Raffles Bali hotel review: a tranquil fly-and-flop pad focused on wellness
Just 30 minutes' drive from the airport yet a world away from the Bali bustle, this sanctuary-like hotel is set in 57 lush acres, with jasmine-scented paths that wind all the way down to the Indian Ocean. Over a decade in the making, Raffles Bali finally opened in 2021; it's an ideal spot to fully unwind in absolute peace and privacy (many guests arrive after a long journey and simply stay put for a few days) and dip into the spiritual wellness offering. Service is friendly and unobtrusive and the southeast Asian food is delicious. When you do want to venture out, Jimbaran Bay, known for its seafood restaurants and two-and-a-half-miles of sand, is a short walk away.
This article contains affiliate links, which may earn us revenue
Score 10/10All 32 villas, dotted across a hillside, share the same sleek Balinese design: vaulted rattan ceilings and hardwood floors, teak furniture and embroidered batik wall hangings. Hilltop pool villas are a smidge smaller than the others but their elevated position brings more sweeping views of the sea; ocean pool villas and panoramic pool villas are closer to the water.
Each villa has sliding doors to a terrace with a pool, dining table and thatched cabana. Cots and babysitting services are available. A butler is also on hand for any requests. Standalone bathtubs are perfectly positioned for staring out at the horizon during a long soak. Score 10/10Breakfast and dinner are served at Rumari, a fine-dining southeast Asian restaurant that looks out over the treetops. Overseen by the French culinary director Gaetan Biesuz, it has a local-first ethos: 80 per cent of produce is from the Indonesian archipelago; the other 20 per cent has to be imported. Both the à la carte and tasting menus (seven or nine courses) showcase dishes inspired by parts of the country — it might be mud crab with pomelo from West Sumatra or beef with corn from South Sulawesi. The adjoining Writers Bar is a great spot for a sundowner or a post-dinner nightcap.
At breakfast you'll find everything from fresh fruit and chia pudding to Jimbaran lobster omelette and Java-style chicken soup. Lunch (and more casual dinner) is served at the Loloan Beach Bar & Grill: tacos, wood-fired pizzas and seafood platters. Children's menus are available at both restaurants. Lovely private dining options include the Farm Terrace for family-style feasts cooked over fire (up to six guests) and the Secret Cave, which serves just one table a night.
• Discover our full guide to Bali• More great hotels in Bali
Score 9/10Tap into Bali's spiritual side through soul blessings, fire cleansing rituals and treatments such as 7 Chakras Balancing, which begins with a numerology reading and dowsing rods to check the energy level of each chakra. Tibetan singing bowl meditation happens in the Secret Cave; couples can request the Sanctuary, an open-air pavilion, for massages; and for early risers, the best way to begin the day is with sunrise yoga on the beach. There are tennis courts, hilly paths around the grounds for hiking and jogging (you can borrow bicycles to explore too), a gym, and a 25m infinity pool next to the Loloan Beach Bar & Grill.
Score 9/10Just south of Jimbaran Bay. The hotel is a ten-minute stroll from Muaya beach (which then becomes Jimbaran beach) and its cluster of low-key, seafood cafés on the sand. Within walking distance is the Samasta Lifestyle Village, a small open-air shopping complex with boutiques and restaurants. The Uluwatu Temple (especially lovely at sunset) and Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park are each a 30-minute drive away. Motorbikes are the best way to get around — or ask the hotel to book a taxi.
