Review: Further

Why book?

To tap into Bali’s surfer-cool creative scene without the tropes and crowds of the island’s more established hubs.

Set the scene

Once you’ve left behind the scooter crush of Canggu, Bali’s bar-packed expat epicentre, arriving in still-sleepy Pererenan feels like travelling a decade back in time. While gentrification has certainly left its marks, rice paddies and mustard-hued temple sites still dominate the streetscape of this small Balinese seaside village. At its heart, Further’s main building – one of the two buildings that finished construction when the hotel opened in April 2023 – is impossible to miss: it rises out like a tropical-Brutalist edifice from terracotta-tinted bricks, and is perennially circled by a steady coming-and-going of impossibly hip guests with MacBooks, tote bags and surfboards in their tattoo-clad arms. Inside, the vibe is surfer-cool, but without any of the tropes we’ve come to expect from Bali’s boutique stays. Art by an international roster of painters and photographers (including Meg Gallagher, Cara Stricker, and Jonny Watzlawick) lines the walls, and a halo of potted Elephant Ears and Monstera plants add a dash of tropic.

The backstory

Calling Further a hotel would be doing it a disservice. For starters, the concept is conceived as a ‘diffused hotel’ (a riff on Italy’s alberghi diffusi), with multiple buildings along Pererenan’s main drag housing pieces of Further’s ambitious puzzle. Two buildings are currently in operation; several more are in the works and should open phase-by-phase in the coming years. Further is also more than just a place to eat and sleep: the team has gathered a small collective of artists, musicians and entrepreneurs (including Claudio Cuccu and his wife Martine McGrath, who previously founded Canggu institution The Slow) to build out the brand as a full-fledged lifestyle concept. Other partners include the folks behind Australian surf label Thomas Surfboards, who opened their first Indonesian store on the ground floor of the hotel’s main building; and Jakarta-based natural skincare brand Oaken, who concocted Further’s woody-scented toiletries and operate a boutique on the premises.

The rooms

Further is still a project in progress, but its first eleven suites, spread over the upper floors of the main building, offer a taste of what’s in store. Each room is a high-design hideout covered top-to-bottom in deeply textured, terracotta-toned stucco. The beds, sheeted with tactile linen in creamy white and slate grey, sink into the floor and come with bespoke reading lights cut from dark travertine. Heavy-set furnishing, all blackened wood, leather and cast-iron, seems to be plucked from a Rick Owens showroom, while wall-sized black-and-white photographs soften the somewhat masculine look. The building’s facade, a breezy pattern of loosely stacked bricks, wraps around the windows and balcony – they throw shadowy patterns on the walls at sunrise and shield off prying eyes from the plant-clad outdoor rain shower. Additional suites and poolside rooms in Further’s other buildings will follow in the coming years.

Food and drink

Vera, taking over the breezy indoor-outdoor space on the ground floor of the main building, is the hotel’s only restaurant (for now). It opens for sunset drinks and dinner and combines Parisian bistro vibes with tropical touches. The drink list is apéro-focused (think dirty martinis with wagyu fat-washed gin or sweet sherry from Spain), while the food menu riffs on bistro classics such as beef tartare (spiced with sambal) and barramundi in saffron butter sauce. Until the hotel opens its own cafe (planned for Further’s next iteration), breakfasts of hot-from-the-oven croissants, sourdough bread, fruits, and yoghurt come delivered to your room in a picnic basket.

The spa

There is no spa, but with dozens of massage joints and yoga shalas and wellness centres within walking distance, that’s hardly an issue.

The neighbourhood/area

While new restaurants and bars are slowly popping up around on-the-up Pererenan, this village still feels miles away from the chaos of Canggu, one beach to the east. Rice fields and finely wrought temples still line its main road, and surf-ready Pererenan Beach sees only a fraction of the crowds that dawn upon neighbouring Echo Beach and Batu Bolong Beach. A stay at Further puts you within walking distance of Pererenan’s most inspired hangouts, including neo-Balinese restaurant Home by Chef Wayan and British chef Stephen Moore’s Shelter, whose chermoula-crusted chicken shouldn’t be missed.

The service

A duo of bubbly young locals is stationed behind the lobby desk and offers a wealth of local intel; from the best brunch joints to the surf spots to hit up.

For families

Children are welcome, but the vibe is more grown-up. Besides, there’s (still) no pool, so families are probably better off elsewhere.

Eco effort

Single-use plastics are banned and water comes in refillable glass bottles, but sustainability isn’t the hotel’s focal point.

Accessibility

No, stairs make the rooms fairly inaccessible.

Anything left to mention?

The furniture and accessories, all designed exclusively for Further by Australia-based Studio Wenden, are too chunky to secretly stash into your suitcase. But luckily, those pretty bookstands, bed covers and sculptural vases are available via the hotel’s online store, objectcollections.com.