Villa Tiny 2

In Cemagi, a few fields back from Nyanyi Beach, the gate opens on a plunge pool and a wall of glass. Villa Tiny 2 is one A-frame in a small gated row of them, its shingled roof pitched almost to the ground and its gable end glazed from ridge to deck. A hardwood deck runs down one side of the water; on the other a low stone bench and two round stone stools sit half in the pool, close enough to the surface to keep a drink dry. White breeze-block screens and a stand of heliconia and travellers palms close the courtyard in. Seventy-eight square metres in total, and none of it wasted.

Inside is one tall room with the roof left open to its timber rafters. A long grey banquette runs along the glass, facing a television set into an arched panel of warm timber; open shelves in the same wood hold books, a speaker and the odd ceramic. The kitchen is small and complete — white cabinets under a solid timber worktop, an oven, a stove, a microwave, a rice cooker, proper pans and wine glasses — and a counter with rattan bar stools hangs beneath black woven pendants at the window, which is where breakfast happens. A ladder stair with open treads climbs the end wall.

Up it, the whole apex of the house is one bedroom: a king bed under the rafters, a timber canopy frame with linen drapes, a smart TV loaded with Netflix and a full-height gable window looking out over the palms. The bathroom is the other surprise, and it is outdoors — a terrazzo soaking tub set against a wall of rough coral stone, brass tapware, a timber vanity with a stone basin and a round mirror, all screened by breeze-block and a bank of heliconia. Showering under the sky here is the point of the place, not a compromise. The pool has a shallow end and lights that come on at dusk, and paper lanterns hang over the deck.

Staff come in daily to clean, and the stay includes a welcome drink, bath and pool towels, fast Wi-Fi and a safe; check-in is self-service and someone is on call around the clock. The concierge will sort breakfast, airport transfers, a car or a scooter, massage on the deck, laundry, restaurant tables, surf lessons and a day out among the temples. This is a house for two: Nyanyi Beach is a couple of kilometres away for the sunset, Tanah Lot four, and Canggu’s noise is comfortably out of earshot, with the villa sitting inside a secure, gated compound.

Villa Tiny 2 does a lot with very little: one glazed gable, one plunge pool, one bathroom open to the sky. It suits two people who want the coast rather than the crowd, and who would rather spend an evening in the water with a lantern overhead than negotiate Canggu on a Friday.