Bliss Sanctuary For Women

Bliss Sanctuary for Women was founded by Zoe Watson, who set it up after struggling to find a wellness stay that offered solitude and flexibility without the regimented schedule of a group retreat. The result is a deliberately small, women-only operation: somewhere a woman can travel alone without being alone, rest on her own timetable, and be looked after closely rather than processed through a programme.

The model is unusual, and worth understanding before booking. This is not a conventional hotel — it is an all-inclusive, women-only retreat, with no couples and no children, that takes a handful of guests at a time. The Seminyak sanctuary has five rooms and a maximum of six guests, with three hostesses on hand, and the stay bundles in unlimited spa treatments, yoga, meals and a personal driver, all on a flexible, choose-your-own-day basis rather than a fixed itinerary. Guests dine together most evenings, which for solo travellers is much of the appeal.

The setting is a quiet alley in Seminyak, southern Bali's shopping-and-beach district, close enough to walk to the action but tucked away from it. The rooms lean bohemian-Indonesian — cane and teak, crisp white linen, leafy indoor-outdoor bathrooms with stone baths — and cluster around a pool, gardens and poolside cabanas where treatments are given. It is run by the same small group as two further sanctuaries elsewhere on the island, but each is booked and experienced as its own intimate house. For the solo female traveller, the woman recovering from burnout, or anyone who wants a soft, unhurried week of being looked after, it occupies a niche almost nothing else in Bali fills.