The Luxury Travel Magazine
The Luxury Travel Magazine
Stepping into the Ametis Villa compound feels like descending into a hot lotus soak or returning to the arms of a long-missed lover. Palatial pakarangan-style villas with open-air courtyards and private pools reside in a discreet compound in the knotted concrete streets of Canggu. Along a balmy boardwalk shouldered by ferns, vines, and palm seedlings, a string of tall wooden gates conceal the compound’s 14 exclusive private luxury lifestyle villas, where pagoda-like living spaces and satin swimming pools are shrouded by statuesque stone walls. However, a stay in one of Ametis Villa’s properties is far from a surface-level fling. Distinctly Balinese in style, the complex is a luxurious incarnation of Balinese culture where individually-allocated private butlers can arrange holy blessings, yoga tutorials, and traditional kecak dancing within the walls of your villa.
Treating the Balinese culture just like the precious amethyst that its name pays tribute to, Ametis Villa brings Bali’s varied heritage to your villa. The 14 villas are a luxurious take on the pakarangan, a traditional Balinese home arrangement where a central courtyard plays host to a collective of several individual homes in a walled community. The only difference is that these particular roosts are planted with fine-tuned features such as Hindu-Javanese sculptures and furniture so well-composed that it might have been plucked from a Hyde Park high-rise. The Ruby Spa and the soon-to-reopen Billy Ho restaurant are fundamental ingredients in the villas’ distinctly Balinese makeup, delivering Reiki healing, lessons from esteemed yogis, holy blessings, and Will Meyrick’s notebook Asian recipes to your villa courtyard, stomach, or heart centre.
Underpinning the Ametis Villa experience is its sophisticated and peaceful air. Any lucky onlooker will be aware that a sense of belonging must have been of chief concern to the architects, hence the sociable, open-air design concept, and the communal spaces shared between the villas such as the Ametis Lounge library and Billy Ho restaurant.
Home is another overarching sensation; Ametis Villa manages to marry familiarity and opulence with ease. Canggu is the chosen garrison due to its business-savvy but community-based atmosphere. Surrounded by rice fields and black-sand banks graced by serious surf breaks, the rapidly-expanding village reproduces restaurants at a pace comparable to the country’s constantly multiplying banyan roots.
At a very basic level, Ametis Villa’s residences are made of nothing but timber, glass, and metal. However, the true pièce de résistance reveals itself in the finer details. The furniture is bespoke, forged from local timber, and the Indonesian-style artwork is original in style and imagination. The 350-square-metre outdoor concept embraces Bali’s balmy climate, with glass walls bringing the tropical vistas into the bedroom after hours. Sparing the occasional cluster of chirpy Eurasian churches that hop between the pavestones in the garden, the only visitor is the villa’s private butler, a subtle attendee contactable by WhatsApp. Emerging only with your breakfast tray, a refill for your complimentary Balinese fruit bowl and cassava chips, or a welcome demand such as a yogi teacher, they can be as discreet or as responsive as desired.
Ametis Villa is not a place for those who are satisfied with the ordinary. Guests may want to think of their butler as a fairy godmother for original local experiences, whether that involves visiting rice fields in their infancy, a gourmet picnic on Canggu’s black-sand beaches, or a visit to chef Will Meyrick’s urban farmhouse for a lesson in Indonesian and Balinese recipes.
Guests who don’t want to exit their private refuge can invite the Genta Suara dance troop to their courtyard for a private classic dance accompanied by barbecued Balinese specials and meek candlelight. When it comes to venturing outside of the villa, guests can pick up a complimentary mountain bike or arrange for the butler to transport them within the Seminyak and Canggu area in a deluxe luxury vehicle.
Ancient rituals and relaxed instrumentals join forces in the Ruby Spa to leave the body reinvigorated and the cheeks rouged. Comprised of one single and two double treatment rooms, the spa enlists a combination of Zen healing and modern wellness practices. Trained by a reiki master, the masseuse ends the Balinese massage by placing a hand on your forehead, chest and heart in an act of palm healing. The international spiritual teacher Master Sri Guru Labdhawara Kusama, sent from Sala Village and blessed with holy knowledge by a supreme guru, is also on-call for those who want to burrow deeper into Bali’s spiritual side. Working the skin and muscle with soft tissue and meridian massage, he aims to unite the life-force and expel toxins from the body.
After a brief interlude, well-heeled Will Meyrick’s reinvented Asian recipes are due to bid ‘om suastiastu’, peace and greetings, in the Billy Ho restaurant in December 2022. Jotted down in a humble notebook during his voyages over Asia, his recipes manipulate traditional Izakaya Japanese recipes by introducing local Balinese ingredients such as coconut and in-season spices. The sharp flavours of Billy Ho are replicated in private dining experiences such as an in-villa barbecue or a candlelight dinner. However, these aren’t the only food-oriented explorations in Ametis Villa. In the afternoon, complimentary chamomile tea can be paired with complimentary villa snacks such as homemade coconut cookies and crispy cassava chips or replaced with the range of Indonesian coffee blends.
It’s rare to find so much familiarity in a luxury lifestyle villa. Ametis Villa, however, has designed what might be dubbed as a safe space to investigate the Balinese culture. Luxury is only the base ingredient.
