Loft Erika

Gang Semar is one of the narrow lanes running off the Berawa strip, and the tall timber door in its stone-clad wall gives nothing away. Behind it, a plunge pool tiled in dark green is cut into a weathered timber deck, with a palm in a concrete pot at one end and oversized floor cushions where most places would put loungers. Fifty square metres on two levels sit around it, glazed floor to ceiling on the courtyard side, and when the doors slide back the ground floor and the deck become a single space about eight metres long. Two people, one pool, no lawn to cross.

Downstairs is one room in polished concrete. A deep grey sectional faces a large flat-screen across a timber-and-steel table, an oversized framed mirror runs most of one wall and doubles the light, and black shelving carries the plants and the coffee gear. The kitchen occupies the far end in white cabinetry under a dark stone worktop, and in front of it a long solid-timber table seats six on orange-legged stools beneath three black dome pendants, which is far more table than a couple needs and exactly why breakfast here goes on so long. An open-tread staircase on a black steel stringer climbs through a skylit void.

Strung across that void is a rope hammock net, and lying in it with the upper glazing folded fully away over the rooftops and palms is the thing guests remember. The bedroom is up here: a king against an exposed red-brick wall, a floating headboard lit from behind, a glass partition to the landing and sliding doors to the terrace. Its bathroom is done in grey microcement with a concrete counter, a rectangular vessel basin and twin rain showers standing under a skylight, so the water falls through daylight. It is a small building that never once feels cramped.

One thing to settle before you book: there is no car parking here, only motorbike parking, which is the honest trade for a lane this close to everything. Berawa Beach is a five-minute scooter ride, Batu Belig 2.5 kilometres and Batu Bolong 3.5, and the concierge hires scooters, arranges an airport shuttle and books tables. Housekeeping comes daily. Massages are set up in the loft or on the deck by the pool, and with a table that size a private cook is a better idea here than in most one-bedroom places.

Loft Erika is a couple’s building. Everything in it — one bed, one bathroom, a pool you can cross in three strokes, a net to lie in above the stairs — is scaled for two people who want Berawa on foot and a door that shuts behind them at the end of it.