Bambu Indah: World's Greatest Places 2024

B amboo is a family affair for John and Cynthia Hardy. The couple opened the bamboo-built Green School in Bali’s bucolic interior in 2008, as well as a rustic retreat with four simple double-occupancy Javanese teak gladak houses. They called it Bambu Indah , meaning “beautiful bamboo,” but only now—after a dozen years of ad hoc additions followed by a newly completed reno—has the 23-room sanctuary fully grown into its name. Mesmerizingly whimsical bamboo accommodations, several designed by John’s daughter Elora and built by son Orin, include the freshly finished snail shell-inspired New Moon House, the inverted basket-style Copper House, and the hobbit-like Guadua House. (To experience this awe-inspiring regenerative architecture on the cheap, opt for one of the new mud-walled Nests or treetop Tents instead.) Eschewing the butler service and manicured grounds of the area’s other five-star resorts in favor of edible gardens, an underground mushroom farm, and ducks that provide eggs and fertilize the hotel’s own rice paddies, Bambu Indah platforms natural luxuries in one of Bali’s most spectacular landscapes. More than 100 stairs and a bamboo-covered mining elevator lead to bamboo bridges and stepping stones that traverse tropical jungle to a riverside playground of spring-fed swimming pools. Dusk lures guests to the cliff top bar, designed by the Hardys’ youngest progeny Chiara, to watch the sun sink behind rice fields.

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