Villa review: Villa Kayajiwa, represented by www.elitehavens.com
Move over hotels – in Bali, it’s all about the villa stay nowadays. In part four of our series, Travel Weekly reviews a Grand Designs-type property that would make style tragics weak at the knees.
A few hundred metres down a laneway off the main drag of Batu Belong rests Villa Kayajiwa. On one side a wide-open, gently terraced, rice field cascades and sways. While on the other side sits the greys of a brutal, yet stunning, exterior concrete wall which marks the entrance to the villa.
Inside the gates, the light dims and showcases a stretched-out hallway of near-black floor tiles, dark walls and darker ceilings – all punctuated by candles on plinths that have seemingly been there since the dawn of time such is the downward frozen flow of wax that spills onto the floor. It is interior design of the highest order and a theme that continues throughout the entire villa.
Location
There are not many places cooler than Canggu. Shops sell designer fashion and jewellery at reasonable prices with quality that exceeds expectation. Surf stores are adorned by boards that are works of art as well as demons of style and speed, while cafes serve up brunches that make a mockery of your trendiest local albeit at half the price.
Villa Kayajiwa has all this within 3-4 minutes on a bike or 10 minutes on foot. But to be honest, riding a little moped around Canggu – super slowly – is one of life’s little pleasures.
The rooms
Okay, back to waxing lyrical about architecture. There are three ‘classic bedrooms’ which comprise of one master (more about that later) and two identical guest rooms with en-suite. There is a fourth bedroom that has two single beds and duals as the in-house spa. All rooms feature beds the size of football fields, the finest sheets and styling straight from the pages of a Vogue Living magazine.
The style is a fusion of modern Balinese with a more than a hint of Japanese. The master suite includes a stunning four-poster bed that is fit for an emperor, a bathroom replete with a freestanding stone bath that’s made for sharing, double sinks, an outdoor shower in sculpted grounds (plus an interior one for the less adventurous) and a Japanese heated toilet seat with more features than a luxury car.
Drinking and dining
Like all the villas that are represented by Elite Havens, Villa Kayajiwa has a team of in-house villa staff. The chef is on call and attracts a USD $55 fee, plus the cost of groceries plus a levy for the purchase of them. But once he’s on site then guests have him on hand for the entire day so they needn’t lift a finger and can focus on luxuriating by the pool free from the hassles of considering what to eat. Meanwhile for those who want to get out and about there is also a bevy of local eateries that are so close by and so reasonably priced. The Common, The Loft and The Avocado Factory are all within a few minutes away and offer top-notch breakfast and lunch options.
Villa features
Villa Kayajiwa oozes a chic style that pacifies the visually led for hours. At every glance, a new detail, texture or colourway stuns and delights. This is arguably the property’s greatest feature.
The calming sound of flowing water runs throughout the villa, but this can be drowned out by the less than harmonious tones of blurting out from the villa’s purpose-built karaoke room, guaranteeing endless hours of fun or torture – depending on your persuasion. There is also a 25-metre pool, jacuzzi, and beautifully sculpted gardens that would have Costa from ABC’s Gardening Australia waxing lyrical.
Verdict: 10/10
Design, design, design. If you have stylish clients that value the importance of aesthetics then look no further. They’ll be amazed, inspired, relaxed and revived. The location is as good as it gets in Canggu while the rooms and common areas will have even the pickiest guests floundering to find fault.
For more information on Villa Kayajiwa and rates, go here, or visit Elite Havens here.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
canggu Hotel Review Villa Kayajiwa villa reviewLatest News
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