Top Bali Eco Retreats: An Honest Review From the North Shore

It has been a lifelong dream to see words like eco, sustainable, and regenerative move from the margins into the mainstream of how we build, host, and gather. We are living through that shift in real time, and it is one of the great privileges of our work at Bumi Cinta to be part of it.

Bali has always been a place of deep ecological and spiritual intelligence. The Balinese have practiced something close to regenerative living for generations, long before the wellness industry gave it a name. What is emerging now, slowly and imperfectly, is a hospitality culture beginning to catch up with that wisdom. If the three words blur together, this is a clear guide to what eco friendly, sustainable and regenerative actually mean, and why the third is the one that matters.

We run an eco retreat center on the northshore of Bali. We have spent years watching the word eco get stretched over every kind of building on this island, and we have learned to tell the difference between intention and aesthetics. A bamboo lobby on a concrete hotel is not eco. Neither is a compost bin next to a diesel generator.

The places below are ones we know, have visited, or whose reputation has been earned over years rather than bought with a good photographer. This is not a ranking. It is an honest set of notes from people who live here and care deeply about what these words actually mean.

Intaaya, Nusa Penida

Start with the one that is not on Bali at all. Intaaya sits on a 53 metre cliff on the southern edge of Nusa Penida, the rugged island 45 minutes by boat from Sanur. Thirteen tented suites, a cliffside shala, a 17 metre infinity pool that appears to spill into the ocean, and a stairway carved into the rock down to a private beach.

It is fully solar, fully off grid, and was designed by Pablo Luna, the same architect who shaped Bumi Cinta. You can feel the shared philosophy: the buildings are elevated off the land, the materials are local, and nothing tries to compete with the view. Their own line is that it was not built as a hotel but as a container for retreat work, and that is exactly how it behaves. Limited capacity, no distractions, a rhythm set by wind and tide.

Best for: retreat leaders with a small group of up to about 26 who want the ocean as co-facilitator. Facilitators who host here talk about the horizon doing half the work.

Honest note: Penida is raw. The roads are rough, the island has none of Bali's softness, and on that cliff the wind is a constant companion, in the shala, at dinner, in your sleep. That is the point. Guests arrive slightly rattled and leave changed. Read guest reviews

Morin Resort, Nusa Lembongan

Lembongan is Penida's gentler neighbour, a small island 30 minutes by fast boat from Sanur, with mangroves, surf breaks and a slow village pace. Morin sits above the water with ocean suites, family bungalows in the gardens, and an infinity pool that earns every review it gets.

What makes Morin different is the ocean programme. Captain Wayan runs their dive and snorkel trips, and guests come back talking about mantas, coral gardens and sunset cruises more than the rooms. The restaurant, The Playful Table, is the only fully plant based kitchen on the island and it is genuinely good, not virtuous.

Best for: groups that want the sea every day. Diving retreats, freediving, surf and yoga combinations, or a leader who wants their people in the water between sessions.

Honest note: it is more resort than retreat center, so bring your own container. Their honesty about what they are and are not is part of why it works. Read guest reviews

Fivelements Retreat, Ubud

The elder of the list. Fivelements opened in 2010 on the banks of the Ayung River outside Ubud, and much of what Bali now calls wellness travel was shaped here first. Balinese healers, water purification rituals, and Sakti, one of the first fully plant based fine dining rooms in Southeast Asia.

The bamboo architecture is beautiful and the healing village is serious. This is the place we point people to when they want to understand where the Bali retreat idea came from.

Best for: individuals and couples on a healing programme, and leaders who want a Balinese healing tradition woven into their retreat rather than added as a treatment menu.

Honest note: Ubud is busy now. The river gives Fivelements its calm, but the road in is not the road it was fifteen years ago. Read guest reviews

Bali Eco Stay, Mount Batukaru

The other veteran, and the one that takes the word eco most literally. Bali Eco Stay is eight open air bungalows of wood and bamboo on the slopes of Batukaru, Bali's second highest mountain, with rice terraces on every side, a private waterfall, river swimming and spring water piped straight to the taps.

