Buahan, a Banyan Tree Escape reveals itself slowly. Tucked into the forested highlands north of Ubud, near the village it takes its name from, the resort sits so far out of sight that arriving feels less like checking in than being let in on a secret. It lies roughly two hours from the airport and a good deal further from anything resembling a crowd. There are just 16 open-air villas here, scattered across a steep shoulder of jungle at 600 metres, and the overriding feeling on arrival is one of rare privilege: not many people get to book a place like this, partly for the price and partly because there is simply so little of it.
What sets Buahan apart from Bali’s better-known jungle lodges is how much deeper into the trees it feels. Most of the island’s nature retreats gather in and around Ubud itself; this one sits beyond, in wilder, denser country, yet the seclusion is more sleight of hand than hardship. The access is not actually complicated, just a little further out, and the resort is so cleverly arranged that you feel gloriously cut off when, in truth, you are not. For an adults-only retreat built entirely around the idea of disconnecting, that is exactly the trick worth pulling off.
Arrival, and an unhurried welcome
The approach bears no resemblance to a conventional hotel arrival. You pass through a gate and drive a few hundred metres through the trees, and the welcome begins with the resort’s arrival ritual: a heavy wooden block, sounded to mark your coming and traditionally struck three times. A smaller version sits outside every villa and serves, rather charmingly, as the doorbell. There are two welcome teas, one brewed from a plant the team harvests fresh each day and said to be good for the circulation, alongside little energy balls of coconut and nuts that taste far better than their virtuous billing suggests.
From there it is a walk to the villa, and walking is the operative word. Getting around is done on foot, along cobbled paths that climb and drop through the forest. It is part of the magic, but it comes with a caveat: anyone with limited mobility would find Buahan a genuine challenge. Our villa sat a minute from the central pavilion, which we came to appreciate, as some of the further balés involve steep and uneven descents.
The heart of the resort is a soaring two-level timber pavilion, open on all sides to the valley. The lower level houses Open Kitchen, the single restaurant that feeds the whole property, while above it sit a lounge and The Botanist Bar, where a long communal table runs the length of the room. Everything is built from thick, heavy, natural wood, and the structure seems to grow straight out of the hillside, looking down over the forest and the resort’s main infinity pool below.
Living without walls
The villas, or balés, take the resort’s “no walls, no doors” philosophy at its word. There are no walls to speak of, no doors, and no locks; the team calls it the ‘Naked Experience’, and it takes a moment to recalibrate to the idea that nothing solid stands between you and the forest, a form of open-air living Bali has quietly made its own. A simple swinging gate marks the entrance and can be bolted from the inside, while the small wooden block doubles as a doorbell so staff announce themselves before stepping in. There is even a woven tag to hang out when you would rather not be disturbed.
Inside, the layout flows in a single uninterrupted line: a small outdoor table at the threshold, then a living area with sofa and coffee table, a four-poster king-size bed and finally the bathroom. A central timber washstand holds twin basins beneath a carved round mirror, and to either side a maze-like spiral wall wraps around a private nook, one holding the double shower, the other the lavatory. There are no doors, but because each spiral turns you around and back on yourself, both stay completely private.
The hand-hammered copper tub, meanwhile, sits out on the open deck beneath vintage-style brass taps, open to the forest and the weather. The materials are the quiet star, all teak, bamboo and thatch, chemical-free and as honest as the setting demands, down to the bamboo clothes hangers and the soap and shampoo that smell faintly of the garden they came from.
Buahan’s idea of a minibar leans into the same spirit. A complimentary ‘Bali-groni’ waits in the villa, served with ice and a little kit of herbs and spices to adjust the profile to your taste, which is a rare and rather lovely touch. The coffee comes measured into glass test tubes that you tip into a filter, the beans grown so close by that they carry a faint note of the tangerines cultivated alongside them. Each balé also comes with a Curiosity Box of maps and local games, and an Adventure Kit of torch, lantern, ponchos and lemongrass repellent for setting out into the grounds.
