Suite Deals and New Suites in Bali and the Maldives

by James Ruggia
Last updated: 6:00 AM ET, Wed August 12, 2015

PHOTO: Your own pool at the Chedi Club Tanah Gajah Ubud. (All photos courtesy those featured)

In Bali, visitors choose between the sea and the interior. The beaches in Bali are among the world's most beautiful, offering long broad strands that beg reflective walks, especially at sunset when the sky becomes a powerful canvas of color and shape. The interior of Bali is known more for the temples, the terraced rice paddies and a verdant landscape with its own beauty.

Depending on how you like to travel you should consider those choices and consider the possibility of taking a suite. The hotels of Bali were out in front when it came to designing and opening ever more luxurious courtyard suites, and that tradition continues to this day. Bali is the sort of languorous destination that makes it worthwhile to spend the extra cash and take a suite for a few days.

A special deal from AYANA is making it very affordable to live the suite life while in Bali. The RIMBA Jimbaran BALI by AYANA and the AYANA Resort and Spa, located in southern Bali, combine to cater to both families and couples. The size of the AYANA Resort and Spa, at 220 acres, allows for plenty of activities and facilities favored by family travelers while the adjacent RIMBA Jimbaran BALI by AYANA, with a name meaning "forest," sits on 20 acres of gardens within the same estate. Together they offer 78 private pool-villas, 572 guest rooms and suites, 11 pools, 15 restaurants and bars, and more, all accessible by shuttle service.

Nothing is more intimate than a suite, and now through Dec. 24, the RIMBA Jimbaran BALI by AYANA is running a Suite Deal Limited Offer that gives a 30 percent savings on suites to families and couples. The deal begins at $270. The suites at the RIMBA Jimbaran BALI by AYANA open onto tropical gardens or multi-tiered pools as well as sea views from furnished balconies. Guests at RIMBA can use the dining options, spa treatments and activities at its sister property, AYANA Resort and Spa, BALI, located on the same estate.

PHOTO: You never know who you'll run into at the RIMBA Jimbaran BALI by AYANA.

Interior Designs

People go to Ubud, in the Balinese interior, for a much different feeling than what they go to the beach resorts for. Ubud is home to a powerful artistic community and one of its most recognized names belongs to the designer Hendra Hadiprana. The Chedi Club Tanah Gajah Ubud is situated in Hadripana's personal estate. And you can feel the designer's hand in the main home where natural light floods through towering windows leading to thatched wooden ceilings. Colossal stone sculptures depicting women and angels can be found throughout the expansive grounds.

Recently, the Chedi Club Tanah Gajah Ubud opened three new villas, each with its own pool and spa treatment area. The new pool villas provide a more exclusive and intimate experience at the 20-room boutique property, once the private estate of one of Indonesia's foremost designers. The villa pools are each 3.5 by 7 meters long and are surrounded by a private courtyard and walls of Balinese stone.

The interior of the spa treatment facility uses ironwood decks and new furnishings update the appeal of villas originally built as part of Hendra Hadiprana's personal estate. "With pools in their courtyards, and treatment facilities nestled between their indoor living space and outdoor bathing area, we're cultivating even more exquisite levels of privacy," said Simon Spiller, the hotel's general manager.

The Maldives are far from Bali, but a new suite from the Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru deserves mentioning as the ideal family getaway for a luxury traveling family. If Robinson Crusoe had found a luxury island to have to himself and Friday, it might have looked like the new suite at the Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru. This capacious three-bedroom, two-story Estate with a private half a mile of beach, two pools, a stargazing lounge (with telescope) and a vast al fresco living space, might be more appropriate for the Swiss Family Robinson.

Located on the southeasterly edge of the island, away from the hub of the resort, the Estate accommodates families or groups of six adults and up to five children across 21,500 square feet of private quarters and grounds. An 80-foot pool lies adjacent to the beach that slopes into the turquoise lagoon. The resort is located in the Baa Atoll, declared a World Biosphere Reserve in 2011 for the richness of its marine life.

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