Meals come from their own gardens. Activities are things like kite making and rice terrace treks. There is nothing polished about it and everything honest. Guests who want the old Bali find it here.

Best for: small groups who want simplicity, families, and leaders whose retreat is about slowing right down. Fewer than ten rooms, so it is a whole property booking for a group.

Honest note: open air means open air. Insects, humidity and the sounds of the jungle are part of the deal. Read guest reviews

Ulaman Eco Luxury Resort, Tabanan

If you search for Bali eco retreats, Ulaman is the name you meet first, and the reputation is deserved on the design front. The bamboo buildings sit between rice fields and a waterfall near Kedungu, and they are some of the most striking structures on the island. Spa, hot and cold plunge, sauna, steam room, infinity pools, and a location that is close to Canggu without being in it.

Best for: guests who want the architecture and the spa, and leaders who want a venue their participants will photograph from every angle.

Honest note: reviews are split between rapturous and disappointed, usually over service and noise. It is a resort that hosts retreats rather than a retreat center, and the difference shows in the details. Go with clear expectations and it delivers. Read guest reviews

Suenyo Eco Retreat, Tabanan

New in 2023 and already a favourite among design lovers. Suenyo is five bamboo pavilions fifteen minutes from Tanah Lot, each with parabolic bamboo arches hand built by Balinese artisans, private pools over the river, and outdoor bathtubs. Floating breakfasts and romantic dinner setups are the house style.

Best for: couples and very small groups. With five pavilions it is an intimate hire rather than a full retreat venue.

Honest note: it is a honeymoon place first. Beautiful, quiet, and not built for a shala full of twenty people. Read guest reviews

De Moksha, Tanah Lot

A boutique eco resort and retreat center among rice fields near Tanah Lot, with room for up to 42 guests, daily yoga, a spa, and a full programme of healing and Ayurvedic retreats. Of everything on this list, De Moksha is the one most set up to host a visiting teacher's retreat end to end.

Best for: retreat leaders with larger groups who want a turnkey venue close to the airport side of the island.

Honest note: contemporary villa design rather than bamboo, so it feels less of the land than the others. Practical, comfortable, well run. Read guest reviews

Bumi Cinta, Tejakula, North Bali

Our own, so read this as a description rather than a review. Bumi Cinta sits in the hills above Les Village on the north shore, two hours from the airport and a world away from the south. Bamboo bungalows built with the land rather than on it, an open air shala facing the sea, spring fed pools, an organic kitchen supplied by our cacao and rambutan forest, and a sacred mother tree at the centre of it all.

We are run by retreat leaders and we host retreat leaders and their communities, up to 25 guests. Regenerative water systems, natural building, farm to table food, and a village that pre existed us and that we work alongside rather than around.

Best for: leaders who want the land to do some of the work. Yoga, meditation, teacher trainings, creative and leadership gatherings.

Honest note: the north is far. That is either the problem or the whole point. Read our guest reviews

Learn more about Bumi Cinta Luxury Eco Retreat in North Bali

How to choose

The first fork is near the city or rural, then mountain or ocean, or both. Ulaman, Suenyo and De Moksha sit within reach of Canggu and the airport. Fivelements has the river but Ubud around it. Bali Eco Stay is deep in the hills. Intaaya and Morin are islands of their own. Bumi Cinta is the both: on the slopes of Batur at 500 metres, overlooking the north shore, two hours from the city noise, rural enough for clean water, clean air, and a village that supports this place with intention.

Then ask who runs it. A resort that hosts retreats and a retreat center run by retreat people are different animals. Neither is wrong, but the second will anticipate needs the first has to be told about.

And ask how far the eco goes. Solar, spring water, own gardens, local labour, natural building. Any place on this list will answer honestly. That is why they are on it.

If you are a retreat leader weighing venues, write to us. We will tell you straight whether Bumi Cinta fits your group.