Bambu Indah

Bambu Indah began in 2005 when John and Cynthia Hardy set up eleven antique Javanese bridal houses, collected on their travels, on a ridge above the Ayung River outside Ubud, originally just a place for friends to stay. It's since grown to 24 houses, built almost entirely from bamboo alongside those restored teak joglos, with rooms cooled by fans rather than air conditioning. There's no fluorescent lighting anywhere on the property, just candles, oil lamps and LEDs after dark. A natural swimming pool, filtered through lava stone and planted vegetation, sits below the rooms with a rope swing over the water. The Hardys' commitment to bamboo building led them to found Green School Bali next door, now one of the most copied models of sustainability education in the world.

Join early-morning walks through the property's own rice paddies, helped in part by ducks that fertilise the fields as they go, or eat produce grown in the on-site permaculture gardens at one of three restaurants including Tembaga, built around anti-inflammatory, longevity-focused cooking, and the riverside Warung, roofed in overlapping bamboo arches. Greywater from every sink and shower is filtered and piped straight back into toilets and outdoor taps. Food scraps go to the resort's own pigs and compost heap.