Capella Ubud

Nobody cut down a tree to build Capella Ubud. The camp went in round them, down a steep hillside of rainforest above the Wos River at Keliki, and in places what looks like a post holding up the roof is a trunk, still growing. Bill Bensley dressed it as a camp of the European settlers of the early 1800s and gave each tent a trade to furnish it by: the Naturalist's, say, or the Toy Maker's. A tent is a peak of dark canvas over a wooden veranda and a plunge pool, with the forest pressed up against both. Inside, the expedition has done well for itself: a four-poster hung with grey-blue drapes, a carved head with long horns between turquoise shutters, a copper bath hammered by hand, and the minibar packed in a wooden trunk. By the bed stands a dial telephone, which no settler of the 1800s ever had to answer.

Recommended for couples who want the forest at the door, and for families once the children are past six: the paths are steep, and the Lodge is the one with a second bedroom. Breakfast is at Mads Lange, named after a Danish spice trader who reached Bali around 1840, the one settler here with a name of his own. Dinner is at Api Jiwa, sixteen seats and a chef's tasting menu off the robata grill, and guests praise both meals. The hotel arranges rice-paddy treks and 4x4 trips up to Lake Batur, and the Tegallalang terraces are four minutes away by car. The saltwater pool lies along the valley floor between walls of forest, tiled in green chevrons, with water pouring in from grey pipes fitted with valve wheels. The bar beside it is called Mortar & Pestle, and makes its cocktails with one.