A word on the question all this open-air living tends to raise: mosquitoes were barely an issue. The resort sets out a natural repellent, but with water running through the forest and the waterfall nearby, there is little standing water for them to breed in, and we picked up far fewer bites here than elsewhere in Bali. So for all the missing walls, no one is going to be eaten alive.
By evening the villa transforms. Turndown drapes a mosquito net over the bed, lending it a soft, canopied, almost fairy-tale quality, and the heavy curtains are drawn around the open sides to make the space feel smaller and more cocooned. The highland air cools sharply after dark, so the team lit our fire pit on request, and we worked through a bottle of locally vinified red beside it as the temperature dropped. When the bed felt cold, they delivered not extra blankets but an entire second duvet, gloriously heavy, the kind of weight that knocks you straight to sleep. There is even a clever arched canopy above the bed that channels cooled air down over the sleeper, a neat answer for rooms that cannot rely on conventional air conditioning.
A spring-fed pool, and its regulars
If the villa is the heart of a Buahan stay, the private pool is its soul. Rather than chlorine or salt, the pools are filled with spring water and rise to a gentle, swimmable temperature that, in the cool of the highlands, feels close to perfect, a world away from the jungle-fringed infinity pools elsewhere around Ubud. The water is so clean and natural that it draws a remarkable crowd: every morning, and on and off through the day, dozens of small birds gather along the infinity edge to drink, bathe and squabble, sometimes 40 or 50 at once. It is, quite literally, a pool party, and one of the most charming things we have witnessed at any hotel. The only catch is that the same birds double as an alarm clock, arriving in full voice at around 5:50am each morning.
The pool also delivered the single most memorable few hours of our trip. A heavy tropical downpour rolled in and held for two or three hours, proper drumming rain, and we sat in the warm water watching it fall through the forest. Later we ran the copper bath, lit by those vintage taps, and let the steam rise as the storm carried on around us. With no walls between us and the weather, and only the deep overhang of the roof keeping the rain out, the whole thing felt entirely cinematic. Not a drop made it inside, which says a great deal about how cleverly the villas are built.
There is a larger main pool down by the pavilion, ringed with vintage-style parasols in vibrant fuchsia, but we didn’t get the chance to use it. Our own pool was so good, and so private, that the grand communal one remained, as far as we could tell, largely a beautiful piece of scenery.
A waterfall to yourself
Among Buahan’s quieter luxuries is a waterfall within the grounds, reserved entirely for guests and reached by a 20-minute descent into the valley. We set off early, before 7am, and although the resort suggests going with a guide, they were happy to let us head down alone with a pair of walkie-talkies and a few essentials, ready to call for help if we needed it. We appreciated being trusted rather than chaperoned. The path was slick after the previous day’s rain and steep in places, but manageable, and the reward was a forest rock pool fed by a cascade running far stronger than usual after the storm. It is precisely the kind of cinematic, deep-in-nature spot that makes the climb back up worth every step.
Dining at Open Kitchen
Every meal runs through Open Kitchen, and proximity is the kitchen’s guiding principle. There is a working farm on site, with vegetables and chickens, and the team forages and sources as much as it can from within the grounds or close by, reaching further afield only when it must. Lunch was the high point of the cooking. Corn fritters, a dish that turns up all over Bali and never wears thin, arrived crisp and fresh; a sesame-crusted tuna steak came with rice crackers; and the simpler plates, a burger and a properly made pasta, did exactly what they should. The quality of the fresh pasta in particular caught us off guard in a place this remote.
Dinner is where opinions may divide. Alongside the à la carte there is a set menu, served only in the evening, that is roughly 70 per cent plant-based, with just a single dish offering a meat option. We are not especially plant-based eaters, and while the plating was beautiful and the service warm, several courses landed wide of the mark for us, a raspberry dessert in particular arriving so sharp and sour that it defeated us. The quibble is less about the cooking, which is clearly accomplished, than about choice. If the concept were avowedly plant-based that would be one thing; as it stands, an optional protein with each course, or simply a few more choices, would make a real difference, especially for guests staying several nights who quickly find the same dishes coming round again.
