Bali resorts to spa-ing

THERE are two ways to go about visiting Bali. You can fry on the beach and shuffle around souvenir shops or escape to the pampering spas in the hills around Ubud.

You can fry on the beach and shuffle around souvenir shops, then end the day by adding curries to your waistline and nightclub bags to your eyes.

Or you can escape the tourist concrete to glorious landscapes and village life, get pampered and pummelled into a state of bliss, and finish off the evening afloat in frangipani petals.

If you think Bali is all about rowdy beach holidays, it's time to head to the hills in the beautiful interior of the island, where time moves at an entirely different rhythm to the tourist resorts of the coastline.

In recent years, dozens of spa resorts have opened in and around the inland town of Ubud.

They offer a slower and more sophisticated alternative to the usual beach holiday and are guaranteed to have you feeling fit and fantastic.

Gone are the days when a massage consisted of being prodded by an elderly lady as you lay prone on the Kuta sand.

In Ubud, you recline in the private plunge pool of a hillside villa overlooking the rice paddies. You get massaged by an expert, then drift off in a cocoon wrap that is a heady mix of mango, ginger and ylang-ylang.

Source: News.com.au