As a slow traveler, I’ve always wanted to visit East Bali but didn’t want to do it how people usually do it - which is, as a day trip. I prefer staying overnight at places people often day trip to, so that I can spend more time exploring the area, soaking it in, and checking out off-the-beaten-path places people often skip due to trying to see everything so quickly.

So when I decided we wanted to visit Pura Lempuyang (The Gateway to Heaven and some other nearby attractions), I started researching to see which village would be best to base ourselves, should we wish to stay overnight. We came across Amed, an off-the-beaten path village nearby all the attractions in East Bali. It is here that we found the beautiful The Griya Villas and Spa.

We based ourselves at The Griya for two nights and thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. The resort here is small and intimate with just 14 villas. I love places like these, where it feels so homely and the staff know your name. Many of the villas also have pools, so even when the resort is at full occupancy, the common areas are quiet which makes the stay feel so private and luxurious.

Here’s a tour of our stay at The Griya.

Our villa

We stayed in villa 13, a pool villa at The Griya Resort and Spas. This villa was so spacious and beautiful, with one building for the sleeping headquarters and one building for the kitchen, dining and living space. Outside, we had a gorgeous infinity style pool which overlooked the sunrise and ocean, a gorgeous garden and of course sun lounges to relax on too. The villa was decked out with all you needed including plenty of towels, fresh fruits and even reusable drink bottles and a water dispenser to eliminate plastic drink bottle waste - something I super appreciated seeing. It’s the type of place you’d want to stay in every day at and whilst we had a few sightseeing spots to check out, we also sure did a lot of staying in as well!

Resort grounds

The Griya’s grounds include a beautiful infinity pool, a restaurant, cafe, and rooftop bar where they hold regular movie nights with free popcorn and drinks! There is also beautiful garden spaces, a spa, boutique shop, gym and more.

Romantic candlelight dinner

We were lucky to try the romantic candlelight dinner during our stay at The Griya. This is an experience which you can book to have either on the resort grounds, or in your own villa. We chose the latter as we had a gorgeous space in our villa for a more intimate and private experience. If you choose to have the candlelight dinner in your villa, the staff will come early to set it up beforehand - the staff do a fabulous job with this, there were candles arranged on the ground in a heart shape, a rose and also flower leis for the both of us! The candlelight dinner is a 4 course meal consisting of an entree, soup, main and dessert. Everything that we chose from the menu came beautifully presented and was absolutely delightful. It was one of the best experiences we had on our whole trip!

Floating breakfast

The Griya also offers a fun floating breakfast option which is definitely a must-do in Bali. With the hot tropical sun, a floating breakfast enjoyed in the pool is surprisingly refreshing! The breakfast menu at The Griya is scrumptious and extensive - you can choose a hot drink, cold drink and two dishes per person and it is served with pastries as well. As breakfast is included with your stay, upgrading it to a floating breakfast simply comes with a surcharge for the set up/experience. I definitely recommend this experience as well, it was our first time enjoying a floating breakfast in Bali and it was so damn fun!

Spa

For those who love a little R&R, head up to The Griya’s Channa spa, where you can select from a wide range of treatments, including their signature specialty which is the Emerald Revitalisation Treatment where emeralds are placed on special points on your face and body to rejuvenate with healing energy. If this intrigues you, t’s a unique experience worth trying out as I’ve never seen it offered anywhere else before!

Cooking class

On our last day at The Griya, we tried out their cooking class - this was also our first time participating in a cooking class and luckily for us we had a very skilled chef Ari guiding us. Without him I don’t think we’d be anywhere near successful in creating the dishes he had planned for us to make! With Ari, we chopped and cooked up a storm, making a variety of traditional Indonesian dishes by creating a special fish mince. We also made a couple of sides to go with our main as well! Once you finish cooking, you get to try everything out! After enjoying the fruits of our labour, Ari called us back to teach us how to make a popular Indonesian desert, but let’s be real, Ari ended up doing most of the cooking whilst we watched about nursing our food comas. If you love cooking in general, then a cooking class would definitely be something to check out.

Location

The Griya is situated near numerous local eateries, the beach and of course, plenty of sightseeing attractions. When we stayed at The Griya, we found it to be the perfect base for exploring Pura Lempuyang, Tirta Gangga, Ujung Water Palace and Mt Agung Viewpoint. It’s the perfect place to base yourself when exploring East Bali and it makes for so much more a relaxing stay when you’re not doing long day trip to East Bali.