This City in Bali is Unlike Anything You’ve Seen Before
Nuanu is everything you love about Bali – with a twist.
Guests start arriving at lunchtime, hopping from electric golf buggies into the rippling bamboo structure that makes up just one part of the vast Luna Beach Club. Tattooed digital nomads take Zoom calls in the elevated beer garden, nonchalant types recline with Coconut Espresso Martinis on pod-shaped daybeds and elsewhere, kids target the giant slide that slopes from one sculptural pool to the next. In the background, the ocean laps against the black sand at Bali’s hottest new destination.
An hour’s drive from Denpasar and 30 minutes north-west of Canggu, Nuanu is a growing coastal precinct spread over 44 hectares, with sleek accommodation, immersive workshops and a state-of-the-art spa. Picture everything you love about the Island of the Gods in one ambitious, hyper-designed playground.
Creativity isn’t only encouraged here, it’s woven into the fabric of the place. A path winding through the mangrove forest reveals one-kilometre-long Aurora Media Park. The outdoor gallery of interactive works is lit by hundreds of rattan lamps that are created at the onsite Art Village, dedicated to preserving and sharing Balinese craftsmanship. You can try glass-blowing at a Horizon Glassworks workshop, shop for locally made souvenirs or head to the lively FunkyPlace restaurant to enjoy authentic Nusantara fare, including tipat – a steamed vegetable and rice cake dish drizzled in spicy peanut sauce – classic rendang curries and oxtail soup.
The design focus extends to the wabi sabi-inspired Oshom Bali, where you can wake to sea views in a Japandi-meets-coastal-style suite or to the sound of birdsong in an elegant timber treehouse. Everything about this 20-key boutique property, from the saltwater pool to the lobby built around the site’s breadfruit trees, is centred on mindfulness and nature. Soak up the serenity with an app-guided meditation session in your room or reach for the art supplies in your desk (if you want to watch TV, you’ll have to ask for one). A 10-minute walk away, Lumeira Spa has the world’s largest woodfired dome sound-healing sauna and offers treatments drawn from global traditions, such as parenia (an ancient Slavic steam massage) and classic Indonesian therapies.
Plugging into the buzz or switching off are both welcomed in equal measure here. Watching over the landscape, the 30-metre-high reclaimed timber THK Tower – named after the Balinese Tri Hita Karana philosophy of harmony between humanity, nature and the divine – dazzles with AI-generated lightshows. It’s a fitting beacon for a locality that celebrates the meeting of tradition and technology.
