Eywa Retreat

A Hidden Sanctuary in Ungasan

Some places are hidden because nobody has found them yet. Others seem almost designed to remain slightly out of sight. Tucked away in a quiet corner of Ungasan, close enough to the roads of the Bukit to remain convenient but sufficiently removed from them to make the outside world disappear, Eywa Retreat is the kind of address you are unlikely to discover unless someone points you in the right direction. Perhaps that is still the privilege of the best places. They escape the crowds, the generic guides and the strange process by which every good secret eventually becomes another item on everybody’s list.

I first saw Eywa in February 2026, when the property had only just emerged from the ground. It was not quite finished, and at that stage it was difficult to imagine exactly what it would become. The place belongs to friends, which is how I had the chance to discover it before it properly opened. When I returned in June for the inauguration, the transformation was complete, and I was genuinely surprised by how successfully the original idea had taken shape. What had still felt like a construction project a few months earlier had become a small oasis, lush, intimate and unexpectedly quiet.

The retreat is built around a collection of independent houses inspired by the traditional Balinese lumbung, reinterpreted with contemporary comfort and a considerable amount of attention to detail. Some have private pools, others individual plunge pools, and the whole property has been arranged to create small pockets of privacy within the tropical landscape. Eywa officially draws inspiration from Tri Hita Karana, the Balinese philosophy of harmony between the spiritual, human and natural worlds, and the architecture does indeed seem designed around connection and balance rather than spectacle.

What I particularly like is that the place never feels cut off from Bali while still managing to remove you from much of its noise. There is space to read, think, meditate or simply stop moving for a while. Eywa works beautifully as a romantic escape, but equally well as somewhere to meet people you genuinely care about and spend an afternoon without feeling the need to organise every minute of it. The small La Meza Bar, built around its large stone table, has become one of the social hearts of the property, helped enormously by a team whose warmth is one of the things I remember most strongly from every visit.

Then there is ORAMA, which deserves more than the usual description of a hotel restaurant. The kitchen is led by chef Nico Girodroux, whose contemporary approach combines French technique with Indonesian ingredients and a real attention to balance, presentation and flavour. His pastry background is particularly apparent when dessert arrives, but the whole menu demonstrates the same precision. There is also a very good wine selection, which in Bali should never be treated as an insignificant achievement. The official culinary direction speaks of contemporary French expertise meeting local Indonesian produce, and the result already feels sufficiently distinctive for me to suspect that ORAMA could become one of the Bukit’s genuinely interesting tables.

I have also personally tested Eywa’s credentials as a romantic destination, although not quite in the manner intended. I once chose the restaurant for a date and was spectacularly stood up, only for my guest to eventually appear when the restaurant was practically closing. I therefore spent most of the evening dining alone, which should probably have made the whole experience rather miserable. Curiously, it did the opposite. The staff were so warm, the dinner so enjoyable and the setting so peaceful that the failed date became almost irrelevant. There are worse lessons to learn over dinner: even when the person you invited proves considerably less reliable than expected, good food, good wine and genuine hospitality can make remarkably fine company. So yes, bring someone you love. But if they fail to appear, Eywa will look after you anyway.

There is something slightly fantastical about the entire place, which makes its name rather appropriate. Eywa, of course, comes directly from the world of Avatar. I cannot claim any particular devotion to the films, but if they helped inspire this particular retreat, then they have at least produced one consequence I am very happy to endorse. There is a dreamlike quality to the mixture of tropical vegetation, wood, stone, water and soft evening light, but what ultimately makes the place memorable is less cinematic. It is the feeling that people cared while creating it.

That matters because Bali does not suffer from a shortage of new hotels. What it sometimes lacks are new places with an actual emotional temperature. At Eywa, behind the design and the concept, there is something more immediately perceptible: affection, generosity and a genuine desire to welcome people into a world rather than simply sell them a room.

Come for the quiet, the food or the romantic escape. Stay because, for a few hours or a few days, the rest of the Bukit seems remarkably far away.

Address

 

Eywa Retreat

Jl. Toya Ning II
Ungasan, South Kuta
Badung, Bali 80361
Indonesia
eywaretreat.com

Price

$$$ · Upscale

Go for

A secluded romantic escape, contemporary lumbung-style accommodation, private pools, thoughtful design and the rare luxury of genuine quiet.

Stay for

The atmosphere, the warmth of the team, long evenings around La Meza and the feeling of being hidden away without actually being isolated.

Also on site

ORAMA

Led by chef Nico Girodroux, ORAMA combines contemporary French technique with Indonesian ingredients in a setting that deserves a visit even if you are not staying at Eywa. The desserts are particularly worth saving room for, and the wine selection makes it an excellent choice for a long dinner rather than a convenient resort meal.

Recommendation

Eywa makes most sense when you stop treating it as somewhere to sleep and allow the whole place to become part of the stay. Arrive with time, have a drink at La Meza, book dinner at ORAMA and leave enough empty space in the programme to enjoy doing very little. This is not the address I would squeeze between two beach clubs.