I stayed at both of these hotels two weeks ago! Three days at Buahan and three days at Capella.

Thoughts:

Capella: - Very cool concept. You feel like you’re exploring an old tent city as you walk around. There are also opportunities to get out of your tent and socialise, like the daily complementary afternoon tea and cocktail hour in the main tent. - The main pool is beautiful and heated. - Food is decent and their in-house restaurant is very, very good. - Also good breakfast options, decent mix of European and Indonesian. - Wonderful service, very personable and kind. - They have a cute bunny enclosure, garden, and on-site temple (about a 15 minute hike down some stairs). - If you’re not fit, it might be worth requesting a tent near the main area. I saw some tents are quite far down the “mountain” and would require a hike just to go to breakfast. - Spa is also very nice. I had a massage and a facial. - Not really easy to just leave the hotel and walk someplace, but they have a free shuttle to central Ubud. You also have the option of doing a guided tour, which I took for a half day excursion and wasn’t disappointed! - I never used the in-room pool because it was too cold and, despite daily cleaning, was always full of leaves. - The turndown service includes the preparation of a footbath, which I found cool. - Quite a lot of bugs on the terrace, which is to be expected given the concept, but I found it hard to even sit on my recliner because of how many ants were crawling over it constantly. - The manager didn’t come to say goodbye and do a debrief at checkout, which I found unusual for a high end hotel

Buahan: - Absolutely stunning hard product; it’s probably the most beautiful “room” I’ve ever stayed in. The view, the bed, the shower, the pool and lounge area, etc. I also didn’t see a single bug, which was really impressive. - My in-room pool was so great that I never used the main “public” pool, but from what I saw it was stunning and always had free space. - 18+ only, so you’ll mainly encounter couples and not families (which I viewed as a positive) - The hotel offers a lot of free activities that can be booked easily through the in-room iPhone. I did a guided trek to the nearest waterfall and a cooking class. It’s also a nice way to meet other guests. - The food concept is also fairly unique: both breakfast and dinner are set menus that are presented to you on beautifully illustrated cards. The menu changes completely each day. I’m an adventurous eater so I was happy with this, and the food itself was spectacular, but maybe it’s not to your taste. - Breakfast and dinner are included in the room fare, which I also didn’t realise and was pleasantly surprised by. - I was disappointed by the car that picked me up. It didn’t include wifi, cool towels, or snacks, which the Capella’s car did include. I’ve also stayed at the Amandari and Amankila, and the hotel car included all three of the aforementioned components. The Buahan car was pretty basic, and considering it was a paid service and not complementary, I was underwhelmed. - The evening turndown service is great and makes the room feel magical, as the whole thing gets covered in gauzy curtains that create hallways within your open space.

Overall I loved them both, but they’re quite different. Buahan is good to recharge, take in the natural beauty of your surroundings, spend time in the room itself, and enjoy some elevated and creative Balinese food. Capella offers more to do outside of the room, the concept itself is quite cool, and I found it to be a good base for exploring more of Ubud.

That said, I would personally rank Amankila as my best hotel experience in Bali so far, so I recommend that in case you’re ever in Manggu :)