Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve

"#50 World’s 50 Best Hotels 2025; "

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"Ubud - tester le rituel balinais en costume traditionnel - "

@freddie92

"Bali has a dizzying amount of beautiful luxury hotels to choose from. Still, Mandapa stands out for its peerless location, sitting pretty on the outskirts of Ubud, haloed by rice fields and rainforest with the sacred Ayung river flowing through the grounds. The suites and villas are vast sultry affairs, the staff know what you want before you know yourself, and the spa is a destination in its own right. Set the scene Tumbling from the stately moss-covered entrance to the banks of the Ayung, Mandapa's luxuriant gardens are an explosion of perfume, sound, and color. Luminous amber dragonflies and ruby-red butterflies flit between date palms and banana trees. Jasmine and frangipani blossoms tumble from above like scented snowflakes. Sweet little big-eyed frogs call out to each other across tinkling streams in the moonlight. If you're thinking this also sounds highly conducive to romance you would be right. Honeymooners and lovers dominate, but that doesn't mean that others won't feel welcome. Families are well catered to with a gadget-free Kids' Club and daily group activities (Balinese dance lessons, photogenic nature walks, plant studies), while friends and solo travellers can throw themselves into a world of wellness. The backstory When the Ritz-Carlton purchased this uncultivated land from the villagers of Sayan, they bought twice the amount they needed, a total of 10 hectares, so that guests would feel fully enveloped in their surroundings. When it opened in 2015, its shiny new buildings, bright thatch roofs and pale stone sculptures looked rather incongruous against the deep green landscape but nearly a decade on everything feels fully embedded into the scenery, wholly Balinese and entirely enchanting. Mandapa's growth can also be credited to their latest general manager, Masanori Hosoya, who arrived in 2022 from the exquisite Ritz-Carlton Nikko, bringing with him a love of gardening, an understanding of shifting guest expectations and an eagle eye for detail. The rooms There are 60 suites and villas positioned up and down the valley, all of which feel opulent and entwined in the surroundings at the same time. A forest of dark Indonesian woods soar from the floors to the vaulted ceilings; full-length fabric panels have been hand painted with bucolic scenes from traditional Balinese life; rotund chandeliers fashioned from delicate mother of pearl discs seem to glow even when they aren't switched on; bathtubs for two are wrapped in rattan and scented with ginger lily salts. Entry-level suites start at an impressive 100-square-metres and are situated in a block set high on the hillside; large balconies have panoramic views of the sunset-facing valley and volcanic mountains beyond. Elsewhere, stepping stones lead to a range of capacious one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom villas, which have temperature-controlled infinity pools starting from a swimmable seven-meters in length. High stone walls and curtains of greenery ensure you can skinny dip until your heart's content. Food and drink Exceptional. Days get off to an inspiring start with a breakfast of jewel-colored fruits, cold-pressed Javanese coffee, scrambled eggs and caviar, and mango and basil cream croffles at Sawah Terrace, which sits alongside the hotel's two lagoon-shaped swimming pools. Mandapa's Royal Sunday Brunch is also served here and is surprisingly good value considering the quantity and quality of the food; Balinese roast suckling pig, a Brazilian charrasco and a ramen station are among a myriad of choices. There are two other unmissable restaurants; contemporary Japanese Ambar, cantilevered over the valley facing the sunset; and Kubu at Mandapa, which is set inside a fantastical bamboo structure with riverfront dining pods down by the thundering Ayung. Here, one of Bali's most talented chefs—Eka Sunarya—delights diners with eight-course and 10-course fine-dining tasting menus that ingeniously incorporate local ingredients and might include moringa and quinoa risotto, Lombok grouper with tomato and green olives, or beetroot tamarind sorbet. The spa Undoubtedly one of Mandapa's jewels, the spa has a pulse-slowing spot on the riverside and a wealth of facilities that guests can use anytime, including a gym, yoga pavilions, a meditation suite and male and female with saunas and steam rooms, plus a rooftop vitality pool—which I recommend visiting in the moonlight. The treatment menu is a 20-page tome of indulgent scrubs, wraps, massages and facials, as well as rituals—for men, for women, for couples, for improved sleep – that go on for hours and hours. An additional wellness menu brings in Bali's best-known practitioners. Blind healer Ibu Ketut Mursi and her assistant Ibu Kis, work on realigning physical and emotional imbalances and will leave you wondering how they could have known such intimate details of your life. The neighborhood Mandapa is located in Sayan, a 15- to 45-minute drive from the centre of Ubud, depending on Bali's notorious traffic. A complimentary open-air jeep shuttles in and out of town half a dozen times a day for guests who want to take advantage of the town's fashionable boutiques, street markets, massage studios, organic cafes and breezy bars. Ubud is considered the sacred heart of Bali but its arteries are rapidly clogging on a diet of relentless development, crumbling infrastructure and spiritual parasites drawn from all corners of the globe—often overstaying their welcome. That doesn't mean you should avoid visiting but over-tourism has reached the stage where you need to know where to go and the best ways to support the local community, which is where your Patih comes in. The service There are barely enough superlatives to describe the impeccably trained naturally affable staff. Everyone gets a Patih—more a smiling switched-on personal assistant than a fawning butler—who will arrange everything from your in-villa check-in, to making dinner reservations, to tours of the surrounding countryside in a VW convertible, to river rafting excursions that end with drinks on the hotel's pier, to temple blessings and barbecues in the rice fields. For families There are a number of two-bedroom and three-bedroom villas suitable for families but there's ample space in all of the suites and one-bedroom villas to comfortably roll out a couple of extra beds. The Kids' Club is housed in a bamboo building that looks like an undulating serpent (designed by the same people who made Bali's famous Green School) and eschews technology in favor of fresh air activities, such as nature walks, planting herbs and lawn games. Eco effort Could be better. The hotel has a zero plastic policy, provides unexpended food to local NGOs, and has plans to install a few solar panels next year. However, at the time of my visit, Bali was experiencing a drought, its millennia-old Subak irrigation system faltering under the weight of climate change and inequitable water distribution, while Mandapa's swimming pools and fountains were overflowing."

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"contact: putu.putra@ritzcarlton.com ligging : tussen Alila en Four Seasons , 4 km centrum Ubud tussen de rijstvelden suites en villa's"

@traveldistillery

"$$$ | READERS' CHOICE AWARDS 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 The luxe, jungle-based Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve achieves something rare: it feels pristine yet ancient. The open-plan open-air lobby, which overlooks an incredible section of the Ayung Valley, is bookended by a black-stone temple and and free-flowing lounges. From here, your patih—or "king’s assistant"—will greet you and escort you to one of 35 suites or 25 private pool villas. Mandapa feels like its own village, complete with working rice paddies, steep winding laneways, and the requisite resort pool, spa, cocktail bar, and restaurant."

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"Must visit & stay at the pool villa & enjoy the Mandapa spa."

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"GLH | La Liste 2023 | From €400pn The new brand of Ritz Carlton, 50 rooms"

@nchavotier

"35 suites et 25 villas. Dans les rizières. Des 400€ la suite. 2023 Condénast Traveller."

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"Y dejeuner, le sate de bœuf est incroyable. La vue aussi. "

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"Diner au pied de la riviere"

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