A two-bedroom private pool villa in Ubud

You arrive through a carved timber gate into a walled courtyard built around the pool: green mosaic tiling, dark stone coping that curves at one corner, a built-in entry step and a bench to sit on.

Be clear on the scale, though. This is a compact plunge pool, for cooling off between trips into town and sitting in with a coffee at eight in the morning. It is not a pool you swim laps in, and we would rather you know that now than after check-in.

The living pavilion sits directly on the pool deck, and its glass wall retracts, so the room either has a fourth side or it does not, depending on what you want from the afternoon.

Open, it is a covered terrace with a timber ceiling, ceiling fan and warm cove lighting. Closed, it is a room with a Smart TV, Netflix and a sound system. The open-plan kitchen runs off the same space, with a two-burner gas hob, microwave, toaster oven, blender, rice cooker and a water dispenser with free drinking water. No full oven, so plan around roasting.

Both bedrooms have a king bed, air conditioning, an electronic safe, room-darkening shades and a floating teak desk. Neither is the consolation prize, which matters when you are splitting a villa with friends.

One sits on the pool level. The other is reached by an external stone staircase, and it is worth the climb: two full glass walls and its own rattan-furnished terrace over the palm canopy. If stairs are a problem for anyone in your group, put them in the ground-floor bedroom and take the upstairs one yourself.

Across the three bathrooms: a freestanding stone soaking bathtub set against a garden window with a small Balinese stone shrine beside it, a walk-in rain shower, a terrazzo vanity and a slatted teak wardrobe. The bathtub is one of the nicest corners of the villa.