most memorable and favourite places to stay in Bali. I’ve stayed there twice and would happily return. I loved feeling like I was experiencing a taste of what it might have been like to stay in a real jungle camp while enjoying all the luxuries of a 5 star resort.
