Hotel Review: Sudamala Suites and Villas, Sanur, Bali

For a serene and soulful Bali stay, check into Sudamala Suites and Villas in Sanur.

Serene, simple Sanur is one of Bali’s underrated gems, which makes it an ideal spot to holiday away from the cool and crazy crowds of Canggu, Seminyak, Nusa Dua and Jimbaran.

Sudamala, which means ‘purifying water’, is a fitting name for this resort that aims to inject the soul of Sanur into your stay.

The entrance

Upon arrival at this open-plan resort, you are greeted by the library with its old and elegant timber doors, rather than the equally impressive reception, perched behind the library. From the street, it’s an unassuming Balinese hotel, but once you enter you these gorgeous grounds, it’s like peeling back an onion and similar to staying in an Indonesian house but on a grander scale.

The resort – which sits on former swampland and opened in 2011 – was built around the courtyard, emitting a fortress feel. There are layers of luxury to discover here.

There are layers of luxury to discover here

The vibe

Exquisite and arty Indonesia sums up the ambience at this boutique hotel. Sudamala Resorts owner Ben Subrata is an engineer and art collector, and both passions are evident: from the straight lines that run through the grounds to more than 100 antiques and artworks dotted around the resort.

Subrata and his team – there are 80 staff members for this 34-room resort – place a high importance on visitors experiencing all of the beauty of Sanur, not only in the hotel but outside as well: from the recommended fish soup lunch at the area’s oldest warung to a street food breakfast and local market visit.

Sudamala Resorts owner Ben Subrata is an engineer and art collector, and both passions are evident

The rooms

Enter your elegant room through a bright timber door which is unlike any other in the place. Yes, there are 34 guest rooms and 34 different doors. The studio pool access rooms come replete with cosy courtyard and private access to the pool.

There are splashes of batik dotted around the room, tiled floors and a writing desk that separates the bedroom from the lounge area. Sliding glass doors lead to an open-walled bathroom with a giant free-standing bath and generous shower.

Paying homage to local products, they use Indonesia’s Sensatia products here and eco-friendly reusable shampoo, conditioner and shower gel containers. There are also two large bottles of filtered water in glass and an Illy coffee machine with coffee pods.

There are 34 rooms at Sudamala – each more beautiful than the next

Dining

For a boutique hotel with only one restaurant, this resort packs a punch with its dining options. Feast on afternoon tea delivered in a birdcage at Ares Restaurant, where an all-day breakfast is also served.

Lunch on Western and Indonesian fare and consider this venue for dinner too if you’re chasing a hearty steak. Or, you could partake in the Rijsttafel, a royal Indonesian feast served in the courtyard to a Rindik performance. Guests can also join an excursion to a local traditional food market followed by a cooking class with the Sudamala chef where you’ll learn how to craft some Indonesian favourites and eat them for lunch.

Sudamala houses one (very impressive) restaurant

The pool

A large rectangular pool is a focal point at the back of the resort with comfortable lounges and access to the Joglo traditional pavilion overlooking the pool. Look up as you sit in the Joglo enjoying a drink as there’s some divine manmade carvings in the ceiling. Under Balinese tradition, the owner was allowed to add extra carvings once he became a grandfather.

The spa

If serenity has a sister it is surely the Sudajiva Spa, which means ‘water of life’.

This sacred space aims to combine ancient and modern healing therapies to cleanse your body and soul of negative energy. Try a delectable two-hour spa treatment that starts with a body massage in an oil such as frangipani, continues with a body scrub with the likes of coconut, and finishes in a rose-petal bath outdoors.

The gallery

A large rectangular building at the front of the resort, the Sudakara Art Space regularly showcases the artwork of local Sanur and other Indonesian artists. This space is also used for weddings, functions and meetings.

Brickbats

For a resort which pays so much attention to detail, the mini-bar is surprisingly lacklustre with four cans of Coca-Cola and two cans of the local Bintang beer. The indoor/outdoor bathroom can become quite warm in the Balinese humidity and attracts mosquitoes at night. The hairdryer is heavy to hold, but lacks any real power.

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Bouquets

The bouquets are, literally, bouquets. There are fresh flowers all over the room, including fragrant frangipani flowers tucked into the folds of face washers in the bathroom. The eco ethos of this resort is evident everywhere from placemats woven from banana leaves and paper straws in drinks. The turn-down service includes a scrolled fable on your bed to read before retiring.

Activities

It’s just a seven-minute walk to the white sands of Sanur Beach or you could borrow a bicycle for free and cycle the entire esplanade, ending up at Le Mayeur Museum whose collection holds traditional Balinese local art and artefacts. Back at the resort, partake in yoga classes at the pretty and peaceful yoga bale.

The staff

The professional and polite staff treat guests as if they are family and are passionate about the story of both Sanur and Sudamala. Front Office Manager Kadek Sudiana is a font of knowledge on the area, which has been protected from the overtourism of other Bali areas.

The Sanur Development Foundation has ensured buildings can be no higher than the tallest coconut tree and a midnight curfew on all noise. Sudiana, a Sanur local, can point you in the direction of where Bali’s oldest artefact is located; it’s a 10-minute walk from the hotel to the Belanjong Pillar, which dates back to 914 AD.

The cost

Rooms start from $180 a night.

The verdict

Just when you thought Sanur couldn’t be any more serene, along comes Sudamala, which encapsulates the soul of Bali’s divine district. This is a heavenly hotel with heart.

The writer travelled as a guest of Wonderful Indonesia.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.