Villa Solmea

A pair of tall timber doors in a pale, textured wall is all Villa Solmea shows the lane in Bingin. Behind them the whole house turns inward around a single open-air courtyard, where a turquoise pool with a wide, shallow ledge sits at the centre and black-framed arches open onto it from three sides. Built-in daybeds upholstered in green-and-white stripes rest on beds of white pebbles, cacti and fan palms climb the walls, and an outdoor rain shower stands against the back wall for rinsing off the salt after the beach. It feels private and self-contained, a Mediterranean courtyard house dropped into the Bukit.

The living room steps down into a sunken lounge, a white corner sofa wrapped around a low timber table with soft light tucked beneath the steps, and a television set into an arched niche in the wall. Pale timber beams run across the white ceilings and black fans turn overhead. Beyond it the dining room stretches the length of the house, a long timber table for six with cane-backed chairs beneath a row of tall arched windows full of greenery. The kitchen keeps the same warm palette, with timber-fronted cupboards, white stone counters, a gas hob, a microwave and an arched splashback of glass tiles above a stone basin and brass tap.

The two bedrooms each open through their own arched glass doors onto the pool, so the first thing you see in the morning is the water. Queen beds sit on floating timber bases between rattan pendant lamps, with abstract prints in blush and charcoal above the headboards, open wardrobes, a safe and a dressing table with an arched black mirror. Both are air-conditioned with ceiling fans, and both have an ensuite built around a freestanding bath in a skylit arched alcove, twin vessel basins beneath arched mirrors and a walk-in rain shower with black fittings. At dusk the courtyard is lit from below and every arch glows.

Villa staff clean daily and care for the pool and garden, and a concierge team can arrange airport transfers, a car with a driver, scooters, breakfast or a private cook, massages in the villa, a nanny, a pool fence for small children and laundry. Bingin, Dreamland and Padang Padang beaches are between four and ten minutes by scooter, El Kabron’s clifftop beach club about five, and Bingin’s cafés and restaurants a few minutes more. It suits couples travelling together, two friends or a small family who want a pool of their own close to the Bukit’s surf breaks.

Villa Solmea is a small, beautifully finished courtyard house for four: mornings in the pool before the heat builds, afternoons on the striped daybeds, and Bingin’s beaches and cafés a few minutes away. Book it for a relaxed stay with friends or a young family.