Price villa with breakfast from £670 per nightRestaurant mains from £14Family-friendly YAccessible N
Emma Love was a guest of Raffles Bali (raffles.com/bali)
• Bali honeymoon ideas: the most romantic places to stay• Best luxury villas in Bali
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
The best wellness festivals in the UK to book in 2025
British summer time wouldn't be complete without a string of festivals in the calendar. But as social trends shift in favour of run clubs over pubs and community saunas over club nights, plenty of us are looking for more health-focused ways to enjoy the sunnier months. Festival organisers have embraced the wellness crowd with open arms and new events are popping up all over the country. Some wellness-oriented festivals boast huge headliners, blending music and wellbeing in a way that stays true to the classic music festivals we all know and love – you'll still be able to dance the night away at these events. Others have gone all out on activities and keynotes, catering to the cerebral crowd for whom self development is everything. Below, we've rounded up the best of the bunch with an easy guide to help you decide which wellness fest is right for you. Whether you're travelling with kids, seeking a low-key weekender to dip your toe or planning to go full wellness warrior, there'll be an event for you. Read on to discover the best and what our team is most excited for in 2025. Wellnergy Festival Wellnergy Festival, powered by YuLife, while a relatively new festival on the scene has quickly cemented itself as the go-to event for wellness fanatics. With a host of talks, events, workshops and experiences centred around mindfulness, music, food, fitness and personal development, the festival offers up 10 stages across London's Wimbledon Park. Its headline speakers include renowned neuroscientist, Sunday Times Bestselling author and mental health educator TJ Power, and globally recognised business coach and founder of Think Like A Boss, Maggie Colette, along with Big Narstie who will be delivering a talk on the medicinal effects of cannabis – fascinating stuff. But for those who enjoy an opportunity to move, expect yoga, fitness classes and dancing alongside food, shopping and experiences like guided meditation and breathwork. Taking place across over two days in June, Wellnergy Festival, powered by YuLife is the ultimate playground for the mind, body, and soul. 14-15 June Wimbledon Park, London Wilderness festival Wilderness returns to bring attendees a mix of music, comedy, food and and wellness in the Cotswolds. The main stage will see the likes of Michael Kiwanuka, Jessie Ware, Faithless and BICEP headlining with a ton of other acts to check out. The festival will also be rolling out its famed feasting banquets which will be hosted by Andi Oliver and Asma Khan this year. For your wellness hit, there's a lot on offer with fitness classes like boxing and Pilates on the agenda, alongside yoga and meditation. The lake will host wild swimming and paddle boarding and there'll also be the opportunity to sink into a hot tub and take in the natural surroundings. If saunas and sacred circles are more your thing, you'll find it all happening at Wilderness. 1-4 August, Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire Solstice festival at Wasing Taking place at the Wasing estate in Berkshire, this small-scale festival in the woods is set to be headlined by Anoushka Shankar. A celebration of the summer solstice – the longest day of the year where the sun sets early and rises late – this one-dayer brings ceremonies, live music and fireside sessions to a smaller crowd for whom the turning of the seasons is the main event. Along with music, there'll be plenty of wellness experiences on offer including wild swimming, meditation, saunas and sound bathing. 20 June, Wasing Estate, Berkshire For tickets visit Glastrongbury @ Strongher Strongher gym is a women's gym and fitness collective run by women for women. This summer the gym is hosting a festival dedicated to strength, sweat, sound and sisterhood. From barbells and breathwork to ice baths and basslines, this event promises no mud, no queues, just 'big vibes and bold energy'. A one-day event for fans of the gym and the girls group chat, Glastrongbury will offer up immersive wellness experiences, live DJs, talks and workshops in the heart of east London. 21 June, Bethnal Green For tickets visit Paradhis festival Blending musical guests across multiple genres with the best of wellbeing, Paradhis is a new festival set across Cornwall's Boconnoc estate. Headliners include The Wailers and This is the Kit, alongside DJs and drum circles so there are plenty of opportunities to dance. Expect cacao ceremonies and sound baths, yoga and cold plunges against a gorgeous natural backdrop. Paradhis is Cornish for paradise and with bookable activities like a deer safari on offer, this might just be it. 5-7 July, Boconnoc Estate, Cornwall For tickets visit Happy Place festival Fearne Cotton's Happy Place Festival returns for 2025 offering the ideal mix of talks, workshops and classes, along with live podcast recordings of the Happy Place podcast. This is one for fans of the more cerebral approach to wellbeing with panel talks on mindfulness, nutrition and hormones. However, there'll also be plenty of movement – think yoga, dance and fitness classes on site. Sound healing, meditation and craft sessions will be on offer, alongside headline speakers like Davina McCall, Millie Mackintosh and Liz Earle. There's also a line up of veggie food vendors to keep you fuelled up all weekend long. 12-13 July, Gunnersbury Park, London 30-31 August, Tatton Park, Cheshire For tickets visit Ministry of Sound Games A brand new event channeling 35 years of party experience into the fitness world, the Ministry of Sound's games will run throughout the summer offering the perfect day out for those who love to get their heart rate up in good company. Throughout the day, multiple teams of challengers can take on a course designed to suit all levels against the backdrop of a superior soundtrack of house, garage and bass. Festival vibes meet challenging workouts, team spirit and a great afterparty replete with protein shakes, beers, frozen cocktails and street food. Attend solo or with a team and enjoy the music while you sweat it out and compete. 5 July onwards
