Indonesia: Seventeen
Thousand Islands of Wonder

Featured Accommodation

Selat, Sidemen Region, East Bali

Hideout Bali — hand-built bamboo houses on a river beneath Gunung Agung

Hidden in the jungle of East Bali near Sidemen, Hideout was the original bamboo eco-lodge in the region — and at one point the fourth most-wished-for listing on Airbnb worldwide, booked out months in advance. Every structure is built from locally sourced bamboo, a fast-growing, low-carbon material that lets each house sit inside its riverside setting rather than on top of it.

No two hideouts are alike. Falcon is a cosy one-bedroom with a private hot tub, net lounge and koi pond. Beehive has two bedrooms and a heated pool over the river, with Mount Agung visible from the bed each morning. Element has a rotating 360-degree round bed beneath a skylight and a cave-like stone rain shower. Options run from an affordable rice-field villa to a multi-level treehouse with its own infinity pool.

It is a genuine digital detox rather than a marketed one: limited Wi-Fi, minimal electricity, no air conditioning, and in the more rustic villas an outdoor bathroom. Meals are ordered directly to your house, often by WhatsApp. Guests who want climate control and a fully enclosed room should say so — and we will suggest somewhere else. Everyone who comes for the river and the night chorus tends to stay longer than planned.