Great estates quite often graduate from private ownership to a second life as boutique hotels or resorts. On Bali, one resort hotel is working that trend in the opposite direction, setting up as a private retreat, albeit temporarily.

The 20-villa Chedi Club Tanah Gajah this month rolls out Bali Confidential, a buy-out package that caters to a single party of up to 50 for a three-night, four-day retreat. The price? USD 88,000.

“At first blush, the price point for this package is remarkable — seemingly accessible only to celebrities or royalty,” said Stefan Noll, General Manager of The Chedi Club Tanah Gajah, managed by GHM (General Hotel Management). “But when you do the math and break this down per person per night, you’re looking at USD 587. Not cheap, but compared to other resorts in our league on the island, we’re all of a sudden quite affordable.” 

That price point includes unfettered run of the 5-hectare estate, located just a few kilometers from Ubud in the central foothills of Bali. All meals are included, as are spa treatments, yoga classes, a cycling tour, cooking classes, rice paddy trekking, chauffeured car service and a nightly cultural performance.

A butler attends to each of the resort’s 20 villas, catering to whims as offhand as the need for tea, as academic as cultural interpretation and as spirited as a guided trek through the property’s rice fields to the neighboring village.

The property was built in the early 1980s as a private retreat for one of Indonesia’s foremost architects and interior designers, Hendra Hadripana. Tanah Gajah (Elephant Realm) is a reference to a nearby Hindu temple. Representations of elephants in various artistic guise roam the resort as its principle motif.

Considered the cultural heart and soul of Bali, Ubud reigns as the island’s most dreamy destination. And with spacious suites and villas and sight lines that channel directly into idyllic rice paddies all around, The Chedi Club Tanah Gajah encourages that dream state. Its traditional Balinese architecture is a cultural experience in its own right.

After some 20 years as a private estate, Hadripana and GHM recast the property as a boutique resort. Its debut attracted a great deal of acclaim from the world’s most prestigious arbiters of travel, including Conde Nast Traveler, which elevated the resort to its coveted Hot List in 2005.

Though Hadripana has since built a new estate nearby, his legacy is considerable. More than 100 paintings from his personal collection grace the resort’s walls. His sculptures accent the grounds. The amphitheater he designed for traditional dance performances still reverberates with the chants of iconic Balinese art forms. Indeed, a private performance of the famed Kecak Dance is likely to resonate as one of the most distinctive features of Bali Confidential.

The buy-out package is a first for a hotel managed by GHM, a resort group that’s cultivated one of the most rarified collections of resort hotels in the world, including The  Nam Hai in Vietnam, The Setai on SouthBeach in Miami and The Datai in Langkawi, Malaysia.
“At Tanah Gajah, our intimate size lends itself to a resort experience that caters to just the right size,” said Noll. “We’re not too big, and yet not so small that this is a commonplace development.”

The hotel expects Bali Confidential to attract travelers seeking the ultimate in privacy, whether they be extended families planning reunions, bridal parties wanting intimate settings or senior executives looking to host exclusive corporate retreats.