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Breathwork expert Jamie Clements says we're not ‘breathing wrong' but we could all be ‘breathing better'
As a breathwork coach, Jamie Clements founder of The Breath Space often hears a familiar line: 'I can't be breathing wrong because I'm alive.' And while technically true, he says it misses the point. 'Yes, we're all breathing in a way that keeps us alive,' he tells me. 'But doing it a little bit better would do us some good.' After just five minutes of guided breathwork with Clements, I get it. That tight feeling I've been carrying in my chest all day softens, my thoughts are locked in on the breaths I'm taking and I can visualise, strangely, shades of purple behind my closed eyes. When I open them, something has shifted. It's subtle, but I can feel it. That shift, he says, is exactly what breathwork is meant to offer. It's a conscious recalibration of something we do all day without thinking. But as the practice gains traction in the wellness world, and TikTok algorithms churn out breathing 'hacks' by the hour, many struggle to understand how this practice fits in with our day-to-day lives. The principles of breathwork ''The breath' is really this catch-all umbrella term that over the last five to 10 years, particularly in the UK and Western society, has come to encapsulate any way that we can use our breath to shift our state and work with how we think, feel and operate on a physical level, mental level, emotional level and spiritual level,' Clements tells me. To cut through the noise, he's developed a framework that helps people understand the practice without feeling overwhelmed. 'I teach breathwork in three pillars,' he says. This approach is accessible – the idea is that we can all start somewhere. The first, and most foundational pillar, is what Clements calls functional breathing. 'How we breathe moment to moment, unconsciously, throughout the day. Can we improve, not perfect, our default patterns to support better health?' he asks. 'It's less about mastering a technique and more about unlearning habits that might be quietly taxing our systems, like mouth breathing or shallow chest breathing.' The second pillar is what many people think of when they hear the word 'breathwork' – nervous system regulation via intentional exercises with the breath. This includes everything from box breathing to alternate nostril breathing, deliberate patterns that shift how we feel. 'This is what I believe most people think of when they hear 'breathwork', which is breathing techniques for a specific outcome. So changing the speed, depth, rhythm and ratio of the breath in a certain way with a desired outcome in mind,' says Clements. 'You can use the breath like an accelerator or a brake. Speed it up to boost focus and energy. Slow it down to calm the nervous system. It's breathing with intent.' The third pillar is where breathwork becomes transformational. This is where Clements says we can access altered states of consciousness, process trauma and explore emotional healing. It's powerful terrain, and not without risk. 'This part of the work can bring up a lot. It requires care. It's not something to dabble in lightly,' he says. 'But it's also where the biggest shifts can happen.' The benefit of the breath He speaks from experience. The practice of breathwork didn't come to him as a hobby or curiosity. It came as a lifeline. 'I found breathwork at a time when I was really struggling with depression, anxiety and panic attacks. It wasn't overnight, but over time, my life changed. And it's still changing. That's the thing with this work, it evolves as you do,' he tells me. He recalls his first breathwork class, seven years ago. 'That class changed everything. My teacher is someone that I have always looked up to since getting into this space and I'm fortunate that now we're colleagues. It feels full circle.' While breathwork helped Clements improve his own life and set him on a path to help others make sense of theirs, he's wary of the idea that there's a 'right' way to breathe, or that we're all doing it wrong. 'It's a slightly ugly comparison, but I always compare it to posture. My posture's not perfect. Your posture's not perfect. I don't know anybody with perfect posture and I probably don't know anybody with 'perfect breathing'. That being said, if I improved my posture by five or 10 per cent, if I improved my breathing by five or 10 per cent, I would feel better. The main thing to say is don't beat yourself up over this idea of doing it wrong, but do pay more attention to it and understand how you can do it better.' You might have heard a guest on a biohacking podcast make bold claims about how 90 per cent of people are breathing sub-optimally, a figure Clements considers exaggerated. 'Now, we can look at that through a certain lens, but I do think what even those high extremes suggest is that we could all be doing it a little bit better and it would do us some good. Even if you improve your breath by 5 or 10 per cent, you'll feel better. It's not about doing it right, it's about doing it better,' he says. This gentle, non-dogmatic approach is part of what makes Clements a compelling guide in a wellness world that can often feel rigid and perfectionistic. He's particularly critical of performance optimisation that often leads to overwhelm and the idea that there's a 'right way' to be well. 