After the 20-minute sail across southeast Lombok's Awang Bay, stepping onto the honey-hued sands of Innit feels like arriving at a private island retreat. It's easy to be fooled into thinking you're all alone here: Mammoth boulders and steep cliffs border the shore on one side, and a string of undeveloped coves stretches out from the other. Wedged in between, Innit's seven beach houses are the only signs of life. Designed by celebrated Indonesian architects Gregorius Yolodi and Andra Matin, who took cues from Lombok's stilted lumbung barns, they all feature two terrazzo-floor bedrooms surrounded by glass walls and vertical slats made from local timber. Down at the breezy restaurant, Indonesian classics such as deconstructed gado gado with tempeh cubes and cabbage roll-ups are served with endearing fine-dining pizzazz. Innit can also organize paddleboard tours, surf lessons, and spear-fishing expeditions, followed by a bonfire on the beach, where the catch is grilled.
For the longest time, clued-in travelers headed to Lombok would make a beeline for the Gilis, a trio of coral-ringed islets off the western coast—but the arrival of a few choice hotels has made lingering on the larger island an equally alluring proposition. Among them is Somewhere, an all-villa hideaway tumbling down a steep hill on the island's beach-hemmed south, where coconut groves bedeck the landscape and surfers bob on the waves breaking just offshore. Opened by French Chinese sisters Claire and Valia Gontard, whose grandfather grew up on Lombok, the hotel's airy villas, clad in polished concrete and blond woods, open onto snug balconies with saltwater plunge pools and views of the surrounding countryside. At sunset, when the call to prayer from a nearby village competes with the mellow tunes drifting from the hilltop lounge, guests in Birkenstocks and sun-faded Hawaiian shirts gather on beanbags to sip lemongrass mojitos and lychee martinis before tucking into a spread of first-rate beef tataki and turmeric-rubbed chicken skewers at the hotel's restaurant.
Many loyalists will agree that Canggu, southwest Bali's surfer hub turned expatriate epicenter, is no longer the refuge it once was. Over the past few years, in-the-know travelers have gravitated toward still-sleepy Pererenan, one beach to the west. Chefs and baristas quickly followed, and with the opening of Further Hotel last July, there is now a seriously cool place to stay. Conceived as a “diffused hotel,” it has 11 suites spread between two terra-cotta-tinted buildings on separate sites along Pererenan's main drag. They blessedly eschew done-to-death tropical Brutalism and wicker-and-white aesthetics in favor of a novel look: think tactile plaster covering floors, walls, and ceilings in burnt sienna and furnishings in stone, leather, and blackened timber. Bar Vera, in the larger building, has a dinner menu and apéro-heavy drinks list inspired by Parisian bistros. But soon, the hotel will expand, with two more locations around the village plus a rooftop pool, breakfast spot, radio station, and art gallery.
This article appeared in the December 2023 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here. All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