When the kitchen is on form, it is very good. The one meat option we tried, a beef cheek braised for 48 hours, was meltingly soft if a little fatty for our taste, and the bread, served with an excellent lime butter, was good enough that we ate far too much of it. The standout, though, was a chocolate mousse with brownie that we would happily have ordered on repeat, easily the best thing we ate all stay.
Breakfast changes often and runs to a short menu, supplemented by a counter of fresh fruit, pastries and breads. The cappuccino was excellent, which matters enormously to us, and the fruit was exceptional, the passion fruit, watermelon and fresh coconut water all bursting with flavour. A charcoal-black waffle with miso butterscotch was the one miss, less for the taste than for the very long wait before it appeared. Timing hiccups aside, the produce is the real headline, and worth lingering over.
A spa scattered through the trees
Buahan’s spa is unlike most. Rather than a single building, it comprises four individual treatment rooms dispersed across the property, each completely private. There’s no spa reception and no waiting area; your therapist collects you from your villa and walks you to whichever room has been chosen for you, which you do not lay eyes on until you arrive. Ours opened straight onto the valley, metres from the waterfall, and the view ranked among the most beautiful we have had from a treatment table.
The ritual began, as Balinese treatments often do, at the feet, though here they were scrubbed up to the knees with a fragrant blend of ground rice, cacao and honey that smelled extraordinary. The treatment itself was sleep-focused, all long, slow, soothing strokes rather than deep work on the muscles; it will not release a knot, but that is not its aim, and as pure relaxation it was wonderful. The wider programme runs to yoga, sound healing and meditation, in keeping with a property that takes rest seriously.
Buahan, entirely yours
For groups who would rather have the place to themselves, Buahan can be booked in full. Through the resort’s Exclusive Escape Buyout, all 16 balés are given over to a single party on a minimum two-night stay, an arrangement pitched at intimate gatherings, wellness retreats, private celebrations and corporate trips. It runs on a full-board basis, taking in daily breakfast, lunch and a five-course dinner at Open Kitchen, sunset cocktails at The Botanist Bar, and a rolling programme of activities from waterfall treks and forest bathing to yoga, jamu workshops and rice-field immersions. Also included are a spa credit and a separate experiences credit of USD 2,000 each per stay, private return airport transfers, a shuttle into central Ubud, in-balé snacks and seasonal fruit, and a resort phone with round-the-clock access to a personal Escape Host. Rates start from IDR 290,000,000, or approximately USD 18,480, per night, with a two-night minimum.
Who it suits, and who it does not
What stays with you about Buahan, beyond the setting, is the warmth of the team. The service could hardly be warmer; staff learn your name almost at once and cannot do enough for you, and even the general manager came by to join us for a drink to talk through the experience and, tellingly, to ask for honest feedback. This is still a young property, opened in 2024, and it has the feel of somewhere actively refining itself, which makes the few rough edges easy to forgive.
It will not suit everyone. The walking and the steps rule it out for anyone with mobility issues; the limited menu and the largely plant-based set dinner may frustrate guests staying longer or those who like to eat widely; and the remoteness, the whole point, means this is not a base for ranging across the island. But – and this is a big but – for travellers who want to genuinely disappear, to swap noise and walls and schedules for rain, birdsong and forest, Buahan, a Banyan Tree Escape is a remarkable place. It is among the loveliest stays we have had in Asia, and one of very few we would happily return to, which, given how many tempting new openings there are to see, is about the highest compliment we can pay it.
Quick summary – Buahan, a Banyan Tree Escape
- Style: Adults-only, open-air jungle retreat under Banyan Tree’s nature-led Escape brand
- Location: Buahan, in the highlands north of Ubud, Payangan, Bali, Indonesia
- Accommodation: 16 open-air “balé” villas with private spring-water pools, no walls and no doors
- Dining: Open Kitchen, a single farm-to-table restaurant, plus The Botanist Bar
- Wellness: Four scattered treatment rooms, plus yoga, sound healing and meditation
- Highlight: A spring-fed private pool that doubles as a daily gathering point for the local birds
- Ideal for: Couples seeking deep seclusion, nature and a genuine digital disconnect
