Santai Escape

Santai means relaxed in Indonesian, and this two-bedroom villa in Bingin takes the word at face value. You come in through a timber door beside a built-in bench under a slatted timber canopy, and the whole house is laid out in front of you: a sunlit courtyard with a turquoise pool, arched glass doors on every side and deep loungers in green-and-white stripes along the water. Cacti and palms grow in pebble beds against the pale walls, and an outdoor rain shower rises from a curved white pier between them. Nothing faces the lane, so the pool and the sky are all you see.

Inside, the ceilings are crossed with pale timber beams and the walls curve into arches wherever you look. The living room drops a few steps into a sunken lounge of soft built-in sofas around a round timber table, with a television set into an arched recess and tall arched windows filled with tropical planting. The dining table seats six on cane-backed chairs and looks straight out to the pool through a black-framed arch. The kitchen runs along one wall in white stone and warm timber, with a gas hob, microwave, toaster, blender and a tall fridge-freezer, and open shelves lit from beneath for an easy breakfast in.

Each bedroom opens onto the courtyard through its own arched glass doors, so a morning swim is only a few steps from the bed. One has cheerful pink palm-tree and beach-umbrella prints above a queen bed on a floating timber frame, and the other a pair of bold orange Golden Hour posters, both with rattan pendant lamps, open wardrobes, a dressing table and air conditioning with a ceiling fan. The two ensuites are bright and sculptural, each with a freestanding bath beneath a tall arched window or skylight, twin basins under arched black mirrors and a walk-in rain shower. After sunset the pool and planting are lit and the arches glow amber.

Villa staff clean every day and look after the pool and garden, and a concierge team can organise airport transfers, a car with a driver, scooters, breakfast or a private cook, massages in the villa, a nanny, a pool fence and laundry. Bingin, Dreamland and Padang Padang beaches are four to ten minutes by scooter, and the cafés around Bingin, from Alchemy and Drifters to Gooseberry and DiVino, are five to seven minutes away. Uluwatu Temple is around sixteen minutes away for the clifftop sunset. It suits couples, two friends or a small family after an easy, sunny base.

Santai Escape lives up to its name: a sunny courtyard pool, striped loungers, two bright bedrooms with baths of their own and Bingin’s beaches and cafés minutes away. Book it for an easy-going week with a partner, a friend or the family.