Indonesia

We kept coming back to Bali’s interior. Ubud, the island’s cultural and spiritual center, sits inland among rice paddies and jungle, and we’ve returned to it on more than one trip to the island. Mandapa Ritz-Carlton puts you right inside that jungle. Bisma Eight is smaller and more boutique, built around a roof terrace over the jungle canopy — its restaurant, Copper Kitchen and Bar, takes over most of that same roof, hanging plants and all, with a bar topped entirely in copper. Purist Villas, also in Ubud, is smaller still: a private retreat designed to look like nowhere else on the island.

On the coast, The Legian has anchored Seminyak since before the area became the busy strip it is today, and rivals springing up around it haven’t changed how it runs. The Ritz-Carlton, Nusa Dua sits on the Bukit Peninsula, where five-star hotels are the norm rather than the exception. And the Sheraton, Kuta puts you right across from the beach in the island’s busiest, least polished tourist hub — worth a stay if you want to see that side of Bali too.