'I saw a stat in the Lululemon wellbeing report that said 45 per cent of people report wellness burnout,' he notes. 'People are exhausted from striving to be well.' 'I've been banging this drum for a good six months to a year now – this obsession with wellness is stressing people out and actually all the biohacks in the world aren't going to overcome the stress of striving for perfection with your wellness.' That exhaustion, he argues, is partly the result of what he calls 'information overload'. In the world of health and wellness, we seem to be inundated with data, protocols and biohacks but ultimately starved of embodiment and true connection, making it hard to process all the information we're served. 'I think post covid we've done a great job of awareness gathering and information gathering. But I see so many people kind of paralysed in that space and going, 'what do I do with all of this information?' I think what we're gonna see come next is this huge shift towards living the insights, living the understanding rather than, you know, comparing our wearable data.' says Clements. 'A lot of people are also going, 'how do I fix me? I am broken.' And actually a huge amount of it is actually just cutting yourself some slack and going, it's okay to want to move forward and grow, but not at the cost of hating yourself in the process.' Finding a way in While breathwork is inherently accessible, its origins are somewhat mystic and esoteric which sees many label what is actually a functional health tool as 'woo'. 'The deeper practices can become ceremonial or overly spiritual – white robes and wide-brim hats – which can alienate people,' says Clements. 'That's fine if it works for you, but it shouldn't be the only way in. The more transformational end of the spectrum can feel out of reach but I want the powerful end of this work to be for everyone.' 'I actually wrote a piece called 'breathwork is broken' about how the commodification of breathwork is both inevitable and problematic. You don't need fancy tools or a big budget to do breathwork but we are in a growing pains phase. 'It's the classic cycle of Western wellness: we get excited, over-commercialise it, then realise we need to course correct,' he says. 'Breathwork is at that turning point. We need stronger ethical standards, better training and more integrity.' If you're breathwork-curious, Clements recommends starting simply. 'The first two pillars, functional breathing and nervous system regulation, are safe to explore on your own. Slowing your breath, trying short patterns like box breathing, that's low-risk and high-reward.' For deeper emotional work, however, he urges caution. 'That's where you want to be discerning. Treat it like finding a therapist. Don't just follow a big-name Instagram account. I think one of the big dangers of modern social media and wellness is that we think that just because someone's got a lot of followers means they're good at what they do.' Instead, ask where someone trained, look for word-of-mouth recommendations, and trust your gut. 'Some people you'll feel safe with. Others you won't. That's okay.' As for his own wellbeing practice, Clements practises breathwork every day. 'I try to start each day with stillness and silence. So that could be just a simple unguided meditation for 10 to 30 minutes, just in silence. It might be more centred around the breath, it might be a guided meditation. I like to start from a slow pace to set the tone for the day. So that's that's a big thing for me and that's pretty close to being a non-negotiable.' He also trains in the gym, does Brazilian jiu-jitsu three or four times a week and occasionally opts for the saunas and cold water therapy that so many athletes and influencers in the wellness space rely on for focus, healing and recovery. 'But I'm not strict,' he says. 'I try to give my nervous system space to ebb and flow.' 'Tools like Whoop and Oura – they're a great tool, but a terrible master. If you've never been in touch with your body, they can help. But eventually, you have to learn to listen to yourself. We're all different. So I think if they work for people, then then great as long as they're not being led by them.' Ultimately, Clements hopes people come to see breathwork not as a quick fix or a trend, but as a tool for deeper connection. 'The nature of the practice is that it is innately accessible,' he says. 'I think that in part is why everyone's talking about it or everyone seems to be talking more about it. It's so accessible, but at the same time it can go to such depths that there's a lot of different things that we can do within this world of breath. 'I think that's the beautiful thing with this work. My goal with everybody that I speak to and work with is to make this an integrated better part of their life that stays with them. It's not a practice to be done, it's actually just a way of living that stays with you, that actually opens you up to a broader experience of life. '
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Fresh Covid fears as Asia case surge shows no sign of slowing
Several Asian countries, including India, Thailand, and Indonesia, are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, raising concerns about more infectious variants. Health authorities are monitoring Omicron subvariants LF.7 and NB.1.8.1 as potential drivers of the surge, though they are not yet designated as variants of concern. The NB.1.8.1 subvariant, found in multiple countries, exhibits a strong ability to bind to human cell receptors, potentially increasing its infectiousness. Common symptoms of the new strains include fatigue, sore throat, nasal congestion, and gut discomfort, with current vaccines expected to protect against severe symptoms. While most infections result in mild symptoms, vulnerable groups are advised to seek medical attention for severe symptoms like shortness of breath or low blood oxygen levels.
