Villa Vice in Canggu, Bali

In the peak season this year, without prior reservations, we couldn't find a reasonably priced beach resort in Bali. We changed the strategy therefore and started looking at renting a villa. It was a pleasant surprise to find Villa Vice in Canguu.

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The Villa Vice in Bali (the name is a playful reference to Miami Vice) is a lovely beach rental on the edge of Canguu in Bali. We also found it to be great value as the personable Canadian expat owners were willing to negotiate, even during the high season between Christmas and New Years. But that might change in the future as Canggu draws more of the overflow from Seminyak-Legian-Kuta developments.

We found the whole 4-bedroom villa rental on the website called VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner). It's also listed on AirBnB as a one-room rental in a B&B arrangement.

Villa Vice has four, individually lockable bedrooms, each with its own washroom, the master ensuite washroom being larger than our entire hotel room had been in Singapore. Spaciousness is a key luxury feature here; the furnishings, being "minimalist", certainly don't get in the way. Ceilings are high and the decor throughout is white with pale, sea-blue accents.  There are many glass doors and glass walls allowing light to wash over every room. It's good for the spirit to live in such sunlight, indeed a diametrically opposite experience from the atmospheric, but dark, richly carved wooden Balinese homes of Ubud.  And with every room of this elegant beach house separately air conditioned, it also comfortably offsets the off-the-scale humidity during this wretchedly hot, wet season. But if you prefer to open up the enormous living room glass-shuttered wall, you can get a good cross-breeze. It's not cooling, but it's pleasant, and good for the skin.

There's a small pool within the walled villa flanked by comfortable lounge chairs with thick towels. It's refreshing although at twenty feet long, you won't get much exercise.

Dinner at Echo Beach

While you can walk for long distances in either direction along the beach, the stretch nearest to the villa is not good for swimming. The current is strong and there's a powerful undertow. Still, beach walking is perfect if you don't mind sand the colour of mud. Once you negotiate a 200 metre cow path between the villa and the beach (the doe-eyed cows milling about the open fields are docile), it's an easy five minute walk to Echo Beach central. There are lots of restaurants there with tables spilling into the open air where you can eat fresh seafood barbecued to order. And ten minutes past Echo Beach and the current end of the sea wall, there's a very good swimming beach. There are beach chairs at one of the hotels that can be rented, or come free when you buy a drink. 

Included with the Villa is a housekeeper for daily cleaning, a maintenance man for daily pool cleaning and trouble-shooting, and a cook. We can take all our meals here if we choose provided we pay for the food. It's especially handy that the cook will also do the market shopping based on our list since being local she can get the best prices. Note that it's important to let the staff cook in the Indonesian manner since they are most comfortable with that cuisine.
 

One of the Four Ensuite Washrooms

Canggu is a small town, isolated for now from the traffic chaos and commercial buzz of Kuta, Legian, and Seminyak Bali's well developed resort areas. Up until a few years ago, Echo Beach was a lonely strip of surfing beach (at their best, the waves can be world class) sandwiched by crystal blue sea on one side and chartreuse rice fields. But development has come to Echo Beach and there are new villa and mall constructions pushing out the pastoral world.

Villa Vice is a great place to park yourself and your big family for a reunion since this property is large. Bring a good book, enjoy some good food, watch the crazy surfers dance over the waves.

Practical Information: You can hire a driver from the airport in Denpasar to drive you to the villa, but first you'll need to be in conversation with the owners so they can give you an e-mail with instructions to give the driver. It's something about turning right at the corrogated metal fence on the road to Echo Beach. Never assume that drivers know how to get around the island, particularly given the pace of change these days.