Villa Nara

Villa Nara announces itself quietly: a white rendered wall, a cactus in a pot, and a slim metal plaque beside an arched timber door. Behind it the plot is a single walled courtyard with the pool running down its length, cream stone underfoot and a shallow sun shelf at one end you can sit on with your feet in the water. Two black-framed loungers and a parasol take the timber deck, translucent panels throw shade across part of the courtyard, and a scatter of small dark cast figures climbs one white wall like a flock of birds. Nyang Nyang Beach is minutes away down the hill.

Inside, the living room drops into a timber-lined well. A deep cream sectional wraps a jute rug and a low black table so everyone sits below the line of the glass and the courtyard fills the view, and the television is set into a backlit arch cut through the plaster. The kitchen is a run of warm timber joinery with an integrated oven and stone counters, and the dining table is a slab of pale stone with black chairs and black pendants hanging low over it. Sliding doors down the courtyard side open the whole room to the pool.

Both bedrooms are on the ground floor and both open straight onto the water. Fluted timber headboards run the width of each bed, dressed in white linen with an ochre throw folded across the foot and olive cushions at the head, and graphic prints hang above black ceiling fans. Built-in wardrobes and room-darkening shades keep the rooms cool and dark through the afternoon. The main ensuite is the indulgent one, with a sculptural freestanding bath under an oval backlit mirror and an arched niche of shelves beside it; the second pairs a moulded stone basin with a black rain shower. A half bathroom off the living room serves the pool.

Upstairs there is one more room without walls, a tiled rooftop terrace with a curved white parapet and a timber pergola at one end, which is where the coffee goes in the morning and where the light is worth watching in the evening. Housekeeping comes daily, and the concierge team will arrange an airport transfer, a car and driver, a private cook, a massage in the villa, a nanny, a pool fence or a day out to the temples. Uluwatu Temple and the cliff bars above Suluban are a short drive along the ridge.

Villa Nara will suit two couples or a small family who want Uluwatu’s beaches and cliff bars close by and a private courtyard to come back to. Take it for a week, swim in the middle of the day, take breakfast up on the roof, and let the concierge team deal with everything past the gate.