#19 in Top 20 Bali for a Wellness Retreat · 24 villas
Tanah Gajah, a Resort by Hadiprana
A private art estate near Ubud, once The Chedi Club, now the slow and design-led corner of our Bali wellness list.
A private art estate near Ubud, once The Chedi Club, now the slow and design-led corner of our Bali wellness list.
Because it treats wellness as rest, not a curriculum. Tanah Gajah is one of the smallest properties on this list, just 24 private villas set across a large garden-and-rice-paddy estate in Tegallalang, north of Ubud. It began life as the private country retreat of Hendra Hadiprana, one of Indonesia's most influential art dealers and designers, and later operated as The Chedi Club at Tanah Gajah under the GHM group, a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. Today it runs independently as a Resort by Hadiprana, and that lineage is the whole point: this is a family estate turned hotel, not a hotel dressed up as one.
The estate doubles as a gallery. Its pavilions and public spaces hold a genuinely museum-quality collection of 20th-century Indonesian art, and a member of staff can walk you through it. The architecture uses traditional Balinese materials and proportions with a restrained, contemporary hand, and the villas are large, low and private, several with their own pools. For a wellness traveller, the offer is space, silence and a strong sense of place, the ingredients of real rest, rather than a packed schedule of classes.
The Hadiprana name carries weight in Indonesia. Hendra Hadiprana founded one of the country's most respected design and art galleries, and Tanah Gajah, which translates roughly as Land of the Elephant, was his personal expression of that world in built form. Where many Bali resorts borrow Balinese motifs as decoration, here the culture is the substance: the antiques, textiles and paintings are a working collection, the gardens are tended as a designed landscape, and even the elephant sculptures that give the estate its name are part of a considered whole. Staying here feels less like checking into a hotel and more like being a guest in a cultured family's country house, which is precisely the experience a certain traveller is looking for and cannot find at a branded resort.
Ask for a private-pool villa, and the larger residence layout if you are travelling as a family or a group. Because the whole estate is villas rather than rooms, the meaningful choice is between the pool categories and the multi-bedroom residence, which works for a family buy-out or a small celebration. Whichever you pick, request a villa set deeper into the gardens for the most privacy and the best rice-paddy outlook; the quiet is a large part of what you are paying for, and the villas closer to the entrance and restaurant trade a little of it for convenience. It is worth calling ahead to flag any preference, because with only 24 villas the team can genuinely tailor the assignment, and a request made at booking carries far more weight here than at a resort with hundreds of rooms.
Take the guided walk through the art collection on your first morning; the 20th-century Indonesian works are the estate's signature and easy to miss on your own. Then book a rice-paddy-side table at Tepi Sawah for dinner, ideally at golden hour when the terraces light up.
Dining centres on Tepi Sawah, the estate restaurant that sits literally at the edge of the rice paddies and serves Indonesian and Balinese cooking alongside a lighter international menu. It is intimate rather than a multi-venue operation, which fits the scale of the place; do not come expecting a roster of restaurants, but do expect a strong sense of occasion at dinner. The kitchen leans on local produce, and private in-villa dining is easy to arrange.
Design is the other headline. Everything on the estate, from the carved stonework to the furniture and the placement of each artwork, reflects Hadiprana's eye, and the result reads as a curated home rather than a branded resort. That coherence is rare and is a big reason design-conscious travellers single Tanah Gajah out. It is warm and personal where a large jungle resort can feel corporate, and the service, unhurried and genuinely attentive, matches the register.
The spa and wellness side is deliberately gentle. Expect a small, calm treatment offering built around Balinese massage and traditional therapies, plus yoga that can be arranged in the pavilions or in your villa, rather than a clinic-style menu of biohacking and fixed daily classes. Guests who want to fill their days can pair the estate with Ubud's wider wellness scene, from healing practitioners to cooking classes and temple visits, using Tanah Gajah as the quiet base to come home to. That flexibility suits couples and solo travellers who want the option of activity without the obligation of a program, and it is why we frame the property as a restorative retreat rather than a structured one.
It ranks #19 because it is deliberately narrow: it does one thing, slow art-led calm, extremely well, and does not try to be an all-rounder. Here is how it reads against two neighbours on our Bali wellness list.
| Property | Best for | Scale | Editor score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tanah Gajah (#19) | Art, design, slow privacy | 24 villas, estate | 9.4 |
| Bulgari Resort Bali (#18) | Cliff-top glamour, dramatic design | Large clifftop resort | 9.5 |
| Alila Ubud (#20) | Valley-view infinity pool, jungle calm | Mid-size Ubud resort | 9.3 |
Read that way, the pick depends on temperament. Bulgari is the showpiece for travellers who want glamour and a scene; Alila Ubud is the classic jungle-and-infinity-pool Ubud experience; Tanah Gajah is the quiet, cultured, low-key choice for guests who would rather stay in a beautiful private home than a resort. That focus is exactly what earns it a place here.
Tanah Gajah is special, but it is not the right base for every trip. Weigh these before booking.
Tanah Gajah sits on Jalan Raya Goa Gajah in Tegallalang, in the rice-terrace country a short drive north of central Ubud and well inland from Bali's southern beaches. Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS) is roughly 75 to 90 minutes away by car depending on the notorious south-Bali traffic, so arrange a private transfer and travel outside peak hours if you can. Ubud town, with its temples, markets and restaurants, is about 20 to 30 minutes away, close enough for day trips but far enough to keep the estate serene. The famous Tegallalang rice terraces are practically on the doorstep.
Yes. It operated as The Chedi Club at Tanah Gajah and was a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. It now runs independently as Tanah Gajah, a Resort by Hadiprana, on the same grounds.
Just 24 private villas across a large garden-and-rice-paddy estate near Ubud. That low density is central to the private-retreat feel.
For gentle, unstructured wellness, yes. The programme is spa, yoga and slow days rather than an intensive schedule, so book it for restorative calm and design, not a boot-camp retreat.
Ngurah Rai (DPS) is roughly 75 to 90 minutes by car; central Ubud is about 20 to 30 minutes.
It was art patron Hendra Hadiprana's private estate and doubles as a gallery of 20th-century Indonesian art, with a coherent, personal design that larger resorts cannot match.
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