We stayed in the Kintamani area for 3 days and the purpose of our stay was pure relaxation. It came at a point in our Bali itinerary where we’d been hopping around a bit and it was lovely to have a few days where we didn’t have to do anything or go anywhere, we could chill out, read some books and relax.

Kintamani is a mountainous area in Eastern Bali and it first came into my awareness due to the popularity of climbing the volcano there, Mount Batur.

Whilst no hiker I was taken by the pictures of the volcano, it represented my ideal scenery so started looking at places to stay in the area. Our drive there was just beautiful and I couldn’t stop looking out the windows. The area isn’t touristic at all and it has allowed for the natural beauty of the area to flourish.

I found Villa Jempana, which we booked for £30 a night. It sat right on the rim of the caldera which meant from our pool we had the most amazing views of both the mountain and the lake. The hotel consisted of 5 separate buildings, each containing a bedroom, kitchen area and en suite. We could step right out of our room into the pool area, even though despite visiting at peak season we hardly ever saw another guest. It was always so lovely and serene.

The staff were just so incredibly friendly throughout our whole stay. We didn’t leave the hotel at any point during our stay. We ate at the villa’s restaurant for our entire stay, the food was always good and it was incredibly good value. There was also enough options that we were happy to eat there for each meal.

Climbing Mount Batur was not on our itinerary, despite a sunrise hike being the most popular thing to do in the area. I’d read up before our trip and the active volcano seemed reasonably challenging to hike and there was always the problem of us not really having the correct footwear or clothing. We decided to enjoy the view from our pool instead.

My absolute favourite activity of the trip was to float in the pool and look out over the lake. It’s the largest crater lake in Bali and it’s just so beautiful. On one of the nights at the restaurant we did have the fish from the Lake for dinner, a type of Tilapia.

Our stay at Kintamani was so lovely and whilst some may have been bored I loved it and would have been happy to extend.