If you imagine Bali purely as a sun, surf and sand-between-the-toes holiday destination, then The Sanctuary will give you a whole new perspective on this Island of the Gods. The Sanctuary is jungle, river, tall trees with buttressed roots: what marketing and advertising people describe as charming, heartfelt, grand, traditional, rural, and the very essence of old Bali. It really is a stunner of a villa, a real stunner. It’s so stunning we have to say it more than once.
The size of the place is beyond belief. Three hectares of river and jungle land with eight queen- and king-size beds and a bunkhouse for 20 youngsters, The Sanctuary is something that would suit very large extended families with hordes of kids. It only follows that weddings here would be stupendous with all that immaculate lawn space and the abundance of natural surroundings.
Our group of four could hardly take it all in, so after a quick look round we pretty swiftly decamped to the swimming pool terrace and billiard room where we spent the afternoon eating, drinking, pooling (wet and dry), and marvelling at the wildlife. We had one of the standard bedrooms (and by standard I mean pretty big and posh) and our friends lucked into the self-contained villa, which had its own pool and a massive bedroom with views right down onto the river gorge – a very wise choice, and one we were too slow to make. Still, with the distance between us, we were able to sing in the shower at the tops of our voices without the worry of judgement.