Smart Travel Asia
Tugu Bali ranked no.14 as a Spa hotel all over Asia while it ranked 7 in Bali. The hotel is indeed continuously ranked in our annual travel poll – all honest votes with no nomination. At the same time, Bali is always a top destination for our readers. Many of them come to look for hotel options and advice.
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Still heading north is the refreshingly different Hotel Tugu Bali with its antiques and artefacts and even a Walter Spies Suite, a replica of the home of the German artist who did much to popularise Indonesia. This is a traditional chic place with towering timber pillars and beams in its lobby and billowing gauze curtains. The spa treatment pavilions are all moulded from different inspirations. This is perhaps the secret of Tugu’s charm. Lots of wood, antiques, incense, water features, bright colours, and a nice laid back atmosphere.
The Waroeng Djamoe Spa at Tugu Bali, is a Jamu exponent drawing upon local herbs and flora like the frangipani, magnolia, rose, jasmine and ylang-ylang. Treatments may be enjoyed in your inroom massage bed, in a treatment room, or in an outdoor balé. To really go all the way, and I mean ALL THE WAY, buckle in for an eight-hour Gemulai Penari Bali involving scalp massage, floral bath, a Balinese dancer massage, body scrub, a light gourmet lunch, hydro treatments, Jacuzzi and plunge pool. Some of the spa rooms offer choreographed Balinese massages where the hands and pressure application follows the flow and ebb of the gamelan orchestra. This has ranked in polls as one of the best Bali spas around.
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The Hotel Tugu Bali is a minute’s walk from the salt-and-pepper beach and its huge breakers. The owner is a dedicated antique collector and incredible pieces of all sizes litter the resort. It’s a mad assortment of nostalgic memorabilia not unlike your grandmother’s attic that will either charm or completely throw you. I like it enormously. There’s a single access road through the paddy fields and should the temple throw a festive bash you may need to divert, adventurously.
Tugu includes a replica of the bungalow of German artist Walter Spies who did much to promote Indonesia. The villa has the original door, camera and family pictures and is an assault on the senses with its tinted glass windows, bright cobalt blues and ceramic tile floors. Expect a blue mosaic plunge pool too and traditional furniture.
The bed is large and heavily ornate with woodcarvings, and a ceiling fan whirs lazily above. Original letters, photos and paintings litter the mantelpieces. This is truly a step back in time save for the Wi-Fi, which is refreshingly complimentary and the flatscreen TV.
The red Puri Le Mayeur villa “floats” above a lotus pond and has its own plunge pool. The upstairs Rejang Suite is accessed via a creaking wooden corkscrew staircase. Find a spacious verandah, tiny safe, the aforementioned flatscreen TV, and a beaten metal bathtub. Every villa is authentic and astoundingly different. Herein lies the charm of this place.
Rummage through all the bric-a-brac. Or try a spoiling spa treatment in one of the custom-built spa villas. Alternatively, sign up for the complimentary classes on Balinese dancing and gamelan music.
There’s also a Villa Tugu Bali, with six bedrooms, set on a breezy hillock near the hotel on an 8,000sq-metre plot with gymnasium, pool, tennis court and parking for ten cars. This is one of the best Bali spa resorts around. Step in to discover why. It also offers a grassy area near the beach (set a few minutes’ walk away) for weddings.
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Top-end Hotel Tugu Lombok is nothing short of a fantasy paradise that mixes culture and history with recycled art and objets trouvés. With a design engineered with absolute brilliance, the property and accommodation is part collector’s residence and part luxury hideaway, all wrapped in a delicate and time-honoured style of yesteryear. Hotel Tugu Lombok, like its sister properties in Bali and Java, is a destination that can’t be compared with any other, anywhere. With hundreds of pieces of art at every step and every turn, and with the added dimension of ultra comfort and sophistication in its pool villas, the property is quite easily considered the finest on the island, and certainly the most interesting.
Tugu room with artefacts/ photo: hotel
Tugu is not just a testament to old world charm. The hotel is equipped with a spa and fitness centre and is an excellent launching point to the Gili islands. Its six villas, five bungalows and eight suites with private pools range from 107-400 square metres with in-room iPod and 42-inch flat-screen TV. WiFi is free throughout. Sire Beach is likely one of the best for swimming along this northwest coast. There’s also an 18-hole golf course within walking distance of the hotel and yoga and meditation in the open air spa “temple.” Travellers would do well to mark this one down as one of the best Lombok spa resorts
