#5 in Top 20 Bali for A Wellness Retreat · ★★★★★
Capella Ubud, Bali
Bill Bensley-designed explorer-tent suites, wellness as theatrical retreat.
Bill Bensley-designed explorer-tent suites, wellness as theatrical retreat.
"Bill Bensley's all-tent Ubud property, the most-photographed tented wellness retreat in Asia."
Why this rank, Capella Ubud opened in 2018 in the Ubud rainforest at Keliki, designed by Bill Bensley as a tented camp inspired by the European explorer tradition. 23 tents across the property, including the Tent at the Top of the World and the multi-bedroom Cliff Edge Tent. Auriga Wellness is the property's wellness operation; the curriculum runs across half-day, one-day and three-day programmes integrating massage, sound healing, the property's herbal apothecary, and the moon-cycle-aligned rituals from the Balinese Saka calendar. Api Jiwa restaurant runs the wellness-aligned dining; Mads Lange handles the formal dinner anchor. The Bensley design (the Bali jungle reinterpreted through the explorer-camp lens) is the property's structural difference from the more traditionally Balinese Mandapa or Como Shambhala. Best for the design-led Bali wellness stay where the tented architecture is part of the curriculum.
Best room: Cliff Edge Tent, multi-bedroom, jungle view
"Bill Bensley-designed explorer-tent suites, wellness as theatrical retreat."
Capella Ubud is the most theatrical resort on this list. Bill Bensley, the Bangkok-based designer behind Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle and Six Senses Krabey Island, designed the property as a 19th-century European explorer's camp in the Bali jungle. Twenty-three tents, each themed around a different colonial-era profession (the Naturalist Tent, the Cartographer's Tent, the Photographer's Tent), every one with a freestanding copper bath, a private plunge pool, and full air conditioning under the canvas. The Auriga Spa runs Indonesian treatment programmes that are tied to lunar phases, guests on arrival are given a chart of the upcoming moon cycle and treatments are scheduled to coincide. The signature programme is the Healing Hut sound bath, a private session with a Balinese sound healer in a custom-built bamboo dome. The kitchen at Api Jiwa (the in-house restaurant) is plant-forward and runs a tasting menu that uses ingredients from the on-site garden. Capella Ubud is the right pick for the wellness retreat that wants the Bali jungle experience but in the most-imaginatively-designed setting on the island.
Keliki Pool Tent (the largest, with the longest pool) or any explorer-themed Tent for the design experience.
Book the Auriga Spa lunar-phase consultation on arrival, the treatment schedule for the rest of the trip aligns with the moon cycle. The Healing Hut sound bath is a unique 90-minute programme; book it for the second night.
Capella Ubud, Bali sits within our broader Top 20 Hotels in Bali for a Wellness Retreat list. It scored an aggregate 9.7/10 across the three editorial criteria, competitive against the field but, on a wellness retreat-specific factors, the angle above is what earned its rank. For the alternatives in the same Bali neighbourhood, see Keliki, Ubud and adjacent. For a different city entirely, see the related lists below.
If you have already chosen the dates, our editor recommends booking the room twelve weeks ahead. The best suites with the right view orientation go first, and inventory for the popular months is quoted in months, not weeks. Suite-level rooms with private plunge pools or terraces, the ones that earn this rank, are typically the first to sell out.
Editorial · #5 on the Top 20 Wellness Retreat Hotels 2026 list
Capella Ubud's case for the wellness retreat is the Bensley-designed tented architecture. Bill Bensley designed the property as a tented camp inspired by the European explorer tradition; the 23 tents across the Ubud rainforest at Keliki include the Tent at the Top of the World and the multi-bedroom Cliff Edge Tent.
Auriga Wellness runs the property's wellness curriculum across half-day, one-day and three-day programmes integrating massage, sound healing, the property's herbal apothecary, and the moon-cycle-aligned rituals from the Balinese Saka calendar. The wellness director coordinates the curriculum with the property's daily rhythm (sunrise yoga, mid-morning curriculum block, afternoon recovery, sunset meditation).
Api Jiwa restaurant runs the wellness-aligned dining; Mads Lange handles the formal dinner anchor with Indonesian-tradition cuisine. The Bensley design (the Bali jungle reinterpreted through the explorer-camp lens) is the structural difference from the more traditionally Balinese Mandapa or Como Shambhala; the tented architecture produces a different sensory register that some wellness guests prefer to the pavilion-based Bali properties. Best for the design-led Bali wellness stay where the tented architecture is part of the curriculum.